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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to an anchor. More particularly, this invention concerns an anchor assembly or rockbolt for mouting in a bore hole drilled in rock.
In mining and like operations it is frequently necessary to have a secure anchor to which may be attached snake-lines, guy-lines and the like. To this end a hole is bored in the rock and an anchor assembly is mounted in this hole.
In the commonest type of anchor or rockbolt, a rod is provided at one end with a foot piece that can either be secured adhesively in the base of the bore hole or which can be spread by rotation of the rod into tight engagement with the inner wall of the bore hole. At its outer end the rod is fitted with an anchor plate or washer which is locked against the rock wall face over the mouth of the bore hole by means of a nut. Thus, the rod is pre-stressed between its two ends and is therefore firmly secured in the bore hole.
A simpler arrangement simply uses the adhesive setting or mounting of an eye bolt or the like in the bore hole. Such a system is considerably simpler, but has the disadvantage that it yields readily to rock loosenings. In addition, since the entire stress on the anchor is taken up at the point where the neck of the rod extends out of the adhesive mass in which it is set, the anchor can readily break at this point when stressed beyond its elastic limit.
Since such anchors or rockbolts are necessary for supporting and holding in place many structures on which mine safety depends it is necessary that they be as secure as possible. In certain types of rock which have limited holding power and cohesiveness it is impossible to avoid at least limited shifting of the rock. Such a shifting is normally effective radially on the anchors extending into the mine. The above-described anchors or rockbolts are unable to withstand such stresses. Thus, they often rip loose from the rock, or break when so stressed. It is impossible to ascertain whether a particular anchor is ready to break. Thus, if a slight shifting in the rock has been detected it is often necessary to pull anchors and replace them or to place new anchors, as even limited shifting often stresses the prior-art anchors or rockbolts so that even a very slight shift thereafter can cause them to break.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide an improved rock anchor or rockbolt.
Another object is the provision of an anchor or rockbolt assembly for mounting in a bore hole in a rock which overcomes the above-given disadvantages.
Yet another object is to provide such an assembly which can withstand limited shifting in the rock without breaking or becoming so stressed that only a slight extra force is necessary for it to break.
These objects are attained in accordance with the present invention in an anchor or rockbolt assembly comprising an outer element, means for securing the outer element proximal to the mouth of the borehole, an inner element, means for securing the inner element in the borehole distal from the mouth of the borehole, and means interconnecting the inner and outer elements and allowing limited mutual shifting thereof without disconnection only on stressing of one of the elements relative to the other beyond a predetermined limit.
Thus, with the assembly according to the present invention it is possible for the anchor to take up small stresses without breaking. In this manner thermal expansion or a shifting in the rock face will not overstress the anchor assembly to the point where it is near the breaking point and only a very mild stressing can snap if off. It is possible with such a system to maintain the prestressing within the anchor assembly, as the force with which the two elements can slide relative to one another is set to be slightly more than the pre-stressing force.
The means interconnecting the two elements may in accordance with this invention be a hydraulic interconnection, a shear-force arrangement, a deformation coupling, or a pair of frictionally engaging surfaces. The force limit at which the two elements will be able to move relative to one another can be set according to the specific working conditions, as the type of rock in which the anchor is to be secured.
According to the present invention the inner and outer elements are aligned rods each having an end portion turned toward the end portion of the other element and lying against this end portion of the other element. The means interconnecting the inner and outer elements has at least one spring forcing these two surfaces together with a predetermined force so that the force necessary to shift the two elements relative to one another is determined by the force with which they are pushed together and the coefficient of friction between the two contacting surfaces. In such an arrangement it is possible to form each of the abutting portions as a semi-cylindrical extension of a cylindrical rod constituting the respective element, with the flat diametrical surfaces of these extensions lying one against the other. Each such extension is formed near its free end with a groove or projection constituting an abutment and a pair of spring-steel rings are tightly engaged around the two semi-cylindrical extensions to force their flat faces together. In such an arrangement the two elements can shift relative to one another to only a limited extent, that is until the two rings abut one against the other, thereafter shifting is only possible by breaking of one or the other element or of the springs.
According to yet another feature of this invention the second element is a sleeve that is adhesively secured in the base of the borehole. The inside of this sleeve rubs against the outside of the inner end of the outer element which itself is constituted as a rod. A special lining is provided in order to increase the coefficient of friction between these two elements.
In all such arrangements means is provided for rotationally securing the inner and outer elements together about an axis extending centrally of these two elements and adapted to lie in the center of the borehole receiving the anchor. It is possible to key the one element to the other while leaving it slidable relative to the other or to provide a small non-round projection on the one element that is received in a corresponding recess on the other element so as to prevent the two elements from rotating relative to one another so long as they are mutually engaged.
According to yet another feature of this invention the outer element is formed as a rod defining an axis on which most of the parts of the anchor are centered and which is adapted to lie in the center of the borehole receiving the anchor. This rod is secured to the rock at the mouth of the borehole either by means of a washer and nut that clamp this washer down on the face of the rock wall, or by means of a cap that is received within the borehole and has a lower edge cemented in place in the borehole. It is also possible in such an arrangement to form the elements of a single sleeve provided with a central weakened region adapted to break when the arrangement is stressed beyond certain limits and thereafter to allow the two parts to pull apart. Thus in such an arrangement it is possible to effectively provide three elements, an inner sleeve element, an outer sleeve element separable from the inner sleeve element, and a connecting element having an inner end received in the inner sleeve and an outer end received in the outer sleeve. These inner and outer ends are tightly received in the inner and outer sleeves so that only when a predetermined frictional force has been overcome can the elements slide relative to one another. Such an arrangement makes an extremely compact assembly that nevertheless has considerable deformability before break.
According to further features of this invention the inner element is a tube or sleeve closed at its end turned away from the outer element. This sleeve is provided on its closed end with a cutting tip that allows it to be turned and seated in the mortar or adhesive bedding compound. The sleeve is also formed externally with ridges or the like to ensure a good anchoring of this sleeve in the bedding compound once it is hardened.
With the system according to the present invention it is possible to manufacture the anchor without the use of extremely expensive high-strength steel or the like. This is possible due to the adjustable slip within the anchor which can be established in the anchor before its installation outside the mine in a shop. Thus a relatively simple anchor can be used in situations where normally the loading would be such that an anchor with no give could be expected to have only a very limited service life.
The novel features which are considered as characteristic for the invention are set forth in particular in the appended claims. The invention itself, however, both as to its construction and its method of operation, together with additional objects and advantages thereof, will be best understood from the following description of specific embodiments when read in connection with the accompanying drawing.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
FIGS. 1 and 2 are axial sections through two anchors in accordance with the invention;
FIGS. 3 and 4 are views of details of variants of the arrangement of FIG. 2;
FIG. 5 is an axial section through yet another anchor in accordance with the present invention;
FIGS. 6 and 7 are detail views illustrating variations in the structure of FIG. 5; and
FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIG. 5 illustrating in axial section another arrangement in accordance with this invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
FIG. 1 shows a borehole 1 sunk in a rock wall 10. An inner element formed as a cylindrical rod centered on an axis A has an inner end 200 anchored in hardened bedding compound 8 in the base of the borehole 1. An outer element 2 having an outer cylindrical rod section 26 coaxial with the section 27 has a threaded end portion 201 over which is secured a nut 12 that presses a rigid washer 11 down over the mouth of the bore 1. Rod 26 is cut away so as to have a semi-cylindrical extension 28 and the rod 27 is similarly cut away to have a semi-cylindrical extension 29. The flat diametrical faces of these extensions 28 and 29 lie snugly one against the other on the axis A. The extension 28 has at its inner end an abutment 33 extending from the side opposite its flat face and the extension 29 has a similar such abutment 34. A pair of tight spring-steel rings 35 and 36 are engaged around the two extensions 28 and 29 adjacent the abutments 34 and 33 respectively. These rings 35 and 36 are spaced apart by a distance b which is the distance through which the upper rod 26 can slide axially relative to the lower rod 27.
In this system the anchor without the nut 12 and washer 11 is inserted in a borehole 1 after a small quantity of hardenable bedding material 8 has been injected into the base of this borehole 1. The end 200 is forced into the bedding material 8 and this material is allowed to dry. Thereafter, the washer 11 is slipped over the end 201 and the nut 12 is screwed down so as to prestress the rods 26 and 27 between ends 200 and 201. If the outer rod 26 is pulled axially away from the inner rod 27 with a force that exceed the force with which the springs 35 and 36 press the two extensions 28 and 29 together, multiplied by the coefficient of friction of these two extensions, the outer element 26 can slip relative to the inner element 27 through the distance b. Such a slippage nonetheless leaves the anchor virtually as strong as before so that even if the wall changes shape somewhat a strong anchor is left in it.
In the arrangement of FIG. 2 a borehole 1 in a rock wall 10 defines an axis A on which lies an outer rod element 2a. The inner end of this element 2a is welded to a cylindrically annular body 3a whose outer surface is in tight frictional contact with a lining 5a of an inner element 4a. The inner element 4a is generally tubular and has an inner end sealed by means of a plate 6a and provided with a cutting tip 7a to facilitate its embedding in a mass 8a of adhesive material or concrete.
The outer end of the inner sleeve 4a is bent inwardly around the shaft of the outer element 2a and a seal 15 is provided to prevent liquid or the like from entering the space within the sleeve 3a. A key 161 is also provided to rotationally link the elements 2a and 4a together about the axis A.
The outer end of the outer element 2a is formed with a square-section projection 13 and is threaded below this projection 13 to receive a nut 12a that holds a domed washer 11a down over the mouth of the borehole 1. A wrench may be placed on this projection 13 to allow rotating of the entire assembly in the borehole 1 to seat it well within the material 8a. A wrench on this element 13 also allows the rod 2a to be held rigidly while the nut 12a is screwed down on the washer 11a.
In this arrangement the cylindrical outer surface of the body 3a can slide on the cylindrical inner surface of the lining 5a of the cylindrical sleeve 4a. The inner element is embedded by a distance a in the material 8a so as to be rigidly received within the borehole. The outer element 2a, can, however, slide through a distance b within this fixed inner element 4a when the frictional resistance between the body 3a and the friction lining 5a is overcome. It is noted that after limited axial displacement of the element 2a out of the element 4a the key 161 is pulled away from the bent-over portion 14 of the sleeve 4a to rotationally disconnect these two.
The friction lining 5a may be a highly frictive synthetic-resin material. It may also be a material of lower coefficient of friction in arrangements where relatively easy slippage of the elements 2a, 4a relative to one another is desired.
FIG. 3 also shows how a rod 2b identical to the rod 2a is received in a tubular inner element 4b having a lining 5b like the lining 5a can carry a body 18 having an upper end 18' which is of fructoconical shape to insure good sliding of the element 18 in the lining 5b rather than digging in. The inner end of sleeve 4b is here provided with a cap 6b having a cutting tip 7b as described above. In addition, the rod 2b is provided at its inner end with a non-cylindrical projection 162, here of square section, which is received in a correspondingly square-section hole in the plate 6b across the base of the tube 4b. This body 162 links the two elements 2b and 4b rotationally together and can replace the key 161 of FIG. 2.
The arrangement of FIG. 4 has a lining 5c in a tubular inner element 4c having a cap 6c and cutting tip 7c. The outer element 2c here is of considerably greater diameter than in FIGS. 2 and 3 and has a flared lower end 2c' formed with a central split in which is received a pointed key 19 received in a recess 163 at the bottom of the sleeve 4c in the plate 6c. Lining 5c in this case stops short of the lower end of the tube above the flared inner end 2c' of the element 2c so that when the device is mounted the tube 2c is drawn axially up to engage this flared end 2c' against the lining 5c and disengage it from the rotation coupling formation 19.
In the arrangement shown in FIG. 5 a rock wall 10 is formed with a borehole 1 having a central axis A. A generally cylindrical sleeve 40 centered on this axis A is received in this hole and has an upper section 41 and a lower section 42 having inwardly bent ends 21 separated from each other by a groove 20 constituting a weakened region between the sections 41 and 42. A sleeve 22 extends over the inner end region of the outer section 41 and the outer end region of the inner section 42. A mass 8d of hardened bedding material therefore engages in regions d and c directly against these sections 41 and 42, respectively, so as to anchor them in these regions to the borehole 1.
The inner section 42 is provided with an end cap 6d having a cutting tip 7d serving to embed it in the mass 8d. Similarly the outer end 41 is covered with a cap 23 having a hexagonal axial projection 24 adapted to be fitted to a wrench. The cap 23 is connected via a key 164 to the tube section 41 so that the nut 24 rotationally turns the entire tube 40.
The entire tube 40 is lined with a cylindrical friction lining 5d. A connecting rod 2d lies within this tube 40 on the axis A and has at one end a cylindrical annular body 30 and at the other end a cylindrical annular body 31. The outer diameters of these bodies 30 and 31 are the same as the inner diameters of the lining 5 so that these bodies 30 and 31 tightly frictionally engage this lining 5d. Thus it is possible for the end portion 30 to slide inside the tube 41 through a distance f and the body 31 inside the tube section 42 through a distance e. Thus when the ends 41 and 42 are stressed axially relative to one another they can break-apart at the region 20, leaving the inner section 42 tightly in place and allowing the outer section 41 to slide relative to the inner section through a distance equal to e + f.
It is possible in this arrangement to provide a rotary link 165 between the inner end of the connecting element 2d and the plate 6d, in which case the element 30 may be connected rigidly to the cap 23.
FIG. 6 shows an arrangement identical to that of FIG. 5, except that the body 31 is replaced by a two-part body 31a having an outer sleeve 31a' secured in the sleeve 42 and an inner sleeve 31a" secured on the rod 2d. These two sleeves meet at a frustoconical surface tapering toward the middle of the rod 2d and toward the outer end of the rockbolt assembly. Deformation of the sleeve 31a' is necessary for slippage in the assembly.
In FIG. 7 the arrangement of FIG. 5 is shown with the body 31 replaced by a body 31b having a flared lower edge end portion 31b' that engages into the layer 5d, which is constituted in this case of a soft deformable metal.
The rockbolt of FIG. 8 is identical to that of FIG. 5 except that a ring 43 carried on the sleeve 42 defines a fluid-filled chamber 44 above the body 31. The fluid in this chamber 44 must be forced out for the rockbolt assembly to slip so that hydraulic damping is provided rather than the shear-type of damping in FIG. 7.
In all such anchor or rockbolt arrangements the outer element may be formed as an eye, or may be provided with a threaded hole so as to allow connection to this outer element if used as an anchor or may be provided with a threaded rod to allow fixing an anchor plate or a washer if used as a rockbolt.
It will be understood that each of the elements described above, or two or more together may also find a useful application in other types of constructions differing from the types described above.
While the invention has been illustrated and described as embodied in a borehole anchor, it is not intended to be limited to the details shown, since various modifications and structural changes may be made without departing in any way from the spirit of the present invention.
Without further analysis, the foregoing will so fully reveal the gist of the present invention that others can, by applying current knowledge, readily adapt it for various applications without omitting features that, from the standpoint of prior art, fairly constitute essential characteristics of the generic or specific aspects of this invention.
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An anchor assembly or rockbolt for mounting in a borehole in a rock comprises an outer element which is secured proximal to the mouth of the borehole and an inner element which is secured well inside the borehole. The inner and outer elements are connected together in such a manner as to allow mutual limited shifting thereof without disconnection only on stressing of one of the elements relative to the other beyond a predetermined limit. To this end the outer element may be provided with a piston-like inner end that is slidable against a friction coating within a tubular inner element. It is also possible to form the inner and outer elements as separable tube sections interconnected by means of a central rod having a pair of pistons each received in a respective one of the sections and slidable therein on a tight friction lining thereof.
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This invention relates to looms for making pile fabrics and more particularly to a loom for making pile carpets. The loom of this invention is of the type having pile wires positioned to extend warpwise and over which pile yarns are moved by transfer hooks for obtaining the desired pile loops. Looms of this general type are known, such as disclosed in British Pat. No. 205,130 (1923).
It has been determined that the instant loom has a considerably higher rate of production than other known carpet looms. For example the state of the art for jacquard gripper Axminster looms is 45 pile insertions per minute while about 50 pile insertions per minute is the rate for Wilton looms. From tests made on the instant loom and experience gathered to date, it appears that the production rate of this loom is about twice that of these prior art carpet looms.
In the development of this invention it was recognized that the pile wires should rest against the backing fabric in order to obtain a uniform height pile loop extending above the backing fabric. To this end, the pile wires were adjusted to rest against the backing fabric and then fixedly secured in this position. However it was soon learned that it was extremely difficult to properly position the pile wires so as to be restingly received on the backing fabric. Very often the pile wires were positioned out of engagement with the backing fabric which resulted in several problems during the weaving operation. Of utmost concern was the fact that the pile loops were not uniformly formed over the pile wires because the movement of the pile yarns over the pile wires caused the backing fabric to be pulled in from opposite sides due to the excessive tension on the pile yarns when being positioned over the pile wires. It was further learned that the frictional resistance of the pile loops over the pile wires and by the backing fabric being pulled up against the bottom edge of the pile wires resulted in such an amount of torque being created that the take-up roll could not properly function to take up the fabric as the weft insertions were being placed therein.
To overcome these problems and to obtain the desired high speed of loom operation as originally sought, it was determined that the mounting of the pile wires for unitary free pivotal movement would substantially eliminate the variance in height of pile loops being formed and at the same time eliminate the undue friction and drag of the pile yarns and backing fabric on the pile wires. With the pile wires being mounted for pivotal movement the positioning of the pile yarns over the pile wires by the action of the transfer hooks caused the pile wires to be moved down into contacting engagement with the ground fabric and to properly ride and rest on the ground fabric throughout the weaving operation.
This invention is further characterized in that the pile yarn transfer hooks are mounted for reciprocatory forward and rearward movement and are positioned substantially in a horizontal plane with the hook portions of the transfer hooks being directed rearwardly and transversely inclined at an acute angle downwardly from the horizontal plane. This positional arrangement of the transfer hooks assures engagement of the pattern controlled preselected pile yarns by the hooks and additionally enables the hooks to readily be disengaged from the pile yarns by an arcuate rear reciprocatory movement and lateral shogging of the hooks during uninterrupted reciprocation of the reed and during changing of the pile yarn shed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Some of the features of this invention having been stated, others will appear as the description proceeds when taken in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which--
FIG. 1 is a schematic longitudinal vertical sectional view of a loom embodying the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a warpwise fragmentary view through a portion of a pile fabric as woven in accordance with the invention, and schematically illustrating a portion of a warpwise pile wire in association therewith;
FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic illustration of the sequence of operations of essential components of the loom, in a single, two-shot, pile forming cycle thereof;
FIG. 4 is a fragmentary vertical sectional view showing the weaving and pile forming components in the right-hand central portion of FIG. 1 on an enlarged scale, and wherein the weaving and pile forming components occupy relative positions indicated by the 0°-360° position "A" of the pile forming cycle graphically illustrated in FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 4, but showing the weaving and pile forming components occupying relative positions indicated by the 47° position "B" of the pile forming cycle graphically illustrated in FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 4, but showing the weaving and pile forming components occupying relative positions indicated by the 47° position "B" of the pile forming cycle graphically illustrated in FIG. 3;
FIGS. 6 and 7 are fragmentary plan views looking in the direction of the arrow 6, 7 of FIG. 5, but wherein the pile yarn transfer hooks occupy different respective positions indicated by the 47° position "B" and the 60° position graphically illustrated in FIG. 3;
FIGS. 8 and 9 are views similar to FIGS. 4 and 5, but showing the weaving and pile forming components occupying the respective relative positions indicated by the 180° position "C" and by the 205° position "D" of the pile forming cycle graphically illustrated in FIG. 3; and
FIGS. 10, 11 and 12 are enlarged fragmentary plan views generally similar to FIGS. 6 and 7 and illustrating additional successive steps in a pile forming cycle of the operation of the pile yarn transfer hooks.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
While this invention will be described hereinafter with particular reference to the accompanying drawings, in which an illustrative embodiment of the present invention is set forth, it is to be understood at the outset of the description which follows that it is contemplated that persons skilled in the applicable arts may modify the specific details to be described while continuing to use this invention. Accordingly, the description is to be understood as a broad teaching of this invention, directed to persons skilled in the applicable arts.
The weaving machine or loom illustrated in the drawings embodies apparatus for weaving a two-shot pile fabric. Typically, a two-shot pile fabric is characterized by having a weftwise extending row of pile loops or U-shaped cut pile tufts formed with every two picks or beats of the loom, i.e., there are two single strand or multiple strand weft shots or picks of weft yarn to every weftwise row of pile. It is to be noted, however, that the loom may be modified to produce pile fabrics having three or more weft shots for each weftwise row of pile being woven, without departing from the invention.
Referring to the drawings more in detail the exemplary fabric F shown in FIG. 2 comprises a backing 20 of base or ground warp yarns 20a, 20b interwoven with weft yarns 20c. Weftwise and warpwise rows of pile are formed of pile yarns selected from a group of pile yarns P. By way of illustration, the pile fabric F has pile loops 21 formed from one type (kind or color) of pile yarn 21a selected from the pile yarn group P, and the pile fabric F has other pile loops 22, which are shown arranged in alternation with the loops 21 in the warpwise direction, the pile loops 22 being formed from another type (kind or color) of pile yarn 22a selected from the pile yarn group P. In this particular embodiment of the fabric F, following the formation of the pile loops 21, 22, all of them are cut on the loom to form generally U-shaped cut pile tufts therefrom as shown in the right-hand portion of FIG. 2. Having thus described the fabric F, the following description of the loom embodying the invention, and the operation of the loom, may be clearly understood by references to the illustration of the fabric F.
Referring now to FIGS. 1, 4, 5, 8 and 9, the loom there shown comprises the usual weaving instrumentalities including a weft beating means, such as an oscillatable reed 30 and lay 31, a suitable weft inserting means 32 (FIG. 5) and shed forming means generally designated at 35. The shed forming means 35 serves for shedding the base or ground warp yarns 20a, 20b, in forming the backing 20 (FIG. 2) of the pile fabric, and for shedding the pile yarns P. To this end, the ground warp yarns 20a, 20b extend from a suitable source S forwardly through respective sets of harnesses or heddles 20c, 20d, and the pile yarns P also extend from source S through heddles. In this instance, since there are two different types (kinds and/or colors) of pile yarns P used in making the fabric F, it may be assumed that pile yarns 21a of one type extend through heddles 21b and that pile yarns 22a of the other type extend through heddles 22b. Since the shedding of the pile yarn heddles 21 a, 22a is controlled by a jacquard device 37, and the operation of each heddle 21a, 22a is individually selectively controlled, it can thus be appreciated that it may be the designer's choice as to that one of the pile yarns which is to extend through a particular one of the pile yarn heddles.
Since jacquard devices are well known to those familiar with the weaving arts, a further more detailed description thereof is deemed unnecessary. The jacquard device serves as pattern means operatively associated with the shed forming means 35 for forming the desired pile fabric pattern.
The ground warp heddles 20c, 20d are raised and lowered in opposition to each other during each pile forming cycle of the loom by suitable mechanical connections 40 (FIG. 1) including a follower 41 engaging a rotary cam 42. The cam 42 is suitably secured on a driven cam shaft 43 on which a reed operating cam 45 and a transfer hook-reciprocating cam 50 are also suitably secured. The cam 45 is engaged by a follower 55 which, by suitable mechanical connections 56 (FIG. 1), is mechanically connected to lay 31 and reed 30 for oscillating the same forwardly and rearwardly in timed relation to the operation of the heddles 20c, 20d, 21b, 22b and the weft inserting means.
During each forward or beat-up stroke of the reed 30, it moves into close proximity to a stationary nose board or breast beam 60 whose rear edge substantially coincides with the beat-up point of the reed 30 and with the fell of the fabric F being woven. The nose board 60 extends weftwise of and is suitably secured to the frame, not shown, of the loom, as is usual. During weaving, the backing 20 of the fabric F slides forwardly over and against the upper surface of nose board 60 and, preferably, the fabric take-up roll or other suitable take-up means, not shown, is positioned so as to bias the fabric F downwardly against the nose board 60 while taking up the fabric at the desired rate in relation to the rate of oscillation of reed 30.
In order to form warpwise rows of pile from the pile yarns P on the backing 20 of the fabric F, the loom is equipped with a weftwise row or group of warpwise extending pile formers or pile wires 65 (see FIGS. 2 and 4-12) whose body portions 65a are largely positioned forwardly of the beat-up point of the reed 30 and overlie and rest upon that portion of the fabric backing 20 beneath which the nose board 60 is positioned. Preferably, there is one of the warpwise pile wires 65 provided for each of the dents or spaces between the splits 30a (FIGS. 6, 7 and 10-12) of reed 30, and each of the pile wires 65 has an upstanding rear portion shoulder or projection 65b thereon which extends rearwardly into the respective dent of reed 30 each time the reed occupies a full beat-up position.
Each pile wire 65 also has a cutting blade or knife 65c thereon spaced forwardly of the upwardly projecting rear portion 65b of the respective pile wire 65, and the cutting edge of each knife 65c is inclined upwardly and forwardly at an angle from the upper surface of the body portion 65a of the respective pile wire 65 so as to sever or cut each successive pile loop as it is advanced along the body portion 65a of the respective pile wire following the formation of the pile loops over the corresponding pile wire.
As the successive pile loops are formed over the pile wires 65, in a manner to be later described, they are pulled downwardly against the pile wires so as to obtain the desired height of pile loops. Heretofore, difficulties have been experienced in the formation of pile loops and in taking up the pile fabric on a loom equipped with pile wires of the general type described above. Owing to the friction between the pile wires and the loop pile fabric, it was found that the movement of pile loops along the pile wires into engagement with the knives was severely impeded, even to such an extent as to deflect the pile wires toward one another in the warpwise direction and to fracture or misalign parts of the fabric take-up mechanism of the loom. It was discovered that this problem was caused due to the fact that the pile wires were mounted in fixed positions closely adjacent to and relative to the nose board of the loom. Accordingly, to permit unimpeded movement of the pile loops along the pile wires into engagement with the knives, means are provided mounting the group of pile wires 65 for pivotal movement about an axis extending weftwise of the loom and forwardly of the upstanding rear portions of the pile wires so that the pile wires may be pivotally moved downwardly by the tension in the pile yarns looped thereover for moving the pile wires into engagement with and to rest upon the base fabric being woven. To this end, it will be observed in FIGS. 4, 5 and 6 that the front ends of the pile wire body portions 65a are suitably secured to an elongate, weftwise extending frame member or support bar 66 carried by a pivot shaft 66a extending substantially parallel with the bar 66 and whose opposite ends are pivotally supported on the loom frame, as by suitable bearings, not shown. Such bearings may be suitably secured to any fixed part of the loom, such as the usual loom side frame members, not shown.
It can thus be seen that the pile wires 65 are permitted to rest upon the fabric F by gravity and are thus free to conform generally to the fabric surface under the force applied thereto by the pile loops formed over the respective pile wires.
As heretofore indicated, the ground warp heddles 20c, 20d are controlled by the cam 42 (FIG. 1) for shedding the base or ground warp yarns in forming the backing 20 of the pile fabric F. In this regard, the ground warp yarns 20a, 20b are shown in the intermediate or closed shed position in FIGS. 1, 4 and 8, and they are shown in substantially the fully open shed position in FIGS. 5 and 9. The ground warp yarns 20a may be arranged in alternation with the ground warp yarns 20b, and since the ground warp yarns 20a are raised and lowered in opposition to the raising and lowering of the ground warp yarns 20b, it follows that, whenever the ground warp yarns 20a occupy the normal upper shed position, the ground warp yarns 20b occupy the lower shed position and vice versa. For descriptive purposes, it may be assumed that there is one of each of the pile yarns 21a, 22a arranged between each adjacent pair of the ground warp yarns 20a, 20b, and that there is one of each of the pile yarns 21a, 22a corresponding to each pile wire 65.
Improved means are provided for positioning selected pile yarns P over the respective pile wires 65 for forming pile loops therefrom, such means comprising a group of pile yarn transfer hooks, broadly designated at 75, arranged in a weftwise row and normally occupying an inactive or forward position above the body portions 65a of the pile wires 65, as shown in FIG. 4.
Before describing the transfer hooks 75 more in detail, it should be noted that the pile yarns P are raised and lowered under control of the jacquard device 37, during the shed forming operation in unison with one of the sets of ground warp yarns; the ground warp yarns 20a in this instance. Thus, since the ground warp yarns 20a only occupy the raised or upper shed position during alternate picks of the loom, it follows that all of the pile yarns P occupy the upper shed position, in substantially the same plane as the ground warp upper shed position, substantially as the set of ground warp yarns 20a occupy the upper shed position. However, the jacquard device 37 further elevates or raises selected heddles 21b and/or 22b to thereby raise the selected pile yarns, relative to the ground warp yarns 20a and the non-selected pile yarns, so that the selected pile yarns are positioned at a higher upper shed position than the non-selected pile yarns for facilitating engagement of the transfer hooks 75 with the selected pile yarns, substantially as shown in FIGS. 5 and 7.
Referring again to the transfer hooks 75, it will be observed in FIGS. 4, 5, 8 and 9 that each transfer hook 75 comprises a generally warpwise extending, elongate body or shank 75a having a substantially U-shaped hook portion 75b on the rear end thereof. The transfer hooks 75 are mounted for reciprocatory, warpwise, forward and rearward movement, in a nearly horizontal arcuate path adjacent the pile wires 65, there being one of the transfer hooks 75 provided for each pile wire 65, and means are provided for imparting reciprocatory substantially warpwise movement to the group of transfer hooks for effecting engagement of the same with the selected pile yarns and for moving the selected pile yarns over and across the pile wires and into engagement with the upstanding rear portions 65b of the pile wires 65.
Accordingly, it will be observed in FIGS. 4 through 12 that the front portions of the shanks 75a of the transfer hooks 75 are embedded in or otherwise suitably secured to a weftwise extending frame member or bar 75d fixedly mounted to the lower ends of suitable swing arms 75e, only one of which is shown in FIG. 1. The swing arm 75e there shown is illustrated in the form of an arm of a bell crank 75f preferably journaled on, but being axially movable with, a longitudinally movable or shoggable rocker shaft 75g. Shaft 75g extends weftwise and may be suitably supported on the upper portion of the loom frame for being shogged to and fro weftwise of the loom, longitudinally of its own axis.
The means for shogging shaft 75g, and thereby also shogging the transfer hooks 75 weftwise of the loom, may take various forms. As illustrated schematically in FIG. 1, the rocker shaft 75g may be provided with a suitable follower means 75h on one or both ends thereof for engaging a shogging cam 75i being suitably driven by the loom to impart the desired reciprocatory shogging motion to the transfer hooks 75. The follower means 75h and cam 75i are shown 90° out of position in FIG. 1 for the purpose of clarity. In order to transmit the desired forward and rearward movement or warpwise shogging movement to the transfer hooks 75 in timed relation to the operation of the reed 30 and other weaving instrumentalities of the loom, an arm 75k of bell crank 75f is connected, as by suitable mechanical connections 75m, to a follower 75n which engages the cam 50 heretofore described.
It is thus seen that means are provided for moving the transfer hooks 75 forwardly and rearwardly in a path slightly inclined rearwardly and downwardly and in timed relation to weftwise shogging movements of the tranfer hooks 75. It should be noted that the transfer hooks move inwardly or rearwardly to engage and ensnare in the hook portions 75b thereof only those pile yarns which have been selected by the jacquard device 37 and which thus occupy the higher open shed position relative to the non-selected pile yarns in the upper sheet of ground warp yarns 20a.
In this instance, during portions of each alternate two shot or two pick pile loop forming cycle of the loom, the pile yarns of one set, e.g., pile yarns 21a, are selected and raised to the higher of the upper open shed positions (FIG. 5) by the pattern means or jacquard device 37, while the pile yarns 22a of the other set are not selected and therefore occupy the normal or lower of the upper shed positions then occupied by the ground warp yarns 20a. Conversely, during portions of each intervening two shot pile loop forming cycle of the loom, the pile yarns 22a of the last-mentioned other set are selected and raised to the higher of the upper open shed positions by the jacquard device 37, while the pile yarns 21a in the one set occupy the normal upper open shed position then as substantially occupied by the ground warp yarns 20a.
In either event, in order that the selected pile yarns are properly engaged by the transfer hooks 75, the hook portions 75b must move rearwardly between respective adjacent pairs of the selected pile yarns and into the upper shed space defined between the two sets of selected and non-selected pile yarns. In order to facilitate the passage of the hook portions 75b of the transfer hooks 75 through the sheet of selected pile yarns, and to aid in doffing a previously engaged pile yarn from each respective hook portion 75b, each hook portion 75b is transversely inclined at an acute angle downwardly from the horizontal and in a direction toward the nib of the respective hook portion 75b. All the nibs of the hook portions 75b face generally in the same weftwise direction with respect to the shanks 75a of the transfer hooks and such that the hook portions will properly engage the selected pile yarns during subsequent forward motion of the transfer hooks as will be later described more in detail.
METHOD OF OPERATION
At the start of a pile forming cycle of the loom, it may be assumed that pile loops are to be formed from pile yarns 21a as the pile yarns 22a are being woven into the base of the fabric without forming loops from the pile yarns 22a. It is to be assumed further that the reed 30 is occupying the full beat-up position of FIG. 4, with the pile yarns P and ground warp yarns 20a, 20b in the closed shed or mid shed position, and with the pile yarn transfer hooks 75 occupying a position to one side of, and above, each respective pile wire 65 substantially as shown in FIGS. 1, 4 and 12. It also may be assumed that a pile loop 22 (FIG. 2) has just been formed from each pile yarn 22a with the transfer hooks 75 having just released therefrom respective loops 22 of the previously selected pile yarns 22a and so that all the pile yarns P and the sheet of ground warp yarns 20a extend beneath that weft yarn 20c being beaten up by the reed 30 in its beat-up position of FIG. 4. At this instant in the start of the pile loop forming cycle, the sheet of ground warp yarns 20b extends over the latter weft yarn, as is apparent in FIGS. 2 and 4.
Following the latter beat up motion of the reed 30, the reed moves rearwardly away from the fell as the shed change then in progress is completed as shown in FIG. 5. It can be seen in FIG. 5 that the ground warp yarns 20a, 20b have thus moved to their respective upper and lower open shed positions, and all the pile yarns P are raised to their normal upper open shed position. Thereupon, the pattern means or jacquard device 37 raises the selected heddles 21b and the thus selected pile yarns 21a to the higher than normal position in which the selected pile yarns 21a diverge upwardly and rearwardly from the fell relative to the non-selected pile yarns 22a.
The pile yarn transfer hooks 75 are also moved rearwardly by the rotary cam 50 as the reed 30 moves rearwardly. In so doing, the hook portions 75b of the transfer hooks 75 enter the pile yarn shed by moving downwardly and rearwardly at a shallow angle to pass between the adjacent selected pile yarns 21a while also moving rearwardly beyond the rear upstanding free end portions 65b of the pile wires 65. At about the same time that the latter movement of the transfer hooks 75 is being effected, the weft inserting means inserts a weft shot 20c through the warp shed and beneath all the pile yarns P. The cam 75i then shogs the transfer hooks 75 in one weftwise direction, from about the position of FIG. 6 to that of FIG. 7, such as to move the shanks 75a of the transfer hooks 75 weftwise against the respective selected pile yarns 21a, and to thereby align the open bights of the hook portions 75b substantially warpwise of the respective selected pile yarns 21a.
The transfer hooks are then moved forwardly as the reed also is moving forwardly preparatory to beating up the last inserted weft shot 20c as the transfer hooks 75 engage and lift the selected pile yarns 21a above the bodies 65a of the respective pile wires 65. Then the transfer hooks are shogged weftwise in substantially that direction opposite from the direction in which they had last previously been shogged so as to lay the selected pile yarns 21a over and across the bodies of the respective pile wires 65 and forwardly of the upstanding portions 65b thereof, as indicated in FIGS. 8, 10 and 11. Meanwhile, a shed change again occurs in which all the pile yarns P are lowered to the lower shed position, along with the ground warp yarns 20a, and the ground warp yarns 20b are moved to the upper open shed position of FIG. 9 preparatory to the insertion and beat up of another weft shot in the shed.
During the latter shed change, the rotary cam 50 causes the transfer hooks 75 to momentarily move rearwardly a relatively short distance, but sufficiently to cause the previously selected pile yarns 21a to lodge against the upstanding rear portions 65b on the pile wires so as to strip the pile yarns from the hook portions 65b of the transfer hooks 75 as the nibs of the hook portions 75b move rearwardly beyond the front surfaces of the upstanding portions 65b of the pile wires 65 (FIG. 12). Thereupon, the transfer hooks are returned to their previous forward-most position so they are positioned forwardly of the beat up point of the reed 30 and so they will not interfere with the operation of the reed with occurrence of its next succeeding beat-up stroke. It is apparent that the latter beat-up stroke of the reed completes the two shot pile loop forming cycle, with the yarns and the loom parts having thus returned to substantially the positions of FIGS. 1 and 4.
The next succeeding two shot pile loop forming cycle is effected in substantially the same manner as that described in detail above, with the exception that the pile yarns 22a, instead of the pile yarns 21a, are selected and formed into pile loops 22 over the pile wires 65. Accordingly, a further more detailed description of the manner of forming the pile loops 22 is deemed unnecessary.
It is apparent that, as the woven pile fabric is advanced by the take-up mechanism, not shown, the bights of the pile loops 21, 22 slide along the upper edges of the bodies of the pile wires 65 and thus engage and are thereby cut by the knives 65c to produce the cut pile fabric. It is thus seen that the loom will form alternate weftwise extending rows of pile from the pile yarns 21a and intervening weftwise rows of pile from the pile yarns 22a. Of course, the order of the pile tufts formed of the different pile yarns 21a, 22a may be varied as desired, since each of the heddles 21b, 22b may be independently controlled by the jacquard device 37.
In the drawings and specification there has been set forth a preferred embodiment of the invention, and although specific terms are employed, they are used in a generic and descriptive sense only and not for purposes of limitation, the scope of the invention being defined in the claims.
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The carpet loom has pile wires extending warpwise with associated pile yarn transfer hooks for positioning preselected pile yarns over the pile wires for forming pile loops. The pile wires are pivotally mounted so as to be restingly positioned on the base fabric being woven to assure obtaining the desired pile height loop and to avoid undue tensions and stresses in the fabric being woven to assure smooth efficient loom operation. The transfer hooks extend rearwardly with their hook portions positioned substantially in a horizontal plane and inclined downwardly at an acute angle from the horizontal plane. This positional arrangement of the transfer hooks and the associated mechanism for imparting a reciprocatory movement to the transfer hooks permits an uninterrupted reciprocation of the reed to take place as well as the changing of the pile yarn and ground warp shed. This results in a high speed of loom operation of about twice the rate of prior carpet looms.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for finishing cellulosic fiber-containing textile products. More particularly, the present invention relates to a method of treating a cellulose-containing textile with a resin bath formulated to impart improved crease resistance and wash-and-wear properties thereto.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Cellulosic fiber is a textile material available readily at low cost from abundant resources and because of its excellent dyeability, hygroscopicity and air permeability, this fiber provides attractive fabrics having good wearing comfort.
However, since cellulosic fabrics are generally inadequate in dry crease resistance and wet crease resistance, they become severely creased and wrinkled in use. These creases do not easily recover. Moreover, the wash-and-wear property of cellulosic textile fabrics is also poor.
Therefore, there has been a long-standing need for improvements in dry and wet crease resistances and in wash-and-wear property of cellulosic fabrics without detracting from their other inherent desirable properties. In attempts to meet these objectives, formaldehyde reaction products or formaldehyde-containing thermosetting resin precondensates such as urea-formaldehyde, melamine-formaldehyde, ethyleneurea-formaldehyde, glyoxalmonoureine-formaldehyde, etc. have been developed as resin finishing agents for cellulosic fabrics.
However, when these resin finishes are used singly in the processing of cellulosic textiles, the free formaldehyde liberated from the textile products tend to cause skin disorders and, therefore, the use of these finishes in the field of clothing is subject to serious limitations. Furthermore, these finishes do not provide fully satisfactory results in regard to dry crease resistance, wet crease resistance, wash-and-wear property and so on.
After intensive research undertaken to overcome the above-mentioned disadvantages of the prior art technology, the present inventors arrived at the present invention.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a method for finishing a cellulose fiber-containing textile product comprising treating a cellulose-containing textile product with a resin bath containing as an essential ingredient a water-soluble urethane prepolymer having at least two blocked isocyanato groups adapted to regenerate free isocyanato groups within its molecule (hereinafter referred to as a blocked isocyanate-containing water-soluble urethane prepolymer).
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The blocked isocyanate-containing water-soluble urethane prepolymer used in accordance with the present invention is exemplified by water-soluble urethane prepolymers each containing at least two isocyanato groups blocked by one or more different blocking agents selected from the group consisting of phenols, oximes, imidazoles and acid sodium sulfite.
The water-soluble urethane prepolymer containing at least two isocyanato groups within its molecule is exemplified by water-soluble urethane prepolymers each containing two or more terminal isocyanato groups obtainable by reacting one or more polyether polyols, which are prepared by addition-polymerizing an alkylene oxide component of which ethylene oxide is an essential member with a compound containing at least two active hydrogen groups, or a mixed polyol consisting of a mixture of one or more members of said polyether polyols and one or more other polyols with one or more organic polyisocyanate compounds, and is preferably a water-soluble urethane prepolymer containing three or more terminal isocyanato groups and having a molecular weight of 2,000 to 30,000, an ethylene oxide content of 25 to 65% percent, and a regeneratable isocyanato content of 1 to 6 percent.
Outside of the above respective ranges, the hand and wet crease resistance of finished textile products are not as satisfactory as may be desired.
The polyether polyols mentioned above are exemplified by the compounds produced by addition-polymerizing a compound containing two or more active hydrogen groups with an alkylene oxide component of which ethylene oxide is an essential member.
The above-mentioned compound containing two or more active hydrogen groups includes, among others, polyhydric alcohols and amines. The polyhydric alcohols include diols such as ethylene glycol, propylene glycol, butanediol, hexanediol, octanediol, decanediol, etc.; triols such as glycerol, hexanetriol, trimethylolethane, trimethylolpropane, etc.; and polyols such as erythritol, pentaerithritol, sorbitol, sucrose, and so on. The amines include alkanolamines such as ethanolamine, triethanolamine, triisopropanolamine, tributanolamine, etc.; N-methylamine, ammonia, ethylenediamine, diethylenetriamine, triethylenetetramine, diaminophenylmethane, methylenebis-o-chloroaniline (MOCA), phenylenediamine, xylylenediamine, piperazine, isophoronediamine and so on.
The alkylene oxide includes ethylene oxide, propylene oxide, butylene oxide, etc. and ethylene oxide is essential.
Examples of said other polyols, are polyoxyalkylene polyols which do not contain ethylene oxide, polyester polyols, silicone polyols, fluorine-containing polyols and so on.
These polyoxyalkylene polyols may be produced by addition-polymerizing propylene oxide, butylene oxide or the like with said compound containing active hydrogen groups.
The polyester polyols include polycondensates of saturated or unsaturated fatty acids or anhydrides thereof with said polyhydric alcohols, said polyether polyols, said polyoxyalkylene polyols or the like.
The silicone polyols and fluorine-containing polyols include, among others, compounds containing a dimethylsiloxane or fluorocarbon unit in the backbone chain and hydroxyl groups at the terminals and/or in the side chain thereof.
When said other polyols are mixed with said polyether polyols, their proportions can be optionally chosen.
The organic polyisocyanates mentioned above include, among others, tolylene diisocyanate (TDI), diphenylmethane diisocyanate (p-MDI), liquid MDI, crude MDI, and other polyphenylpolymethyl polyisocyanates, hexamethylene diisocyanate (HDI), xylylene diisocyanate (XDI), isophorone diisocyanate (IPDI) and so on.
The water-soluble urethane prepolymers can be produced by various methods which are known per se. For example, they can be produced by reacting a polyether polyol or a mixture of such polyether polyol and one or more other polyols with an organic polyisocyanate at a temperature of about 30° to 120° C. for about 30 minutes to 48 hours.
The ratio of said polyether polyol or said mixture of said polyether polyol and other polyol or polyols to said organic polyisocyanate is preferably in the range of 1.1 through 2.0 in terms of NCO/active hydrogen group (molar ratio).
As the blocking agent used for blocking the free isocyanato groups of such water-soluble urethane prepolymer, there may be mentioned phenols such as phenol, butylphenol, chlorophenol, phenylphenol, etc.; oximes such as methyl ethyl ketoxime, cyclohexane oxime, acetoxime, etc., imidazoles such as imidazole, 2-methylimidazole, 2-ethylimidazole, 2-phenylimidazole, 2-undecylimidazole, 2-heptadecylimidazole, etc., acid sodium sulfite, and so on. These compounds are particularly desirable in view of their compatibility with textile processes, safety, reactivity, and so on.
The water-soluble urethane prepolymer having blocked isocyanato groups can be produced by reacting a water-soluble urethane prepolymer with a blocking agent in the presence or absence of a catalyst such as a tertiary amine or a metal compound such as sodium methoxide at a temperature of about 30° to 100° C.
In order to ensure the proper viscosity and homogeniety of the reaction system, an inert solvent such as dioxane, methyl-cellosolve acetate, ethylcellosolve acetate, dimethylformamide or the like may be added to the reaction system.
The ratio of said blocking agent to said water-soluble urethane prepolymer is one to 1.5 molar equivalents based on the free terminal isocyanato groups of the water-soluble urethane prepolymer.
As such a water-soluble urethane prepolymer containing blocked isocyanato groups is heated, the blocking agent is cleaved to thereby regenerate the free isocyanato groups.
As a typical method for treating a textile product in accordance with the present invention, a cellulose fiber-containing fabric is treated with a resin bath containing as an essential ingredient said water-soluble urethane prepolymer having blocked isocyanato groups.
Thus, a cellulose fiber-containing textile product is immersed in a resin bath containing said water-soluble urethane prepolymer having blocked isocyanato groups, squeezed, dried, and heat-treated at an elevated temperature.
In this process, a catalyst that is commonly used in urethane prepolymer reaction is added.
In the resin ath employed in the practice of the present invention, there are incorporated the formaldehyde addition product or formaldehyde-containing thermosetting resin precondensate (inclusive of those mentioned hereinbefore) which is commonly used in resin finishes and the corresponding catalyst (e.g. zinc chloride, magnesium chloride, zinc nitrate or an organic amine).
In the resin bath, there may also be incorporated various additives which are commonly used in resin finishes, such as softeners, fluorescent whiteners, natural or synthetic sizes, and hygroscopic agents.
The cellulose fiber-containing textile product includes, among other, those made of natural cellulose materials such as cotton, linen, etc. regenerated celluloses such as rayon, cuprammonium rayon, etc.; cellulose derivatives rich in unsubstituted hydroxyl groups such as acetate rayon, etc., mixtures or blends of such various cellulosic fibers, mixtures or blends of such cellulosic fibers with synthetic fibers or animal fibers, etc., and includes staples, tows, silvers, yarns, woven fabrics, knitted fabrics, nonwoven fabrics and so on.
The cellulose-fiber containing textiles treated in accordance with the present invention have markedly improved properties, in terms of dry crease resistance, wet crease resistance, wash-and-wear property, etc., and the improvement in wet crease resistance is particularly remarkable.
Furthermore, the method of the present invention does not require a complicated series of processing steps and is easy to practice.
The following examples are intended to illustrate the invention in further detail. It should be understood that in the examples all percents and parts are by weight.
PRODUCTION EXAMPLE
To a water-soluble urethane prepolymer was added a solution of a blocking agent in an inert solvent at a temperature within the range mentioned hereinbefore, followed by addition of a catalyst. The reaction was carried out until the free isocyanato groups were no longer detected. Thereafter, the reaction mixture was diluted with water to give a clear water-soluble urethane prepolymer containing blocked isocyanato groups (active component 30%). The reactants and products are shown in Table 1.
EXAMPLE 1
A 40'S cotton broad cloth was immersed in the resin bath indicated below, squeezed (squeezing rate 70%), dried in a hot air current at 110° C. for 3 minutes, and further heat-treated at 150° C. for 3 minutes.
The dry crease resistance, wet crease resistance, tensile strength, tear strength and wash-and-wear property of the resulting finished cloth were determined.
As a control example, a similar cloth was similarly treated with a resin bath of the otherwise same composition which lacked the water-soluble urethane prepolymer having blocked isocyanato groups.
The results are shown in Table 2.
______________________________________Resin bath______________________________________A water-soluble urethane prepolymer 10 partshaving blocked isocyanato groups(active component 30%)Catalyst: Elastolon catalys 32 1 part(Daiichi Koyo Seiyaku, tradename)Dimethyloldihydroxyethyleneurea 7 parts(active component 40%)Catalyst: magnesium chloride 2 parts(active component 20%)Softner: polyethylene wax emulsion 2 parts(active component 5%)Water 78 parts______________________________________
EXAMPLE 2
A 40'S W cotton plain weave cloth was immersed in the resin bath indicated below, squeezed (squeezing rate 75%), dried in a hot air current at 110° C. (for 3 minutes, and further heat-treated at 150° C. for 3 minutes.
The dry crease resistance, wet crease resistance, tensile strength, tear strength and wash-and-wear property of the resulting finished cloth were determined.
As a control example, a similar cloth was similarly treated with a resin bath of the otherwise same composition which lacked the water-soluble urethane prepolymer having blocked isocyanato groups.
The results are shown in Table 3.
______________________________________Resin bath______________________________________A water-soluble urethane prepolymer 10 partshaving blocked isocyanato groups(effective component 30%)Catalyst: Elastolon catalyt 32 1 part(Daiichi Koyo Seiyaku, tradename)Dialkoxymethyldihydroxyethyleneurea 10 parts(active component 45%)Catalyst: zinc nitrate 3 parts(active component 15%)Polyethylene wax emulsion 2 parts(active component 15%)Water 78 parts______________________________________
EXAMPLE 3
A 40'S W spun viscose rayon plain weave cloth was immersed in the resin bath indicated below, squeezed (squeezing rate 80%), dried in a hot air current at 100° C. for 2 minutes and further heat-treated at 160° C. for 2 minutes.
The dry crease resistance, wet crease resistance, tensile strength, tear strength and wash-and-wear property of the resulting finished cloth were determined.
As a control example, a similar cloth was similarly treated with a resin bath of the otherwise same composition which lacked the water-soluble urethane prepolymer having blocked isocyanato groups.
The results are shown in Table 4.
______________________________________Resin bath______________________________________A water-soluble urethane prepolymer 5 partshaving blocked isocyanato groups(active component 30%)Catalyst: Elastolon catalys 32 0.5 part(Daiichi Koyo Seiyaku, tradename)Urea-formaldehyde precondensate 20 parts(active component 30%)Catalyst: an organic amine 2 parts(active component 35%)Water 72.5 parts______________________________________
TABLE 1__________________________________________________________________________ItemUrethane prepolymers containing isocyanato groupsPolyol Isocyanato RegeneratableActive Total Organic NCO/active Ethylene content isocyanato Amount ofhydrogen alkylene Molec- polyiso- hydrogen Mol. wt. of oxide in (%) of content urethanecompound oxide ular cyanate group urethane urethane urethane of urethane prepolymerType Type Type (%) weight Type (mol. ratio) prepolymer prepolymer prepolymer prepolymer (parts)__________________________________________________________________________No. 1 Glycerin PO 30 3000 HDI 2 3600 56.86 3.5 3.5 116.8 EO 70No. 2 Glycerin PO 30 3000 HDI 1.5 8842 25.41 1.9 1.9 210 EO 70 Glycerin PO 100 5000 Glycerin PO 90 2000 EO 10No. 3 Tri- EO 100 1000 HDI 1.5 2333 28.28 4.5 4.5 283.5 methylol- propaneDiethylene glycol 1000adipate__________________________________________________________________________ Item Blocking agent/free Blocking agent isocyanato group Inert solvent Catalyst Type Type Amount (parts) (mol. ratio) Type/amount (parts) Type/amount__________________________________________________________________________ (parts) No. 1 Phenol 9.2 1.01 Dioxane: Triethyl- 30 amine: 0.2 No. 2 p-Butyl- 15.9 1.01 Dioxane: Triethyl- phenol 100 amine: 0.4 No. 3 Methyl 27.2 1.00 Methyl -- ethyl ethyl ketoxime ketone: 60__________________________________________________________________________ PO: Propylene oxide EO: Ethylene oxide
TABLE 2__________________________________________________________________________ItemType of water- Crease resistancesoluble urethane (degree)prepolymer contain- Dry crease Wet crease Tensile Tear Wash-and-wearTest ing blocked resistance resistance strength strength propertyNo. isocyanato groups HL-0 HL-10 HL-0 HL-10 (Kg) (g) (grade)__________________________________________________________________________1-1 No. 1 272 268 281 279 14.6 715 3.81-2 No. 2 268 267 282 271 14.8 738 3.51-3 No. 3 270 264 280 275 14.6 720 3.8Reference-- 240 205 230 198 15.1 735 2.8exampleBlank-- 148 150 150 159 21.3 980 1.2control(substratefabriconly)__________________________________________________________________________ Laundering conditions: according to JISL-0217-103 HL0, 0 laundering HL10, 10 laundering (drip dry method) Crease resistance: according to JISL-1096C (warp and filling) Tensile strength: according to JISL-1096A (filling direction) Tear strength: according to JISL-1096D (warp direction) Washand-wear property: according to AATCC124-1967T III B The above applies to the examples that follow.
TABLE 3__________________________________________________________________________ItemType of water- Crease resistancesoluble urethane (degree)prepolymer contain- Dry crease Wet crease Tensile Tear Wash-and-wearTest ing blocked resistance resistance strength strength propertyNo. isocyanato groups HL-0 HL-10 HL-0 HL-10 (Kg) (g) (grade)__________________________________________________________________________2-1 No. 1 260 256 281 277 20.7 889 3.52-2 No. 2 263 251 278 274 20.8 832 3.32-3 No. 3 265 259 282 274 20.7 799 3.7Reference-- 241 213 225 198 21.4 785 2.1exampleBlank-- 169 165 167 170 28.5 801 1.5control(substratefabriconly)__________________________________________________________________________
TABLE 4__________________________________________________________________________ItemType of water- Crease resistancesoluble urethane (degree)prepolymer contain- Dry crease Wet crease Tensile Tear Wash-and-wearTest ing blocked resistance resistance strength strength propertyNo. isocyanato groups HL-0 HL-10 HL-0 HL-10 (Kg) (g) (grade)__________________________________________________________________________3-1 No. 1 266 261 267 262 20.9 1580 3.63-2 No. 2 260 252 278 268 21.0 1605 3.53-3 No. 3 273 270 275 261 19.9 1585 3.4Reference-- 236 209 173 168 20.0 1520 2.5exampleBlank-- 210 205 161 165 24.3 2218 1control(substratefabriconly)__________________________________________________________________________
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There is provided a method of finishing a cellulosic fiber-containing textile product with a resin bath based on a water-soluble urethane prepolymer. This treatment provides for improvements in dry and wet creased crease resistance and wash-and-wear properties of cellulosic fiber-containing textile products.
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RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/413,963 filed on Sep. 26, 2002 and entitled MOSQUITO LARVA TRAP, which is incorporated herein in its entirety.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] This invention relates in general to insect control, and in particular to the capture and killing of insects such as mosquito larvae before they become adult biting mosquitoes.
BACKGROUND
[0003] Mosquitoes are more than just an annoying problem. From the 1800s when British Army Doctor Donald Ross proved malaria was transmitted by mosquitoes, to the present United States outbreak of the mosquito borne West Nile virus, mosquitoes have proven to be a serious problem for both man and animals. Some other diseases transmitted by mosquitoes are dengue, yellow fever, and encephalitis varieties such as Eastern Equine encephalitis, Western Equine encephalitis, La Crosse encephalitis, St. Louis encephalitis, and Japanese encephalitis.
[0004] The quest to prevent mosquito transmitted diseases and the general annoyance of being bitten while engaged in outdoor activities has been long and generally unsuccessful. Primary methods of control have been directed at large scale sprayings of indiscriminate poisonous chemicals, attractant traps directed at killing adult mosquitoes, draining of breeding areas such as wetlands, or the application of larvicide chemicals in bodies of water.
[0005] Many poisonous chemicals not only kill mosquitoes, but also destroy beneficial insects as well as having detrimental effects on other wildlife such as birds. DDT is still a cause of ecological damage after over thirty years of non-use in the United States. Draining of wetlands has been recognized as destructive to the overall health of our environment and the use of larvicide chemicals in these areas is expensive, requires repeated applications during the breeding season, and could have long term side effects as yet undetermined. Various types of traps have been introduced that attract adult mosquitoes by the use of light, emissions of chemical attractants, carbon dioxide releases, and even vibrating membranes that mimic animal skin. The killing mechanisms used by these traps tend to be electrocuting devices, vacuuming insects into holding bags, introducing the insects to poisonous chemicals, or providing a sticky surface on which the insects become trapped. Many of these traps are expensive to produce and require extensive maintenance for their operation.
[0006] All of the above trapping methods result in the unintended destruction of beneficial insects. Current studies indicate existing commercially available traps such as the light attractant and carbon dioxide emitting varieties tend to attract disproportionately greater numbers of mosquitoes to an area than they actually kill. This action creates a negative impact on the intended result of mosquito elimination from a particular location. It has also been shown that the ratio of beneficial insects killed versus mosquitoes by many of these devices is sufficiently high that quite a few of these traps are actually regressive to the environment.
[0007] Mosquito populations grow exponentially with one adult female laying from a few to over one hundred eggs every third day of her breeding life. Obviously, the attracting and killing of individual mosquitoes using existing art is, at best, a check-stop measure as the existing art fails to kill mosquitoes in large numbers and break the cycle that allows the exponential growth of the population.
SUMMARY
[0008] Embodiments of the present invention address these issues and others by providing a method and apparatus that captures mosquito larvae to prevent them from developing into adult mosquitoes that are otherwise free to continue to reproduce and cause harm. Embodiments provide an attractive location for mosquitoes and other harmful insects to lay eggs while trapping and killing the larvae developing from these eggs and/or trapping and killing adult mosquitoes that have developed from the trapped larvae.
[0009] One embodiment is an apparatus for killing insects. One preferred design of the apparatus includes a container and a protrusion within the container, in which at least a portion of the protrusion is preferably sloped relative to horizontal. The apparatus also includes a directing member within the container that is positioned above the protrusion and having at least a portion that is non-horizontal. The directing member defines an opening that is located above the protrusion. The protrusion, directing member, and container define a chamber that for containing insect larvae and prevent those larvae from maturing into insects or, if they mature, from exiting the container.
[0010] Another embodiment is a method of killing insects with a container, such as the one described above. The method involves placing liquid in the container so that the liquid level is above the opening of the directing member and partially fills the chamber. The container is positioned such that insect eggs are laid on the liquid surface and the insect eggs hatch into larvae. The method further involves directing or guiding the larvae to drop from the liquid surface along the directing member and out of its opening. After the larvae pass through the opening, the method preferably further involves directing the larvae to further drop or otherwise move into the chamber. When the larvae reach this location, they have little chance of surviving and exiting the chamber alive.
[0011] Another preferred embodiment of the present invention includes a container and an inverted cone member within the container. A funnel-shaped member is located within the container above the inverted cone and defines an opening above the inverted cone. The embodiment further includes a barrier that has a first edge that abuts the underside of the funnel-shaped member and has a second edge that abuts the container. At least the barrier, the funnel-shaped member, and the container define a chamber.
[0012] Additional embodiments of the present invention include a container and a floor within the container, and the floor may include at least a portion that is sloped relative to the horizontal. A directing member is positioned above the floor and has at least a portion that is non-horizontal. The directing member defines an opening above the floor. The floor, directing member, and container define a chamber that traps the insect larvae. The container may be translucent while the directing member may be opaque such that the larvae are drawn away from the opening and further into the chamber toward the sidewall regardless of whether the bottom is sloped or flat.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013] [0013]FIG. 1 is a front view of an illustrative container of one embodiment showing a concave bottom and a protrusion centered on the container bottom.
[0014] [0014]FIG. 1. 1 is a top plan or birds-eye view of the container of FIG. 1 showing center alignment of the protrusion.
[0015] [0015]FIG. 2 is a front view of an illustrative funneling device of one embodiment that fits into the container of FIG. 1.
[0016] [0016]FIG. 2. 1 is a top plan view of the funneling device of FIG. 2 showing center alignment of its lower opening.
[0017] [0017]FIG. 3 is a top plan view of an illustrative ascension barrier of one embodiment.
[0018] [0018]FIG. 3. 1 is a front view of the ascension barrier of FIG. 3.
[0019] [0019]FIG. 4 is an exploded front view of one embodiment of the present invention showing the assembly process.
[0020] [0020]FIG. 5 is a front cross-sectional view of the assembled embodiment shown in FIG. 4.
[0021] [0021]FIG. 5. 1 is a cut away cross-sectional view of an illustrative snap-on lid portion of the funnel of FIG. 2 connected to the container of FIG. 1.
[0022] [0022]FIG. 6 is an isometric cross-sectional view of FIG. 5.
[0023] [0023]FIG. 7 is an alternative cross-sectional view of FIG. 5 after water has been placed into the container to a level adequate to drown the larvae.
[0024] [0024]FIG. 8 is an alternative cross-sectional view of FIG. 7 after water has been placed into the container to a level adequate to trap adult mosquitoes that have developed from the trapped larvae.
[0025] [0025]FIG. 9 is a front cross-sectional view of one assembled alternative embodiment that has a sloped bottom within the container.
[0026] [0026]FIG. 10 is a front cross-sectional view of one assembled alternative embodiment that has a flat bottom within the container.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0027] The present invention is more particularly described in the following examples that are intended as illustrative only since numerous modifications and variations therein will be apparent to those skilled in the art. As used in the specification and in the claims, “a,” “an,” or “the” can mean one or more, depending upon the context in which it is used. The preferred embodiment is now described with reference to the figures, in which like numbers indicate like parts throughout the figures.
[0028] The present invention provides a trap for insect larvae, in particular mosquito larvae, and a method of using such a trap. The larvae are contained so that they either drown or develop into adult mosquitoes that are unable to exit and eventually starve, depending upon the particular embodiment of the present invention and the corresponding level of liquid being used. The present invention, accordingly, assists in breaking the cycle of the exponential increase in mosquito populations.
[0029] One preferred embodiment of the present invention comprises a container, a protrusion or inverted cone member, a directing member or funnel, and, optionally, a barrier. FIG. 1 is a front view of an exemplary container 50 according to one embodiment, in which a vertical axis V bisects the center of the container 50 and is used for reference throughout the drawings. In this embodiment, the container 50 is shown as being round in shape, but other shapes including polygons of various numbers of sides are also applicable. The container 50 may be made from various materials such as plastic or metal. However, translucent plastic allows the inside of the container 50 to be viewed by an observer to verify the functioning of the apparatus and also allows light to enter the container to further draw the larvae toward the light, as discussed below.
[0030] The container 50 includes various attributes. A sidewall 62 of the container 50 may optionally include a ledge 18 for an optional ascension barrier, discussed below, to rest on with the ledge 18 so as to separate an upper sidewall region 16 from the remainder of the sidewall 62 . In this embodiment, a bottom surface 20 of the container 50 is concave to have a slight inward taper or slope forming a raised base.
[0031] Still referring to FIG. 1, a modified conical structure 22 , which is an inverted cone, is positioned on the apex of the bottom 20 . The conical structure 22 of this embodiment has a first sloped region 52 and second sloped region 54 , with the top sloped region 52 having less slope. The taper of the bottom surface 20 of the container 50 has an even lesser slope extending between the conical structure 22 and the sidewall 62 . As one skilled in the art will appreciate, if an object falls or drifts into the center of the container bottom 20 , the conical structure 22 and concave design of the bottom direct that object toward the sidewall 62 of the container 20 . Other manners of obtaining this same effect with the bottom 20 is to have a parabolic cross-section between the sidewall 62 and center or to have a consistent slope extending from the apex to the sidewall 62 . As discussed below in relation to FIG. 9, other formations for the bottom of the container are applicable as well, such as having a substantially planar bottom of the container that is either flat or sloped relative to the horizontal and spans the diameter of the round bottom of the container 50 .
[0032] [0032]FIG. 1. 1 is a top plan view of the container 50 depicting a ‘y’ axis Y and the perpendicular ‘x’ axis X in center alignment along with the top rim 14 , which is also shown in FIG. 1. The optional ledge 18 is also shown, on which the optional ascension barrier may rest. The modified conical structure 22 of this particular embodiment is also shown. Optional holes 42 allow a simple bent wire handle (not shown) to be connected to the container 50 to facilitate carrying it.
[0033] The present invention also preferably comprises a non-horizontal top surface to assist in directing or guiding larvae downwardly, and FIG. 2 shows a funnel 60 that is one exemplary embodiment. The funnel mounts within the container 50 and has a funnel sidewall 26 , funnel top opening rim 24 , funnel bottom opening rim 30 , and optional funnel vent holes 28 , which allow air trapped during the filling process to escape when the apparatus is filled with liquid after being assembled. Such vent holes 28 are not necessary when ventilation is not required, such as when the container 50 is filled with liquid prior to the additional components such as funnel 60 being inserted into the interior of the container 50 . The top opening rim 24 preferably attaches onto the top rim 14 of the container 50 by interlocking together, which is shown in FIG. 5. 1 .
[0034] As discussed in more detail below, the sloped sidewall 26 of the funnel 60 directs larvae to the bottom rim, which defines an opening 30 therethrough. In use, the sinking or downwardly moving larvae pass through the opening to the bottom surface 20 , where they are directed toward the sidewall 62 of the container 50 and away from the opening 30 . Thus, the slope of the sidewall 26 of the funnel 60 directs the larvae to its opening, and then once through, the slope of the bottom surface directs the larvae away from the opening to decrease the likelihood of reentry into the interior of the funnel 60 . As discussed above, the conical structure 22 further assists in directing the larvae to the sidewall of the container and impedes the larvae from reentering into the interior of the funnel 60 .
[0035] The sidewall 26 of the funnel 60 may be constructed of various materials such as plastic or metal. However, a dark, visible light-absorbing coloring provides the most attractive location for eggs to be laid by the harmful insects, such as biting mosquitoes. A black non-horizontal top surface is especially attractive to mosquitoes. Having an opaque funnel also prevents light from entering the container near the opening 30 such that larvae are not attracted back toward the opening after the larvae have already passed through it.
[0036] One skilled in the art will appreciate that the slope of the sidewall 26 of the funnel 60 can vary. One consideration is that the opening 30 is sufficiently small so that the larvae cannot easily reenter the interior of the funnel after exiting it. The slope is also a function of the dimensions of the container, i.e., a shorter container with a wide top opening will use a different slope that a taller container with a narrow top opening. One contemplated embodiment of the funnel 60 has a top opening rim 24 having a diameter of 7.25 inches inside the rim and 8 inches outside of the rim; a bottom opening 30 with a diameter of one inch, a vertical height between the top and bottom openings of 4 inches, and an included angle of 77 degrees relative to horizontal to define the slope. It should be noted that these dimensions are provided only for purposes of illustration of one embodiment and that various other dimensions are also applicable. Accordingly, these dimensions are not intended to limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
[0037] While the funnel 60 provides a suitable non-horizontal top surface for the illustrated embodiment, various other non-horizontal top surfaces may also be used. For example, an inverted cone could be utilized in which the inverted cone provides a slope leading to one or more openings along the outer rim rather than providing an opening in the center, such that the larvae are directed downward and toward the outer portion of the cone and through openings at the outer portion. However, where such an inverted cone is utilized to provide a top slope, the bottom surface of the container is provided a reversed slope, which leads from the sidewall 62 downward to a center location to direct the larvae to the center of the bottom surface, which is away from the openings of the top surface. Other examples of a non-horizontal top surface include having a consistent slope leading across the diameter of the container 50 with an opening defined by the surface in proximity to the sidewall 62 or having a vertical surface extending downward but terminating above the sloped bottom surface to define an opening.
[0038] [0038]FIG. 2. 1 shows the funnel bottom opening rim 30 , optional funnel vent holes 28 , and the optional alignment holes 42 for handle insertion.
[0039] Referring now to FIG. 3, the optional ascension barrier 80 is shown having optional vent holes 32 , an outer rim 34 , and an ascension barrier-locking ring 36 . The barrier 80 rests on the ledge 18 of the container 50 and the barrier-locking ring 36 defines a hole in the center into which the funnel 60 is received such that the opening 30 of the funnel 60 is located below the ledge 18 and ascension barrier 80 . The barrier-locking ring 36 complementarily receives and contacts the underside of the funnel 60 to create a barrier between the funnel 60 and sidewall 62 of the container 50 . The ascension barrier 80 may be constructed of various materials such as plastic or metal. As noted above for the funnel 60 , the vent holes 32 of the ascension barrier are optional and are not necessary when the apparatus is assembled after the liquid has already been poured into the container 50 . The vent holes 32 are preferably of a dimension such that the larvae cannot easily pass through them, if at all.
[0040] [0040]FIG. 3. 1 is a front view of the ascension barrier 80 showing the outer rim of ascension barrier 34 and funnel-locking ring 36 . From this view, it can be appreciated that once installed, the outer rim 34 contacts the ledge 18 of the container while the funnel-locking ring 36 contacts the funnel 60 such that a barrier is created. This barrier 80 may be included in the apparatus where the liquid is filled above the barrier 80 so that larvae cannot reach the surface of the water due to the barrier and drown. Including the barrier 80 allows this mode of operation to occur without requiring that the liquid be filled all of the way to the top rim 14 of the container. However, other modes of operation will also serve to kill the harmful insects, as discussed below.
[0041] [0041]FIG. 4 provides an exploded view of one illustrative embodiment of the apparatus 10 of the present invention, in which the funnel 60 , the optional ascension barrier 80 , and the container 50 are correctly aligned for assembly. Thus, for this embodiment, the optional barrier 80 is first placed into the container 50 and is seated on the ledge 18 . Then the funnel 60 is placed into the container 50 where it is seated within the locking ring 36 of the barrier 80 and fits onto the top rim 14 of the container 50 .
[0042] [0042]FIG. 5 shows the assembled apparatus 10 . A detailed view of a funnel-locking ring 40 , which is snapped into place over the top rim 14 of the container 50 , is shown in FIG. 5. 1 . As noted above, the funnel sidewall 26 , directs the larvae in a downward direction toward and out of its opening 30 , where they are further directed away from this opening by the conical structure 22 and further encouraged to move away from this area by the concave bottom 20 of the container 50 . At this point, the larvae are in an entrapment chamber 38 , which is defined by the bottom 20 of the container 50 , sidewall 62 of the container 50 , sidewall 26 of the funnel 60 , the conical structure 22 , and the barrier 80 if present.
[0043] Referring now to FIG. 6, the apparatus 10 is shown in cross-section, in which the funnel 60 is connected to the container 50 by the funnel-locking ring 36 at the ledge 18 of the container 50 . The sidewall 26 of the funnel 60 , with optional vent holes 28 , slopes to the bottom rim 30 of the funnel 60 which opens into the entrapment chamber 38 by passing around the conical structure 22 , which is a molded part of the concave bottom 20 of this embodiment but could be a separate component installed within the container 50 . Larvae attempting to get to the surface of the liquid to breathe while in the entrapment chamber 38 , are blocked by the barrier 80 , which is held in place below the surface of the liquid by both the ascension barrier collar 36 and ledge 18 , and the larvae drown.
[0044] In operation the assembled structure 10 is filled to a particular level with liquid. Such liquid may be water from any source, utilizing anything from a stagnant pool to fresh tap water. The water is filled to at least a level above the bottom opening 30 of the funnel 60 . As discussed above, the apparatus 10 may be assembled prior to filling with water. In that case, ventilation holes in the ascension barrier 80 , if the barrier 80 is present, and in the funnel 60 , allow air to escape as the water displaces it. In addition to water, oviposition material 120 as shown in FIGS. 7 and 8 may be placed in the apparatus 10 to advance the stagnation of the water so as to draw mosquitoes more quickly. That is, the oviposition material depletes oxygen from the water, which also accelerates the drowning of the trapped larvae. Examples of such oviposition material include non-animal fat materials such as pot-bellied pig chow, oatmeal, alfalfa, rice hulls, and brewer's yeast. While oviposition material containing animal fat such as rabbit pellets may be used to further stagnate the water, a layer of grease may form on the water surface thereby lessening the attraction of mosquitoes to use the apparatus 10 .
[0045] The apparatus 10 is placed in a location where it is likely that mosquitoes will be present to lay eggs. For example, the apparatus may be placed in a shaded area preferably in grassy locations or near bushes. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, mosquitoes are attracted to the still water 100 (FIG. 7), 100 ′ (FIG. 8) present atop the funnel 60 and lay their eggs 102 within it.
[0046] The eggs 102 float on top of the water 100 , 100 ′ until they hatch into larvae 104 approximately twenty-four to forty-eight hours later. The larvae 104 breathe at the surface of the water 100 , 100 ′ instead of ingesting oxygen from the water itself, and drift or swim to the bottom to hide. The funnel sidewall 26 directs the larvae 104 down and toward the center where they emerge from the bottom opening 30 of the funnel 60 , and are directed into the entrapment chamber 38 , and away from the bottom rim 30 of the funnel 60 by the conical structure 22 , and also by the light entering through the container 50 , if translucent. Once within the entrapment chamber 38 , the concave bottom 20 of the container 50 encourages further movement away from the bottom opening 30 of the funnel 60 toward an outer region 106 .
[0047] As shown in FIG. 7, when the need for oxygen causes the larvae 104 to swim toward the surface of the water 100 , they are blocked by the ascension barrier 80 , and drown at a region 108 since the water 100 has been filled to a level above the barrier 80 . In trials, an occasional larva 104 found its way out of the entrapment chamber 38 and back through the bottom rim 30 of the funnel 60 . However, if that occurs, the process starts again by that larva 104 again swimming downwardly back in the entrapment chamber 38 , where it will drown.
[0048] The method of killing the insects as shown in FIG. 7 may also work without the ascension barrier 80 present if the water 100 is filled all the way to the rim 24 of the funnel 60 . Thus, once the larvae 104 enter the entrapment chamber 38 and begin to swim upward toward the surface, the larvae encounter the underside of the funnel 60 and drown.
[0049] [0049]FIG. 8 shows the water level in the apparatus 10 below the ascension barrier 80 but above the bottom rim 30 of the funnel 60 . The apparatus 10 continues to work but uses a different method. In this situation, larva confined to the entrapment chamber 38 can reach the surface of the water 100 ′ to breathe and eventually mature into adult mosquitoes 112 . However, because adult mosquitoes 112 cannot swim underwater, they remain trapped in the entrapment chamber 38 and quickly die of starvation. In this scenario, the ascension barrier 80 continues to be optional because once the adult mosquito 112 develops, the underside of the funnel 60 traps the mosquito 60 if the barrier 80 is not present.
[0050] The converse of this scenario of a low water level is too much rain, which overflows the apparatus 10 . Since the apparatus is designed to work at full water depths as noted above, either with or without the ascension barrier, heavy rains do no harm with the excess simply spilling over the side. Any eggs 102 or larvae 104 that spill over onto the ground with the excess water quickly die of dehydration since they must be in water to survive.
[0051] [0051]FIG. 9 shows one of the various alternatives to the embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 - 8 . The apparatus 90 of FIG. 9 includes a container 50 ′ having a bottom 92 that forms a sloped surface relative to horizontal, as opposed to including a protrusion such as the conical structure 22 of FIGS. 1 - 8 . The sloped surface of the bottom 92 directs the larvae toward the sidewall 62 upon the larvae passing through the opening 30 of the funnel 60 . The larvae are then trapped within the entrapment chamber 38 ′ defined by the bottom 92 , sidewall 62 and funnel 60 where they drown or starve once an adult mosquito. As with the previous embodiment, the ascension barrier 80 may be included to further define the entrapment chamber 38 ′.
[0052] It will be appreciated that the bottom 92 of this embodiment may be substantially planar, parabolic, concave, or of other curvature that slopes away from the opening 30 and into the entrapment chamber 38 ′. Furthermore, it will be appreciated that the bottom 92 may also be augmented at the area below the opening 30 with a protrusion such as a conical structure as described above. Additionally, it will be appreciated that the funnel 60 may be opaque while the container 50 is translucent to further discourage the larvae from swimming toward the opening 30 while encouraging the larvae to swim toward the sidewall 62 and further into the entrapment chamber 38 ′.
[0053] [0053]FIG. 10 shows another of the various alternatives to the embodiments shown in FIGS. 1 - 9 . The apparatus 150 of FIG. 10 includes a container 50 ″ having a bottom 92 ′ that is flat relative to the horizontal, as opposed to forming a sloped surface relative to horizontal and as opposed to including a protrusion such as the conical structure 22 of FIGS. 1 - 8 . The flat surface of the bottom 92 ′ may not direct the larvae toward the sidewall 62 upon the larvae passing through the opening 30 of the funnel 60 , but some larvae will swim toward the sidewall 62 without the direction from the bottom 92 ′. The larvae are then trapped within the entrapment chamber 38 ″ defined by the bottom 92 ′, sidewall 62 and funnel 60 where they drown or starve once an adult mosquito. As with the previous embodiments, the ascension barrier 80 may be included to further define the entrapment chamber 38 ″. The level of the liquid that is used to fill the container is at least above the opening 30 but may either be above or below the ascension barrier 80 .
[0054] It will be appreciated that the that the funnel 60 may be opaque while the container 50 is translucent to further discourage the larvae from swimming toward the opening 30 while encouraging the larvae to swim toward the sidewall 62 and further into the entrapment chamber 38 ″. Thus, while the bottom 92 ′ may not provide direction to the larvae, the light entering through the translucent container 50 ″ will provide the effect of drawing the larvae toward the sidewall 62 and further into the entrapment chamber 38 ″.
[0055] The exemplary apparatus and designs illustrated and discussed above in relation to FIGS. 1 - 10 may include several individual components. These components may be individually formed and assembled to complete the apparatus or one or more of these components may be integral with another. It will be appreciated that whether to have the components separately formed and assembled or as integral components formed together at the time of manufacture is a matter of design choice. Additionally, it should be noted that the non-horizontal directing member above the bottom 92 may be shaped in other ways. For example, the opening 30 may be defined at various locations other than in the center, such as in proximity to the sidewall 62 at a location that is near the upper intersection of the bottom 92 and the sidewall 62 .
[0056] The various embodiments described above are provided by way of illustration only and should not be construed to limit the invention. Those skilled in the art will readily recognize various modifications and changes that may be made to the present invention without following the example embodiments and applications illustrated and described herein, and without departing from the true spirit and scope of the present invention, which is set forth in the following claims.
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A method and apparatus provide for the killing of insects by trapping the larvae, which either prevents development into adults or traps the adults developed from the larvae to prevent further reproduction and harm. In one preferred embodiment, the apparatus includes a container with an inverted cone or other protrusion and a second non-horizontal surface, such as a funnel, positioned above the inverted cone. The funnel defines an opening above the inverted cone. A barrier may also be included that abuts the underside of the funnel. A liquid such as water is placed in the container at a level at least above the opening such that eggs laid in the water become larvae that swim downward and are directed through the opening by the funnel and are directed away from the opening by the inverted cone. The larvae either drown, if the water level is above the barrier, or else become trapped adult mosquitoes that cannot escape from the container. It is noted that this abstract is provided to comply with the rules requiring an abstract that will allow a searcher or other reader to ascertain quickly the subject matter of the technical disclosure and is submitted with the understanding that it will not be used to interpret or limit the scope or meaning of the claims.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] The present invention relates to injectors, and, more particularly, to an injector for bone regeneration.
[0003] 2. Description of Related Art
[0004] Periodontal diseases such as periodontitis often cause alveolar bone defects, thus likely resulting in displacement or malposition of nearby teeth and even adversely affecting other healthy teeth. Clinically, guided bone regeneration (GBR) technology is the most common technology for repairing alveolar bones. However, the GBR technology has some drawbacks.
[0005] First, the GBR technology uses an implant such as a barrier membrane to prevent unwanted cells from entering an alveolar bone defect. However, the barrier membrane is excessively exposed to the periodontal tissue and not easy to care after surgery. To avoid infection caused by exposure of the barrier membrane, the patient needs to return multiple times to the hospital.
[0006] Second, to place the barrier membrane into the alveolar bone defect, a new wound will be created to the periodontal tissue, thus causing discomfort of the patient.
[0007] Third, after the alveolar bone defect is repaired through bone regeneration, a second surgery needs to be performed to remove the barrier membrane. However, the second surgery may damage the periodontal tissue and cause other complications.
[0008] FIG. 1A is a schematic planar exploded view of a conventional injector 1 , and FIG. 1B is a schematic planar assembly view of the injector 1 of FIG. 1A .
[0009] Referring to FIGS. 1A and 1B , the injector 1 has a syringe 11 , a needle 12 and a pushing element 13 . The syringe 11 has a syringe body 111 having a receiving chamber 114 for receiving an injection solution 14 , a connecting portion 112 for connecting the needle 12 to the syringe 11 , an extending portion 113 extending from the syringe body 111 , and an inlet end 115 . The needle 12 has a needle base 121 connected to the connecting portion 112 of the syringe 11 , and a needle body 122 having a channel 123 . The pushing element 13 has a rod 131 , an operating portion 132 and a protruding portion 133 .
[0010] The length L 1 of the syringe 11 is about 8.9 cm. The diameter Φ 11 of the syringe body 111 of the syringe 11 is about 1.9 cm. The diameter Φ 12 of the extending portion 113 is about 3.0 cm. The length L 2 of the needle 12 is about 5.6 cm. The diameter Φ 2 of the needle body 122 is about 0.1 cm. The length L 3 of the pushing element 13 is about 9.3 cm. The diameter Φ 3 of the operating portion 132 and the protruding portion 133 is about 1.8 cm. The length L of the injector 1 is about 14.9 cm. The height H and width of the injector 1 are about 3.0 cm.
[0011] When the injector 1 is used by a user, for example, a doctor, the injection solution 14 is placed in the receiving chamber 114 of the syringe body 111 and the pushing element 13 is inserted into the receiving chamber 114 of the syringe body 111 and pushed in a direction D 1 . As such, the injection solution 14 in the receiving chamber 114 is moved through the channel 123 of the needle body 122 and injected into the body of a patient.
[0012] However, the injector 1 is a common injector having a large size and not specially used for bone regeneration. The receiving chamber 114 of the syringe 11 has a large volume and is not suitable for a small amount of inducible bone regeneration material.
[0013] Therefore, there is a need to provide an injector for bone regeneration so as to overcome the above-described drawbacks.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0014] In view of the above-described drawbacks, the present invention provides an injector for bone regeneration. The injector has a minimized size, and is beneficial for treatment of bone defects.
[0015] The injector according to the present invention comprises: a syringe; a needle having an embedding portion for embedding the needle in the syringe, an injecting portion integrally connected to the embedding portion and protruding from the syringe, and a channel penetrating through the embedding portion for receiving an inducible bone regeneration material; and a pushing element having a rod that is less in diameter than the channel of the needle, slidably and axially disposed in the channel of the needle, for pushing the inducible bone regeneration material to move through the injecting portion and be injected into a bone portion of a patient, when the rod in the channel of the needle is pushed toward the injecting portion.
[0016] In an embodiment, the injector has a length ranging from 4.5 to 5.3 cm, a height ranging from 1.0 to 1.6 cm, and a width ranging from 1.0 to 1.6 cm.
[0017] In an embodiment, the injector has a guiding hole in communication with the channel of the needle for guiding the rod of the pushing element into the channel of the needle. In an embodiment, the guiding hole of the syringe is in the shape of a funnel with a wide top portion and a narrow bottom portion and thus has an inclined surface for guiding the rod of the pushing element into the channel of the needle.
[0018] In an embodiment, the injector has an inlet end and an outlet end, the guiding hole is positioned at the inlet end of the syringe, and the injecting portion of the needle is positioned at the outlet end of the syringe.
[0019] In an embodiment, the syringe has a syringe body and a first extending portion outwardly extending from the syringe and being adjacent or connected to the inlet end of the syringe. In an embodiment, the syringe further has a second extending portion outwardly extending from the syringe body of the syringe and separated from the first extending portion by a gap.
[0020] In an embodiment, the syringe has a through hole interconnecting the inlet end and the outlet end. The through hole is used for the embedding portion of the needle to be received or adhesively fixed therein.
[0021] In an embodiment, the needle and the rod of the pushing element is made of stainless steel.
[0022] In an embodiment, the pushing element further has an operating portion connected to the rod, and a third extending portion outwardly extending from the operating portion.
[0023] In an embodiment, the inducible bone regeneration material is pre-placed in the channel of the needle. In an embodiment, the inducible bone regeneration material is a bone graft material, a growth factor powder, an animal extract, a growth factor solution, or chitin.
[0024] According to the present invention, the embedding portion of the needle is embedded in the syringe, the inducible bone regeneration material is placed in the channel of the needle, and the rod of the pushing element is less in diameter than the channel of the needle.
[0025] Therefore, compared with the prior art, the present invention avoids exposure of an implant such as a barrier membrane and does not create a new wound to the bone portion, for example, the periodontal tissue, thereby alleviating discomfort of the patient and reducing the risk of infection. Also, the present invention dispenses with a second surgery and thus avoids another damage to the bone portion and generation of other complications.
[0026] Further, after the hard tissue defect of the bone portion is repaired, the regenerated hard tissue can be used as a base for such as a subsequent artificial dental implant and also used to prevent depression of the hard tissue and improve appearance and ease of maintenance.
[0027] Furthermore, the injector of the present invention is specially used for bone regeneration and has a minimized size that is only one half or one third of the conventional injector.
[0028] In addition, by placing the inducible bone regeneration material in the channel of the needle, the present invention avoids unnecessary waste and reduces the cost. Further, the inducible bone regeneration material can be pre-placed in the channel of the needle so as to save time for the user.
[0029] Also, the syringe of the present invention has a guiding hole and an inclined surface for quickly guiding the rod of the pushing element into the channel of the needle, thereby saving time for the user.
[0030] Furthermore, a portion of the rod can be pre-inserted into the channel of the needle so as to save the time for the user to insert the rod into the channel of the needle.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF DRAWINGS
[0031] FIG. 1A is a schematic planar exploded view of a conventional injector;
[0032] FIG. 1B is a schematic planar assembly view of the conventional injector of FIG. 1A ;
[0033] FIG. 2A is a schematic planar assembly view of a syringe and a needle of an injector according to the present invention;
[0034] FIG. 2B is a schematic planar side view of the syringe and the needle of the injector of FIG. 2A ;
[0035] FIG. 2C is a schematic planar exploded view of the syringe and the needle of the injector of FIG. 2A ;
[0036] FIG. 3A is a schematic planar side view of a pushing element of the injector according to the present invention;
[0037] FIG. 3B is another schematic planar side view of the pushing element of the injector of FIG. 3A ;
[0038] FIGS. 4A to 4C are schematic planar views showing the use of the injector according to the present invention, wherein the injector combines the syringe and needle of FIG. 2A with the pushing element of FIG. 3A ; and
[0039] FIGS. 5A to 5C are schematic planar views showing application of the injector according to the present invention to a bone portion of a patient.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0040] The following illustrative embodiments are provided to illustrate the disclosure of the present invention, these and other advantages and effects can be apparent to those in the art after reading this specification.
[0041] It should be noted that all the drawings are not intended to limit the present invention. Various modifications and variations can be made without departing from the spirit of the present invention. Further, terms such as “a”, “first”, “second”, “channel”, “embedded” etc. are merely for illustrative purposes and should not be construed to limit the scope of the present invention.
[0042] FIG. 2A is a schematic planar assembly view of a syringe 21 and a needle 22 of an injector 2 according to the present invention. FIG. 2B is a schematic planar side view of the syringe 21 and the needle 22 of the injector 2 of FIG. 2A , and FIG. 2C is a schematic planar exploded view of the syringe 21 and needle 22 of the injector 2 of FIG. 2A . FIG. 3A is a schematic planar side view of a pushing element 23 of the injector 2 according to the present invention, and FIG. 3B is another schematic planar side view of the pushing element 23 of the injector of FIG. 3A . FIGS. 4A to 4C are schematic planar views showing the use of the injector 2 according to the present invention, wherein the injector 2 combines the syringe 21 and the needle 22 of FIG. 2A with the pushing element 23 of FIG. 3A .
[0043] Referring to FIGS. 2A to 4C , the injector 2 has a syringe 21 , a needle 22 and a pushing element 23 .
[0044] Referring to FIGS. 2A to 2C , the needle 22 has an embedding portion 221 for embedding the needle 22 in the syringe 21 , an injecting portion 222 integrally connected to the embedding portion 221 , and a channel 223 penetrating through the embedding portion 221 and the injecting portion 222 . The embedding portion 221 is embedded in the syringe 21 by engaging or adhering. The injecting portion 222 protrudes from the syringe 21 . The channel 223 can receive an inducible bone regeneration material 24 . The embedding portion 221 is, for example, a front portion of the needle 22 , and the injecting portion 222 is, for example, a rear portion of the needle 22 .
[0045] The inducible bone regeneration material 24 can be, but not limited to: (1) a solid material such as a bone graft material, for example, tricalcium phosphate (TCP), or a growth factor powder; (2) a liquid material such as an animal extract, for example, platelet rich plasma (PRP), or a growth factor solution; or (3) a colloid material such as chitin.
[0046] Referring to FIGS. 3A to 4C , the pushing element 23 can be a pusher. The pushing element 23 has a rod 231 slidably and axially disposed in the channel 223 of the needle 22 . The diameter Φ 31 of the rod 231 (as shown in FIG. 3A ) is less than or slightly less than the diameter Φ 2 of the channel 223 of the needle 22 (as shown in FIG. 2C ). As such, when the rod 231 is pushed toward the injecting portion 222 along the channel 223 , the inducible bone regeneration material 24 is moved through the injecting portion 222 and injected into a bone portion 3 of a patient (as shown in FIGS. 5A to 5C ).
[0047] Referring to FIGS. 4A to 4C , the syringe 21 has a guiding hole 211 in communication with the channel 223 of the needle 22 for guiding the rod 231 of the pushing element 23 into the channel 223 in a direction D 1 . The guiding hole 211 of the syringe 21 is wide at top and narrow at bottom or in the shape of a tapered funnel. As such, the guiding hole 211 has an inclined surface 212 , for the rod 231 of the pushing element 23 to be guided quickly into the channel 223 of the needle 22 .
[0048] The syringe 21 further has an inlet end 213 and an outlet end 214 . The guiding hole 211 is positioned at the inlet end 213 of the syringe 21 , and the injecting portion 222 of the needle 22 is positioned at the outlet end 214 of the syringe 21 . In an embodiment, the guiding hole 211 of the syringe 21 is recessed into the inlet end 213 of the syringe 21 , and the injecting portion 222 of the needle 22 protrudes from the outlet end 214 of the syringe 21 .
[0049] The syringe 21 has a syringe body 215 and a first extending portion 216 outwardly extending from the base 215 . The first extending portion 216 is adjacent to or positioned on the inlet end 213 of the syringe 21 so as to be adjacent or connected to the guiding hole 211 of the syringe 21 .
[0050] The syringe 21 further has a second extending portion 217 outwardly extending from the base 215 . The second extending portion 217 is separated from the first extending portion 216 by a gap 218 .
[0051] The syringe 21 further has a through hole 219 for the embedding portion 221 of the needle 22 to be received or adhesively fixed in the through hole 219 .
[0052] Referring to FIGS. 3A and 3B , the pushing element 23 further has an operating portion 232 connected to the rod 231 , and a third extending portion 233 outwardly extending from the operating portion 232 . The operating portion 232 can have a tapered cone shape corresponding to the shape of the guiding hole 211 of the syringe 21 .
[0053] In an embodiment, referring to FIGS. 2A to 2C , the length L 1 of the syringe 21 is between 2.0 and 2.4 cm, for example, 2.2 cm, the width and height of the syringe 21 and the diameter Φ 12 of the second extending portion 217 is between 1.0 and 1.6 cm, for example, 1.3 cm, the diameter Φ 11 of the base 215 or the guiding hole 211 is between 0.3 and 0.7 cm, for example, 0.5 cm, the length L 2 of the needle 22 is between 2.3 and 2.7 cm, for example, 2.5 cm, the diameter Φ 2 of the needle 22 is between 0.105 and 0.108 cm, for example, 0.106 cm, the length L 21 of the embedding portion 221 is between 1.3 and 1.5 cm, for example, 1.4 cm, and the length L 22 of the injecting portion 222 is between 1.0 and 1.2 cm, for example, 1.1 cm.
[0054] Referring to FIGS. 3A to 3B , the length L 3 of the pushing element 23 is between 4.5 and 5.3 cm, for example, 4.9 cm, the width and height of the pushing element 23 and the diameter Φ 32 of the third extending portion 233 is between 1.0 and 1.6 cm, for example, 1.3 cm, the length L 31 of the rod 231 is between 2.8 and 3.2 cm, for example, 3.0 cm, the diameter Φ 31 of the rod 231 is between 0.08 and 0.09 cm, for example, 0.085 cm, the total length L 32 of the operating portion 232 and the third extending portion 233 is between 1.7 and 2.1 cm, for example, 1.9 cm, the length of the operating portion 232 is between 1.6 and 1.8 cm, for example, 1.7 cm, and the length (i.e., thickness) of the first extending portion 216 , the second extending portion 217 and the third extending portion 233 is between 0.1 and 0.3 cm, for example, 0.2 cm.
[0055] Referring to FIG. 4C , the length of the injector 2 is between 4.5 and 5.3 cm, for example, 4.9 cm, the height H and width of the injector 2 is between 1.0 and 1.6 cm, for example, 1.3 cm, and the length L 31 of the rod 231 of FIG. 3A , which is between 2.8 and 3.2 cm, is slightly greater than or equal to the length L 2 of the needle 22 of FIG. 2A , which is between 2.3 and 2.7 cm. As such, referring to FIG. 4C , driven by the rod 231 , the inducible bone regeneration material 24 in the channel 223 of the needle 22 can be completely moved out of the needle 22 .
[0056] In an embodiment, the needle 22 and the rod 231 of the pushing element 23 are made of stainless steel, and the syringe 21 and the operating portion 232 and the third extending portion 233 of the pushing element 23 are made of plastic such as polypropylene.
[0057] Referring to FIG. 4A , the inducible bone regeneration material 24 can be pre-placed in the channel 223 of the needle 22 so as to save the time for a user, for example, a doctor, to place the material 24 in the channel 22 . In other embodiments, the inducible bone regeneration material 24 can be placed into the channel 223 of the needle 22 through the guiding hole 211 by a user who wants to use the needle 22 .
[0058] Then, referring to FIGS. 4A and 4B , the user can place a plurality of fingers on the third extending portion 233 of the pushing element 23 , on the gap 218 and the first extending portion 216 or the second extending portion 217 so as to insert the rod 231 of the pushing element 23 into the channel 223 of the needle 22 through the guiding hole 211 in the direction D 1 . In other embodiments, a portion of the rod 231 (for example, a front portion of the rod 231 ) can also be pre-inserted into the channel 223 of the needle 22 so as to save time for the user.
[0059] Thereafter, referring to FIG. 4C , the rod 231 of the pushing element 23 is partially or completely inserted into the channel 223 of the needle 22 so as to cause the operating portion 232 of the pushing element 23 to abut against the inclined surface 212 of the guiding hole 211 of the syringe 21 . As such, the inducible bone regeneration material 24 in the channel 223 is partially or completely moved out of the injecting portion 222 .
[0060] FIGS. 5A to 5C are schematic planar views showing application of the injector 2 to a bone portion 3 of a patient.
[0061] Referring to FIG. 5A , the injecting portion 222 is placed in a direction D 2 to target a defect 33 of the bone portion 3 .
[0062] In an embodiment, the bone portion 3 has soft tissue 31 and hard tissue 32 around a periphery of a tooth 4 , for example, gum, periodontal ligament and alveolar bone. The inducible bone regeneration material 24 is placed in the defect 33 of the hard tissue 32 such as the alveolar bone of the bone portion 3 . In other embodiments, the bone portion 3 can be a hand bone, a foot bone and so on.
[0063] Then, referring to FIG. 5B , the injecting portion 222 is inserted into the defect 33 of the bone portion 3 with the outlet end 214 of the syringe 21 abutting against the surface of the soft tissue 31 .
[0064] Subsequently, referring to FIG. 5C , the rod 231 of the pushing element 23 is partially or completely inserted into the channel 223 of the needle 22 with the operating portion 232 of the pushing element 23 abutting against the inclined surface 212 of the guiding hole 211 of the syringe 21 . As such, the inducible bone regeneration material 24 in the channel 223 is partially or completely injected into the defect 33 of the bone portion 3 . Finally, the injector 2 as well as the needle 22 is withdrawn from the bone portion 3 in a direction D 3 . As such, the injecting process is completed.
[0065] According to the present invention, the embedding portion of the needle is embedded in the syringe, the inducible bone regeneration material is placed in the channel of the needle, and the rod of the pushing element is less in diameter than the channel of the needle.
[0066] Therefore, compared with the prior art, the present invention avoids exposure of an implant such as a barrier membrane and does not create a new wound to the bone portion, for example, the periodontal tissue, thereby alleviating discomfort of the patient and reducing the risk of infection. Also, the present invention dispenses with a second surgery and thus avoids another damage to the bone portion and generation of other complications.
[0067] Further, after the hard tissue defect of the bone portion is repaired, the regenerated hard tissue can be used as a base for such as a subsequent artificial dental implant and also used to prevent depression of the hard tissue and improve appearance and ease of maintenance.
[0068] Furthermore, the injector of the present invention is specially used for bone regeneration and has a minimized size that is only one half or one third of the conventional injector.
[0069] In addition, by placing the inducible bone regeneration material in the channel of the needle, the present invention avoids unnecessary waste and reduces the cost. Further, the inducible bone regeneration material can be pre-placed in the channel of the needle so as to save time for the user.
[0070] Also, the syringe of the present invention has a guiding hole and an inclined surface for quickly guiding the rod of the pushing element into the channel of the needle, thereby saving time for the user.
[0071] Furthermore, a portion of the rod can be pre-inserted into the channel of the needle so as to save the time for the user to insert the rod into the channel of the needle.
[0072] The above-described descriptions of the detailed embodiments are only to illustrate the preferred implementation according to the present invention, and it is not to limit the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, all modifications and variations completed by those with ordinary skill in the art should fall within the scope of present invention defined by the appended claims.
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An injector for bone regeneration is provided, including: a syringe; a needle having an embedding portion for embedding the needle in the syringe, an injecting portion integrally connected to the embedding portion and protruding from the syringe, and a channel penetrating through the embedding portion and the injecting portion for receiving an inducible bone regeneration material; and a pushing element having a rod that is less in diameter than the channel of the needle, slidably and axially disposed in the channel of the needle, for pushing the inducible bone regeneration material to move through the injecting portion and be injected into a bone portion of a patient, when the rod in the channel of the needle is pushed toward the injecting portion. The injector has a reduced size, and is beneficial for treatment of bone defects.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to a tamper evident seal for container orifices of the connector-type wherein the tamper evident seal comprises a closure part.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
A tamper evident seal is understood to be a seal which can only be opened once and then not resealed, or which may be able to be resealed, but, in this context, does not retain its original sealed condition, so that once the seal has been opened, any subsequent sealing cannot go unnoticed. Tamper evident seals are preferably used for those containers where the user either wants to be certain or must be certain that he or she is opening it for the first time, in other words that he or she has a still originally sealed container with the contents intact. Therefore, tamper evident seals are used in particular for containers in the consumer goods industry, thus, for example, for food, cosmetics, detergents, and also motor oil. Tamper evident seals are also useful for containers used in laboratory science, for example, for preserving chemicals and samples, and containers for medical sciences, for example, containers for infusion solutions and dialyzing solutions.
The following types of tamper evident seals are known. Cut-off tip tamper evident seals, for example, as in silicon cartridges are known in the art. Typically cut-off tip tamper evident seals include a one-piece outflow connector that is sealed at one end. The connector is opened by cutting off the sealed end to expose the opening of a container.
The twisting break-off tip, e.g., as in blood-product pouches, is another type of tamper evident seal wherein a connector is formed in one piece and is sealed at one end by a section having a grippable pair of opposing twistable wings. The sealing section is joined by a concentrically disposed line of weakness to the tubular part of the connector, so that the connector can be opened by turning the grippable pair of wings such that the sealed section breaks off at the rupture joint formed by the line of weakness.
Partial break-off connectors have been used, for example, in transperitoneal dialysis pouches. In this type of tamper evident seal, the withdrawal connection of the pouch is comprised of a flexible tube into which is inserted a coupling piece of injection-molded plastic. A break-off plug projects out of the coupling piece into the tube, so that bending the tube causes the break-off plug to be broken off thereby releasing the contents of the container.
Still another type of tamper evident seal is a membrane that is capable of being pierced, e.g., as in solvent canisters. The connector is sealed by a membrane, which can be pierced by a tool, for example, by a screw-on cap having a point on the reverse side.
Tear tabs are known for use in drink cans. Such tear tabs include a predetermined breaking zone worked into the cover through formation of a circumferential line of weakness. The predetermined breaking zone is secured by a tab, so that the predetermined breaking zone is able to be released out of the cover when tensile stress is applied to the tab.
Pull-off seal membranes are known for use with food containers, e.g., yogurt containers. The membrane is secured circumferentially to the cover rim by what is known as a peelable seam. A portion of the membrane projects over the side and is used as a grip when tearing off the membrane.
Screw caps with perforated seal rings are known for use with, for example, drink bottles. Situated on the cover beneath the thread section of such a screw cap is a circumferential ring, which is joined by a perforation or another circumferential rupture joint to the cover. The ring grips with form locking in an undercut on the bottle neck. When the cover is unscrewed, the ring remains following separation of the rupture joint on the bottle neck.
Seal foil caps are known for use in, e.g., cognac bottles and water bottles. Placed over the screw-on or plug-type cover is a cap of tin or aluminum foil which is formed thereon, Another type of seal cap is a plastic sleeve which is shrunk into place. Typically, seal caps include initial tear spots or tear strips to facilate removal of the caps.
The strip seal is still another tamper evident seal known for use with, e.g., glass honey jars or tea bags. A strip-shaped piece of paper, which can be part of the label, is glued on so as to join the cover to the container and, upon removal of the cover, is torn.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the invention is to create a tamper evident seal of the type indicated at the outset, which secures the container's tamper evident seal in a reliable and clearly recognizable manner until it is opened for the first time, and which frees a precisely defined opening cross-section without producing splinters from closure parts that have been broken or pulled off.
In the case of a tamper evident seal of the type mentioned at the outset, the present invention achieves this objective in that provision is made for the bottom side of the closure part to have an annular section, whose lower rim area is sealingly retained so as to pinch it in an annular gap formed in the opening area of the container.
When working with the closure part of the present invention, the annular section of the closure part is able to be pulled out of the annular gap to open the seal. After it has been pulled out, however, the annular section of the closure part is not able to be pushed into the annular gap again, so that once the seal has been opened, a renewed sealing with the closure part is impossible.
The closure part is expediently comprised of a plastic injection-molded part, so that the annular section of the closure part has a certain elastic deformability. As a general principal, once it is pulled off, the annular section is not able to be pressed into the annular gap again, because the wall of the annular section spreads or bulges, and because there is hardly a chance that the bottom rim of the annular section will exactly meet the annular gap, if the attempt is made to restore the seal.
To rule out with certainty any chance of the annular section being able to be pressed into the annular gap again, one preferred specific embodiment of the invention provides for the annular section to widen or narrow conically toward its bottom rim and to be retained in an annular gap of the opening area having a form substantially complementary to the rim portion. Once it is opened the first time, the seal is not able to be restored, because the annular section of the closure part meets with the edge area either of the part delimiting the outer edge or the inner edge of the annular gap, so that any pressing of the annular section into the annular gap is ruled out.
In the case of the tamper evident seal of the present invention, the closure part is retained with a press fit at or in the area of the connector-type orifice of the container, with a certain elastic deformation of its peripheral section or of one edge or of both edges of the annular gap, so that the entire opening cross-section of the container is exposed when the closure part is pulled off. Since the closure part is retained with a press fit with its peripheral section between the edges of the annular gap, no fragments or splinters, which could contaminate the contents of the container, are produced when the closure part is pulled off. Since before it is opened, the closure part is retained in a position where its peripheral rim is retained with a press fit, after it is pulled out, it is no longer able to be pushed back into the squeezed position, so that the person opening the closure is no longer able to produce the press fit.
With its annular peripheral section, the closure part can grip from behind one section of the inner side of the opening area of the orifice or an annular spacer piece connected thereto, the diameter of the peripheral section of the closure part being greater than the inner diameter of the section that is gripped from behind. Thus, in this specific embodiment, a peripheral section of the closure part is retained squeezingly on the inside of the orifice, the means exerting the gripping pressure on the peripheral section being of any desired type.
Preferably, the closure part according to the present invention has a cap or hat-shaped form.
Provision can be made for the cap-shaped closure part to have a conically widened circumferential wall, by way of which it adjoins a complementary inner conical section of the opening area. Here as well, any suitable means can be used for retaining the rim of the circumferential wall of the closure part with a press fit on the inner conical section of the opening area.
Provision is made in accordance with a further embodiment of the invention for an annular insertion part together with one section of the opening area to define the rim or the inner circumferential wall of the annular gap squeezing the closure part.
The rim or the inner circumferential wall of the closure part can also be fixed in an annular gap, which is formed between the outer circumferential wall of one section of the opening area and a retaining ring surrounding the same.
One preferred specific embodiment provides for the circumferential rim of the cap-shaped closure part to be wedged between an inner, conical opening rim of a sleeve-shaped retaining ring joined to a connecting tubular piece and a spacer ring, overlapped by the recessed edge of said spacer ring and having a radial closure wall of elastomeric material. After the closure part is pulled off, the closure wall can be pierced by a stick pin, which is retained on the spacer ring.
The spacer ring can have an outer section, which is recessed by a circumferential annular collar and which, together with the inner conical opening rim, forms a gripping annular gap. In this context, the recessed section can also have a conical shape.
The spacer ring is expediently gripped between the indented rim of the retaining ring and the front end or a front-end step of the tubular piece.
In one embodiment of the invention, provision is made for a screw cap to be placed on the spacer ring or the orifice, said screw cap having a middle cut-out that is delimited by an annular step, the conical or cap-shaped closure part being braced against said middle cut-out with a more or less complementary annular step. When the screw cap is unscrewed or removed, the closure part is also pulled off along with it, freeing the opening cross-section.
The annular section is expediently integrally formed with the screw cap, so that said screw cap constitutes the closure part.
The screw cap can overlap the retaining ring with a cylindrical peripheral section and be braced via an inner, annular step having sections rising axially in a wedge or curve shape against more or less complementary sections of an outer annular step of the retaining ring or of the orifice. Thus, turning the closure part by a small angle pulls it out of its press fit and removes it together with the screw cap. The closure could also be opened simply by tilting the screw cap.
Provision is made in another embodiment of the present invention for the closure part to also be comprised of a flat or convex disk, as shown respectively in FIGS. 3 and 4, whose rim is retained with a press fit in an inner groove of the opening area section. The disk can be provided with a nipple or extension 150 to facilitate its removal upon the first opening.
Another embodiment of the invention provides for the cap-shaped closure part to be provided with a circumferential annular enlarged rim to retain it with a press fit in an annular groove of the opening area section.
The tamper evident seal of the present invention is able to be manufactured from simple injection-molded plastic parts. The seal can be automatically and simply assembled, which will be described again on the basis of an exemplary embodiment. One cannot outsmart the seal by returning it to its original sealed state, once it has been opened the first time. The tamper evident seal of the present invention remains impervious before, during and after a steam or hot water sterilization, which is especially significant when sterile substances are stored in the container sealed by said seal. If, for example, the tamper evident seal of the present invention is used, for example, to seal off containers containing infusion solutions, it envelopes the spacer ring having a radial closure wall (septum) in a sterile and impervious manner until it is opened.
It is easy for the user to understand how to open the seal of the present invention, so that there is no need to study directions.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows an exploded view of the individual parts of the tamper evident seal according to the present invention in a perspective view.
FIG. 2 shows a longitudinal section through the tamper evident seal according to the present invention.
FIG. 3 shows a second embodiment of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The exemplary embodiment of the tamper evident seal of the invention is comprised of a connecting tubular piece 1, on which is retained a spacer ring 2 of elastomeric material having a radial closure wall by means of a sleeve-shaped retaining ring 4 of plastic Sleeve-shaped retaining ring 4 is provided with a recessed rim, which surrounds a section recessed from retaining ring 4 by an annular collar and which, with said section, defines an annular gap, in which the bottom rim of cap-shaped closure part 3 of plastic is retained with a press fit. Placed upon the retaining ring is a screw cap 5, which has a middle cut-out that is delimited by an annular step. Cap-shaped closure part 3 is braced against said annular step with a more or less complementary annular step, as will be described in greater detail in the following.
Connecting tubular piece 1 comprised of an injection-molded plastic part has a slightly conically tapered shaft part 6, which is adjoined by a lower section 7 having a more conical angle. The slightly conical shaft part 6 is upwardly delimited by a collar 8. Above said collar 8, connecting tubular piece 1 has an upper section 9, which is slightly conical toward the outside. At its upper end, through-hole 10 of the connecting tubular piece has a widened area formed by an annular step, an inner part 11 of the annular step being divided off from the circumferential wall by an axial annular groove 12. Outer section 9 of connecting tubular piece 1 is overlapped by an annular section 13 of sleeve-type retaining ring 4 that is widened over an inner annular step. Sleeve-type retaining ring 4 is likewise comprised of an injection-molded plastic part and is welded to connecting tubular piece 1.
Spacer ring 2 with its septum is comprised of an elastomer and is gripped between annular step 11 of connecting piece 1 and indented rim 14 of the sleeve-type retaining ring, which overlaps an upper annular step 15 of spacer ring 2. The elastic gripping is illustrated by showing spacer ring 2 in cross-section with the parts of connecting tubular piece 1 and of sleeve-type retaining ring 4 gripping said spacer ring 2.
Closure part 3 is comprised of a plastic injection-molded part and, on its bottom side, has a conically shaped annular section 16. The bottom, conical edge area of section 16 of cap-shaped closure part 3 is gripped with a press fit between the inner conical inside wall of indented rim 14 of retaining ring 4 and recessed section 17 of the spacer ring having a conical circumferential rim, the press-fit gripping being depicted by the overlapping section. Screw cap 5 is likewise comprised of an injection-molded plastic part and, on the inner side of its inner circumferential wall, has an inner annular step 18 with sections rising axially in a wedge or curve shape. Screw cap 5 is braced by way of its annular step 18 against more or less complementary sections of an outer annular step 19 of retaining ring 4.
Screw cap 5 having outer axial ribs is provided with an inner, tubular-section-shaped indentation 20, which is provided at its opening rim with a radial annular step 21. Cap-shaped closure part 3 is braced with a complementary annular step 22 against said annular step 21, the bracing between the two annular steps 21, 22 being shown in overlapping section.
Connecting tubular piece 1 of the tamper evident seal forms the connection to the closure part of a container, for example to a plastic pouch for infusion solutions having a tubular connection heat-sealed thereto. After the pouch is filled through this tubular connection, the already completely assembled tamper evident seal is inserted with its tubular connecting piece 1 into the tubular connection, so that following sterilization, a permanent and impervious connection is formed. Of course, tubular connecting piece 1 can also be welded together with the tubular connection of the plastic pouch. Other connection techniques are possible.
The septum formed by spacer ring 2 having a radial closure wall is comprised of an elastomer and turns the depicted tamper evident seal into what is known as a septum connector. During use, the septum is pierced with a cannula and, in this context, reseals the connection between the connector and the cannula. After the cannula is pulled out, the septum closes the connector again.
Spacer ring 2 containing the septum is, as already described, gripped with elastic deformation between tubular connecting piece 1 and sleeve-type retaining ring 4. The sealing action produced by the elastic deformation is retained due to the heat resistance of the elastomer, even in the case of a steam or hot water sterilization. In the manner described, together with indented rim 14 of retaining ring 4, spacer ring 2 forms a squeezing sealing gap for the bottom rim of cap-shaped closure part 3. This brings about the advantage in laboratory and medical technology applications that the part of the septum that is exposed after the seal is opened, remains clean and sterile during storage of the container without requiring any additional protective packaging or even when defective protective packaging is used.
To assemble the tamper evident seal, cap-shaped closure part 3 is first inserted into retaining ring 4 in the manner that the bottom, conical rim area of annular section 16 adjoins the inner conical rim of the indented end part of retaining ring 4. Spacer ring 2 is then inserted, so that the bottom, conical edge area of annular section 16 is gripped in the annular gap formed by the edges of retaining ring 4 and of spacer ring 2. Retaining ring 4 is then joined to tubular connecting piece 1. Screw cap 5 is subsequently pressed on and annular collars 21, 22 grip one another from behind with their saw-tooth profiles making a snap-fit connection.
Retaining ring 4 can be joined to the tubular connecting piece by means of heat sealing, or also through bonding, shrink-fitting, snap-fitting, or screw fitting. If a snap-in screw connection having an integrated rotary lock is provided, the special benefit is attained of being able to use the tamper evident seal as a sample-collection container, as the closure can also be effected by hand.
The tamper evident seal of the present invention is a seal which cannot be outsmarted and which can be recognized with certainty in its original sealed state.
Special advantages that the tamper evident seal of the present invention has over tamper evident seals having break-off or tear-off parts is that there is no need to dimensionally design rupture joints that in some instances can only be broken through with difficulty, and that there is no need to observe narrow material or manufacturing tolerances necessitated by correctly functioning rupture joints. Finally, in the case of the tamper evident seal of the present invention, there are also no splintered-off small parts, which could contaminate the contents of the containers.
It is easy to discern how to open the tamper evident seal of the present invention, which is not always the case, for example, when working with seals having sealed-on membranes, tear tabs, tear strips, or initial tear spots, because the points of application are difficult to find, difficult to grip, or difficult to actuate. It also happens often enough that tear tabs break off, so that considerable efforts have to be expended to open the seal.
The tamper evident seal of the present invention is able to be opened without the use of additional tools, which would usually have to be supplied with seals having separating membranes.
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The invention relates to a tamper evident seal for container orifices of the connector type, comprising a closure part. In accordance with the invention, on its bottom side, the closure part has an annular section, whose lower rim area is sealably retained in an annular gap formed in the opening area of the orifice.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a self drilling blind rivet and a method for making same. More particularly, the present invention relates to a self drilling blind rivet including a mandrel adapted for carrying a short drill bit cold forged on a mass-production basis, and a method for making such drill bits on a mass-production basis.
The known self drilling blind rivet has a drill bit at the top end of a mandrel trapped inside of a hollow body. For example, Japanese Patent Publication No. 41--16724, No. 49--22967 and U.S. Pat. No. 4,293,258 disclose typical self drilling blind rivets of this type.
A disadvantage of these known rivets is the difficulty of mass-production and the increased production cost. More specifically, it is costly to make a one piece rivet in which a mandrel is trapped inside of the hollow body and provided with a drill having a larger diameter than that of the body. There is another method which makes short drill bits separately from the bodies and join them. However it is difficult to make short drill bits to exact dimensions. Although there is a large demand for blind rivets in the industry, the difficulty of mass production is a bottleneck in the supply.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to provide a self drilling blind rivet adapted for mass-production.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a method for mass-producing drill bits incorported in a self-drilling blind rivet.
According to the present invention there is provided a self-drilling blind rivet which comprises a main body having a bore, a mandrel trapped in the bore of the main body, the mandrel including an abutment end toward the main body, and a drill bit welded to the abutment end of the mandrel, the drill bit including a cold forged drill section.
The drill bit is made of a blank having a post-like body having a diameter equal to that of the hollow main body, the post-like body having a knurled shank portion adjacent to the drill section, the end face of the knurled shank portion being perpendicular to the axis of the rivet.
According to another aspect of the present invention, there is provided a methold of making a self-drilling blind rivet, the method comprising the steps of preparing a post-like blank of low carbon steel having a flange, shaping a drill section in a lower section of the blank by cold forging, knurling a portion of the blank adjacent to the drill section, and crushing the flange of the blank and flattening the crushed flange so that the end face of the shank is perpendicular to the axis of the rivet.
Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description, when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings which show, for the purpose of illustration only, one embodiment in accordance with the present invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a front view showing a mandrel incorporated in a self-drilling blind rivet according to the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a plan view showing the mandrel of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 (a), 3(b) and 3(c) are side views exemplifying the steps of shaping a drill bit joined to the mandrel;
FIG. 4 is a front view showing a mold in which the drill section is shaped by cold forging;
FIG. 5 is a plan view showing a pair of molds;
FIG. 6 is a perspective view showing a rolling die;
FIG. 7 is a front view showing a mandrel and a drill bit joined thereto; and
FIG. 8 is a front view showing a finished blind rivet.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, a mandrel 5 incorporated in a blind rivet of the present invention includes a flange 6 of the same outside diameter of as that of a rivet body 1 having a bore 2 for accommodating the mandrel 5 and a head flange 3 made in one piece with the rivet body 1 (FIG. 8). The mandrel 5 has bulged welds 7 radially deposited on its top end face as best shown in FIG. 2 and a neck portion 8 having a restricted diameter adjacent to the flange 6. The neck portion 8 is to facilitate the tearing of this part. The flange 6 and the bulged welds 7 are formed by a known heading method.
Referring to FIGS. 3 (a) to 3 (c) the process of shaping a drill bit generally designated by the reference numeral 10. FIG. 3(a) shows a blank generally designated by the reference numeral 11 which includes a post-like body 12 having a diameter equal to the outside diameter d of the rivet body 1, and the flange 13 made in one piece with the post-like body 12. The flanges 13 are used in transporting and locating the blanks 11 when the drill sections 14 of blind rivets 1 are automatically cold forged and rolled. At the final stage the flanges 13 are crushed. The blanks 11 are made of low carbon steel. FIG. 3 (b) shows the step of shaping the drill section 14. A lower part of the post-like body 12 is cold forged between a pair of molds 21A and 21B. The molds 21A and 21B are provided with an uneven surface adapted to shape the drill section 14. While the blank 11 is pressed between the molds 21A and 21B the metal is squeezed and bulges in a scrap 20 along the periphery of the drill section 14.
Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5, the molds 21A and 21B are symmetrically shaped. Each mold 21A, 21B has a first reference face 22 and a second reference face 23 with the interpostion of a step. A recess 24, designed to shape a land 15 of the drill section 14, is formed by reference to the face 22. A convex portion 25, designed to shape an elongated groove for allowing cutting ships to discharge, is formed by reference to the face 23. As shown in FIG. 3(b), the drill section 14 has two cutting edges 17a and 18a at one side and two cutting edges 17b and 18b at the other side. The cutting edges 17a and 18a are shaped by a first molding edge 26a and a second molding edge 27a, respectively. Both molding edges 26a and 27a are formed in the face 22. The other cutting edges 17b and 18b are shaped by the molding edges 26b and 27b, respectively. Both molding edges 26b and 27b are formed in the face 23. The molding edges 26a and 26b are linked by a ridge 28 which shapes a chisel edge 19.
FIG. 3(c) shows a final drill bit 10 which has finished the molding and rolling process.
As shown in FIG. 6, a generally rolling die designated by the reference numeral 31 is provided with a die body 31A having a first ridge 32 for removing the scrap 20 in the drill section 14 and a second ridge 33 for crushing flashes, a vertically serrated knurling die 31B, a lapping die 31C for crushing the flange 13 and a flattening die 31D. The first ridge 32 has a step 32a at its terminating end, and the second ridge 33 has a slant portion 33a and a flat portion 33b. The lapping die 31C has a horizontal portion 34 for bearing the flange 13 and a slant portion 35 for pushing the flange 13 from below, and a steep side 36 for crushing the flange 13.
A pair of rolling dies 31 are opposed to each other with the blank 11 having a finished drill section 14 being interposed therebetween, wherein the flange 13 of the blank 11 is supported by the horizontal portion 34 of the die. In this state the rolling die 31 is rolled with respect to each other. The scrap 20 of the blank 11 comes into abutment with the step 32a, and is removed. Flashes (not shown) remaining after the removal of the scrap 20 are crushed by the slant portion 33a and the flat portion 33b of the ridge 33.
A shank 12a of the blank 11 is knurled by the knurling die 31B to have vertical or longitudinally extending serrations 41 so as to enable the blank 11 to withstand strong forces imparted to the blank 11 to deform the flange 13 in the axial direction and minimize slippage of the short post-like body relative to the rolling dies 31 during processing. The flange 13 of the blank is raised by the slant portion 35 of the lapping die 31C, and crushed by the steep side 36 until it is shaped into a tapered end 42 having a diameter virtually equal to the outside diameter of the head 6 of the mandrel 5. The tapered end 42 is finished by the flattening plate 31D. In this way a flat ring-shaped abutment end 43 is shaped which is at right angle to the axis of the drill section generally designated by the reference numeral 14 (accordingly, the axis of the rivet). Finally the drill bit 10 is carburized to attain sufficient strength.
As shown in FIG. 7, the self-drilling blind rivet generally designated by the reference numeral 50 is formed by joining the mandrel 5 to the finished drill bit 10, and the mandrel 5 is inserted into the bore 2 of the rivet body 1 (FIG. 8), with the flat ring-shaped abutment end 43 being brought into engagement with the flat end face of the flange 6 of the rivet body 1.
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A self-drilling blind rivet includes a main body having a bore, a mandrel trapped in the bore of the main body, the mandrel including an abutment end toward the main body, and a drill bit welded to the abutment end of the mandrel, the drill bit including a cold forged drill section.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is in the field of car-wash accessories and pertains more particularly to hand-held devices used for removing standing water on automobiles.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
One of the largest and most lucrative product markets in the United States involves cosmetic accessories for automobiles and light trucks. There are literally thousands of products available that are dedicated to enhancing the cosmetic appearance of a consumer's pride and joy, namely, his automobile. From products that add luster to an expensive paint job, to products that add sparkle to chrome, all one has to do is visit a local parts store to see discover a broad range of such innovative products.
One category of products possibly containing the least variety from which to choose is car-wash products. Car-wash accessories known in the art include special towels for removing water and drying automobile finishes after a car-wash, or chamois cloths for absorption of excess water and the like. Other products in this category include automated hot-air blowers for quick drying the automobile finish, or various hand-held cloth or synthetic pads for rubbing excess water off of an automobiles finish.
Bottled solutions or treatments are sometimes employed as aids to reducing spotting or staining of an automobiles finish often resulting from standing water. The type of water used in washing a car plays a part in possible spotting or staining that may be present on an automobiles finish after a wash. For example, if the water is very hard (has a lot of dissolved minerals) minerals, resultant spotting can be extreme; whereas, if the water is softer, spotting may be lessened. These bottled solutions or pastes are designed to reduce spotting via their interaction with the water itself.
At the time of this writing the most successful (least damaging) method known in the art for removing standing water from an automobile finish is likely the time-tested chamois cloth. The chamois is a highly flexible section of treated animal skin that has a large absorption capability. The chamois is typically used just after the automobile has been rinsed. It is laid out on a surface and pulled in the direction of the user.
Although the chamois cloth is widely accepted as a viable method for removing standing water, there are some inherent problems and limitations associated with it's use. Because of the chamois cloth's persistent adhesion to a wet surface, moving the chamois from side to side, or at directions away from the user, is difficult. The chamois cloth has a tendency to fold or roll under itself if it is not being pulled directly toward the user. This drawback limits accessibility to areas that may need to be wiped. Another problem is that, while a chamois is very successful in absorbing standing water, the chamois must be wrung out when it is loaded with water, a such cloths are difficult to wring.
Because of these difficulties several chamois cloths must often be used to completely remove standing water from an automobile finish. Although the chamois is very soft and generally harmless to a paint job or finish, it is possible that unseen dirt or particles left over from the car-wash process get lodged in the chamois and can cause scratches when the chamois is pulled across the surface of an automobile. This can be particularly disturbing for those who own expensive show cars that support special auto paints that may be susceptible to scratching.
Other types of cloths are available and well known in the art, such as re-washable towels that are sold in most auto-care shops. The absorption qualities, as well as the scratch resistant properties of these products typically vary. These towel-type products are generally intended for users who expect marginal results and are not overly concerned with the cosmetic appearance of their automobiles. Similarly, hand-held pads of the type made out of synthetic fiber vary in their absorption quality, as well as scratch resistant properties. While hand-held pads provide a convenient place for a user's hand (usually straps on the top surface), they do little else to improve the technology of water removal.
It is well known in the art that some products with rubber-like blades, such as squeegees and windshield wipers, work fairly well removing water from a flat or slightly curved surface. These devices, however, are not well adapted to removal of standing water from automobile bodies, because they cannot conform to the sometimes radical and compound curvature of an automobile body.
Air blowers are sometimes employed to evaporate standing water droplets on an automobile's surface. This method is most used in automated car washes; and it is well known in the art that an automobile owner concerned with the cosmetic appeal of his or her vehicle would not, under normal circumstances, patronize a commercial auto-wash. Moreover, air blowers of the type that are hand-held are typically difficult to because they are cumbersome, awkward, and rather heavy to hold for the time it takes to dry a car body. Furthermore, power cords can get in the way while working on an automobile surface, and cause scratches and other damage as well. In addition, electricity and or battery costs may be a deterrent to those having to wash multiple automobiles such as would be the case with a car dealership, etc.
What is clearly needed is a method and apparatus for removing standing water from an automobile surface that is adapted to conform around the sometimes compound and radical curvature of automobile bodies, and is at the same time gentle to surface finishes, easy to use, inexpensive, and durable. It is to these objects and others that the present invention is dedicated.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention a water-wiping apparatus for wiping standing water from a curved surface is provided, comprising a flexible panel having a thickness, a length, and a height, with an upper long edge and a lower long edge substantially parallel; a substantially rigid handle attached along at least a portion of the upper edge; and a lip formed along the lower edge, extending to one side of the flexible panel and ending in a sharp line at the end away from the flexible panel. In this embodiment the height is at least ten percent of the length.
In some embodiments the lip has a triangular cross-section in a plane cutting the panel orthogonal to the length and parallel to the height. Also in a preferred embodiment the lip joins the flexible panel at an angle of about thirty degrees. Lips may also be provided extending from both sides of the flexible panel. In some embodiments the flexible panel has a greater thickness at the upper edge than at the lower edge, and vertical grooves may be provided to save volume and weight of material in the panel. Various materials are suitable for molding the flexible panel, including flexible silicone materials.
Blade inserts are provided to be replaceable units having an interface for being attached to a handle, and in some embodiments an interface on the handle allows for connection of handle extensions for reaching otherwise hard-to-reach places.
In its several embodiments the flexible wiper according to embodiments of the invention, having a significant height relative to length, provides an apparatus that allows a user to wipe standing water from curved surfaces. The height component allows the flexible panel to conform the curved surfaces, and to readjust as curvature changes.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING FIGURES
FIG. 1 is a perspective exploded view of a hand-held water blade in an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a broken view of a water blade insert in an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a cross section view of the water blade insert of FIG. 2 taken along section line 3--3 of FIG. 2 in an embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4A is a perspective view of the water blade of FIG. 1 applied to a curved surface, with the blade just touching the surface.
FIG. 4B is a view of the blade and surface of FIG. 4A from a different vantage.
FIG. 4C is a perspective view of the blade of FIGS. 4a and 4B with the blade urged into the surface.
FIG. 4D is a view of the blade and surface of FIG. 4C from a different vantage.
FIG. 5A is a perspective view of an alternative embodiment according to the invention, including a molded passage and insert for a rigid handle.
FIG. 5B is a perspective view of a two-part molded blade and handle according to an alternative embodiment of the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
FIG. 1 is a perspective exploded view of a hand-held water blade 11 in an embodiment of the present invention, illustrating three main elements of the assembly of water blade 11. A two-part handle consists of a first section 15 adapted to fasten to a second section 17 with a blade insert 13 captured between the handle sections. With the handle sections joined and the blade captured, a functioning water blade 11 is formed. In a preferred embodiment of the present invention, handle sections 15 and 17 are molded from polypropylene in an injection molding process. Injection molding is well known in the art of fabricating various plastics and is considered by the inventor, in this instance, to be a preferred process for manufacturing water blade 11. In other embodiments, other fabrication methods may be employed such as gluing various parts together, or perhaps plastic welding techniques may be employed. It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that various materials may be used to fabricate handle sections 15 and 17 such as Delrin, nylon, and others. Metals, wood, and the like may be used in other embodiments.
A T-shaped top portion 18 is provided in blade insert 13 wherein opposite sides of the "T" fit snugly into opposite blade slots provided in handle sections 17 and 15. A blade retaining slot 12 is shown in handle section 15, and a similar slot is provided in section 17, though not shown in FIG. 1.
Handle sections 15 and 17 are designed to fit together to form a handle grip that retains the wiper blade, is comfortable to hold, and is of light weight. In a preferred embodiment, special texture areas are provided around the outer edges of each handle section, although this is not required. Recesses may be molded into handle sections 15 and 17 for the purpose of supporting decals, logos, and the like.
In the embodiment shown a method is provided for attachment of handle sections 15 and 17 whereby handle section 15 has assembly brackets such as bracket 14 that are designed to accept rivets such as rivet 19 that are to be inserted through access points shown in handle section 17, such as the access point shown roughly in line with rivet 19 and bracket 14 illustrated by the directional arrows. Bracket 14 may be formed in the molding process or may be mounted to handle section 15 after molding. Bracket 14 may be fabricated from aluminum, sheet metal, or any other suitable material known in the art and of suitable strength to provide a secure attachment.
In the embodiment shown by FIG. 1 the method of attachment is riveting. However, other methods of attachment may be used as well, such as screws, snap inserts and the like. In another embodiment there may be no brackets or recesses but rather grooves provided and adapted for the installation of outer snap rings. It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that many methods, well known in the art, may be employed for attaching handle sections together without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention as described above. In still other embodiments a one-piece handle may be provided with a T-slot adapted to engage T-section 18 of blade 13, wherein the blade may be threaded into the slot of the one-piece handle. An advantage in this embodiment is that there is no need for separate sections or fasteners. In still other embodiments handles may be formed in other ways, ad some of these other ways are described in more detail below.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention length dimension D1 is about 12 inches, width dimension D2 is approximately 7/8 of an inch, and height dimension D3 is approximately 11/4 of an inch. It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that dimensions with respect to length, width, and height of the grip handle formed by handle sections 15 and 17 may vary. For example, handles of different sizes may be provided along with blades of different sizes for use under certain circumstances. Large sizes for large trucks and trailers, for example, and smaller models for such as compact cars
FIG. 2 is a broken elevation view of blade insert 13 of FIG. 1 in an embodiment of the present invention showing approximate dimensions and various molded features, some of which are important to unique functionality of wiper blades in embodiments of the present invention. FIG. 3 is a section view of blade insert 13 taken along section lines 3--3 of FIG. 2 wherein further dimensioning is illustrated.
A lip region 21 is provided along the longitudinal bottom edge of blade insert 13 with lip elements extending laterally from the bottom edge. This lip region may be formed in several different ways in different embodiments of the invention. In a preferred embodiment the lip region is formed at an angle from the blade element as described below in more detail.
In a preferred embodiment of the present invention blade insert 13 is molded from a silicon rubber material via injection molding process for similar reasons stated as stated above with respect to the molding of handle sections 17 and 15. It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that blade insert 13 may be molded from other materials known in the art and of suitable flexibility. In this instant embodiment, the inventor prefers silicon rubber with a flexibility rating of approximately 30 to 60 durometer, depending on thickness of the blade. The flexibility of blade insert 13 can be more or less than 30 to 60 durometer, depending on a number of factors that also affect functionality, such as blade thickness, taper, grooving, blade height, and the like.
A unique and critical function provided by unique characteristics of blade insert 13 is it's capability of conforming around sometimes compound and/or radical curves in the body of an automobile, such as in a fender section. It is an object of the present invention is to provide for eliminating standing water in these areas in a safe and efficient manner. This unique capability is made possible in part by the approximate dimensional proportions of blade insert 13 with respect to length and height.
Referring to FIG. 2 and FIG. 3, blade 13 has a height D4 that is a significant fraction of length D1. The ability of blade 13 to form around curved surfaces in wiping water from such surfaces is largely due to the height of the blade relative to the length, and this feature is enlarged upon below. In one preferred embodiment of the present invention, D12, which is the effertive height of the blade extending from a handle, is about 21/2 inches. This dimension is the free flexible height from bottom of blade insert 13 to the bottom of the grip handle formed by handle sections 15 and 17 of FIG. 1. In this embodiment D1 is about 12 inches. The ratio of free height to length in this case is about 0.21, or about 20 twenty percent. The inventor has discovered empirically that this ratio need to be about ten percent or more for the water blade to be really useful for automobiles with considerable curved surfaces.
It will be understood that D1 is used in this embodiment both as the length of the handle sections and the wiper blade, as the lengths are substantially the same. In some other embodiments handle elements and wiper blades will be of different dimensions. It is been found by experiment that in this embodiment, the dimensions 2.5 inches for height D12 and 12 inches for D1, with a thickness of material of approximately 3/16 of an inch produces a useful and preferable result. In other embodiments wherein the overall dimensions of water blade 11 are larger or smaller, a material with a more suitable hardness and perhaps thickness may be employed to aid in achieving desirable flexing properties of water blade 11.
Providing a significant height for blade insert 13 increases the area of contact around a curved automobiles surface such as a fender, and the like. The ratio of height to length of blade insert 13 is important to the function of water blades in various embodiments of the present invention, and will be described in more detail in below.
Another important characteristic in blade insert 13 is a capability to direct standing water from a surface and to move it in an efficient manner whereby virtually no water residue remains behind on the automobile surface. This directing effect is accomplished by lip 21 which is formed along the longitudinal bottom edge of blade insert 13 and extends in the embodiment shown in the form of a tapered angle on either side. Angled lip 21 produces a rolling action to the water and forces it to ride up on the angled surface of the lip effectively separating the water from the surface of the automobile. It is known to the inventor that some windshield wiper blades incorporate a similar design, and it is well known in the art that this design is effective in removing standing water.
The angled lip characteristic is unique in conjunction with the height of the blade, in providing a lipped blade with an ability to conform to compound and radical curves in the surface of an automobile.
In the embodiment shown in the figures a series of molded indentions is provided along the length of blade insert 13. The object of these indentions is to minimize the amount of material required to mold blade insert 13. It is known in the art that silicon rubber is relatively expensive when compared to other materials, therefore, considerable savings can be realized by employing such material reducing techniques. In the embodiment shown these indentions are equally spaced approximately 1/2 inch (D13) from center line to center, for 24 indentions. The uniform height of these indentions is approximately 17/8 inches (D11), and the dimension from the bottom of the indentions to the bottom of blade insert 13 is approximately 1/2 of an inch (D10).
Even though indentions as described immediately above may be used for saving weight and material volume, in most preferred embodiments the sides of blade 13 are smooth, rather than grooved, and the inventor has found that the smooth embodiment actually provides enhanced water-wiping function compared to blades with the grooved surface.
A groove 25 is shown running the entire length of blade insert 13. Groove 25, described briefly with reference to FIG. 1, is formed around the perimeter of blade insert 13, providing the shape of T-section 18. These grooves provide a secure locking arrangement when handle sections 15 and 17 of FIG. 1 are closed, thereby stopping blade insert 13 from moving up or down with respect to the grip handle.
The overall thickness of blade insert 13 is approximately 1/2 of an inch (D5). A minor thickness of blade insert 13 shown from the inside diameter; of T-slot 25 and extending down to the upper shoulder of angled lip 21 is approximately 3/16 of an inch (D6). Overall height of blade insert 13 is approximately 2 and 7/8 inches (D4). The width of grooves 25 of and the height of angled lip 21 are approximately 1/8 of an inch (D7 and D8 respectively). The approximate angle of angled lip 21 in the preferred embodiment shown is 30 degrees (A1). In some embodiments the angle at which lip 21 joins the body of the blade is different, and in some embodiments the lip may be on one side only. The inventor has found that a sharp edge 24 at the end of lip 21 provides a superior wiping action.
Various dimensions as described herein are approximate only and are meant to illustrate preferred size relationships of features of blade insert 13 in a preferred embodiment of the present invention. It will be apparent to one with skill in the art that many changes can be made with respect to dimensioning water blade 11 without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. For example, a larger water blade may be used on a larger vehicle such as a semi-trailer rig and so on. In one embodiment a water blade with an added height to its blade insert may be used, for example, if a particular type of vehicle contains more curved features that are pronounced.
FIGS. 4A-4C illustrate the unique action of water blade 13 in conforming to a curved surface 29. FIG. 4A illustrates a section view of a curved surface, which could be the curvature of a fender, and a water blade 11 including a rigid handle positioned so that lip 21 is just in contact with the curved surface, but flexible blade element 13 is not deformed. FIG. 4B is a view in the direction of arrow 27 of FIG. 4A, showing water blade 11 in contact with curved surface with blade element 13 not deformed. In this example, the contact of the blade element with the surface is just a narrow line. This is the situation that will always exist with a blade having little or no height D12 (FIG. 2).
FIG. 4C is the same section view of a curved surface 29 as shown in FIG. 4a, with water blade 11 in contact with surface 29, and FIG. 4D is a view in the direction of arrow 31. In this example, blade 11 has been rotated somewhat around the longitudinal axis of the handle, and the blade has been urged toward curved surface 29 in the direction of arrow 33. This movement is applied by a user holding the blade in his or her hand.
The result of moving the water blade into surface 29 is deformation of blade element 11, bringing the sharp edge of lip region 21 into contact with the surface, and causing flexible blade element 13 to wrap around the curvature of the surface to a significant degree. In this example, width of the contact area (FIG. 4C) is from point 35 to point 37. The significantly wide contact line around the curvature of the surface is a result of the height D12 (FIG. 2) of flexible blade element 13.
The arc length that may be accomplished by blade element 13 around a curved surface in practicing the present invention is a function of both the height of the blade element and the curvature of the surface. As surface curvature may be varied and compound, rather than simple, the calculations can be complex. A simplified example is given here assuming that the curvature is circular of radius R.
Given radius R for the curvature of the surface, and a height H for dimension D12 of blade element 13, and assuming that the water blade is urged into the curved surface until the handle is proximate the surface (which is a max situation, not actually encountered in practice), the angle α can be determined by the formula:
sin α=(R-H)/R
The potential length of the contact line to the curved surface from point 35 to point 37 in this situation can then be calculated as that portion of the circumference of a circle of radius R subtended by twice the angle α taken around the center of the curvature.
It is apparent in the above analysis that for the potential length of the contact line to be realized, the overall length of the flexible blade element must be at least equal to the potential length. If the length of the blade element is more than the potential contact length, then part of the blade element will not make contact, as is shown in FIG. 4C. As is described above, in the preferred embodiment shown, the height of the blade element is about 3 inches, and the length is about 12 inches. This relationship has been found by the inventor to be useful for most automobile bodies.
It will be apparent to those with skill in the art that there are many alterations that might be made in the embodiments shown and described without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention. In the area of handle provision for water blades in particular, many variations have been developed. FIG. 5A is a perspective view of one such alternative embodiment. In FIG. 5A a water blade 39 according to an embodiment of the present invention is molded from material such as silicone material of a single durometer, and a handle portion 41 is molded integrally from the same material. In the molding process a lengthwise passage 43 opening to either or both ends is molded into the water blade. After molding a rigid stiffener 45 of about the length of the water blade is inserted into the lengthwise passage, and provides rigidity and the function of the rigid handle added according to FIG. 1.
FIG. 5B shows yet another handle alternative for a water blade 47. In the embodiment of FIG. 5B material of two different durometers are molded in one mold. A blade region 49 is molded of a material soft enough for the needed flexibility, and a more rigid material is molded as a handle region 51. Procedures for such molding are well-known I the art.
In another example of alternative embodiments, larger or smaller water blades may be desirable for certain situations. For example, larger blades may be provided for use with large vehicles, such as tractor/trailer rigs and the like, or for vans and other trucks. In some embodiments, especially for use with large vehicles or other entities with large body areas, interfaces may be provided for handle extensions and the like, to allow a user to present the blade to otherwise hard-to-reach areas. Such interfaces might include such as ball and socket joints for flexibility in positioning a water blade in relationship to a handle.
As another example, many different materials that could be used in the fabrication of a water blade in different embodiments. In other embodiments blade inserts may be of differing heights and lengths and may be sold separately to be inserted into one handle grip and so forth. The breadth of the present invention is limited only by the claims that follow.
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A water-wiping blade for wiping water from curved surfaces is based on a flexible panel having a height at least ten percent of the length. The flexible panel comprises an upper and a lower long edge, with a handle attached to the upper long edge, and a lip formed along the lower long edge, the lip ending in a sharp line at the end away from the flexible panel. In a preferred embodiment a handle is attached along the upper long edge. By rotating the flexible panel around the handle length and urging the panel into a curved surface, the panel can be caused to wrap around a substantial length along the curved surface with the sharp line of the lip in contact with the curved surface. Translating the panel then is effective in wiping standing water from the curved surface. In some embodiments handle extensions may be used to allow positioning the flexible panel in hard-to-reach places. Also in some embodiments a lip is provided to both sides of the flexible panel so either side may be used for wiping water.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/515,350 filed Oct. 29, 2003, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to ultrasound data processing, and more particularly, to finding the attributes of fluid flow in a living body, such as ascertaining the speed, direction, and volume of a fluid flow in a vessel using ultrasound.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Several techniques exist for locating an object using wave-propagation. In the fields of sonar, radar, ultrasound, and telecommunications, transmitting/receiving elements are placed in an array. Some or all of the elements of the array emit pulses of electromagnetic radiation or sound toward a target, and reflections of the wave pattern from the target are received at some or all of the elements. To receive the maximum amplitude (strongest signal) possible, the received signals from all the elements are focused into a beam.
To determine blood flow velocity from a beam, techniques from Doppler radar may be adapted for use in ultrasound imaging. With reference to FIG. 1 , acoustical energy from an ultrasound probe 2 is aimed at a region 4 of a blood vessel 6 through which blood 8 is flowing with a certain velocity. Wavefronts 10 of acoustical energy impinge on the region 4 with a frequency f 0 . The wavefronts 12 returning from region 4 of the blood vessel 6 are shifted in frequency to a value of f 0 +f c , the change in frequency f c being proportional to double the velocity of the flow of blood 8 . The frequency f 0 of the carrier wavefronts 10 is on the order of megahertz, while the frequency of the Doppler shift f c is on the order of kilohertz. The greater the velocity of the blood 8 the greater the frequency shift f c . The frequency shift f c and the blood flow velocity are related to the speed of sound in soft tissue, c, which is nearly a constant of about 1540 meters/second. Known ultrasound equipment may be used to measure the radial component of blood flow, i.e., the component parallel to the direction of sonic propagation, rather than the true velocity v.
Known ultrasound imaging equipment displays the radial component of blood flow (or the power associated therewith) by translation into a color scale. Given this colorized display, the direction of flow is estimated by a skilled sonographer and input into a 2-D display in order to enable the approximate calculation of actual velocity (as opposed to its radial component) at one point in the vessel.
A drawback of this manual approach is that even for a skilled sonographer, the resultant true velocity is only approximate. Another drawback is that the sonographer needs to use both hands and eyes to obtain a single measurement. The sonographer manipulates an ultrasound probe with one hand and manipulates a joy stick or track ball with the other hand, all while observing the ultrasound image on a screen. The sonographer uses the joy stick or track ball to “draw” a line segment parallel to the blood flow on the screen and then have the ultrasound equipment compute an approximate “true” velocity from the measured radial velocity. The computation is made by utilizing the relationship between the true velocity at a point in a blood vessel to the radial component of velocity by s=v cos θ where s is the magnitude of the true velocity and θ is the angle (2-dimensional for 2-D ultrasound imaging or 3-dimensional for 3-D or 4-D ultrasound imaging) between the radial velocity measured by the probe and the actual direction of flow, which is approximated by the line drawn on the screen by the sonographer.
It is difficult to get a good approximation of the angle θ using this two hand manual approach. Traditionally, peak systolic blood velocity at one point has been obtained with this method. However, it is difficult, if not impossible, to obtain other desirable parameters such as volume flow (the amount of blood flowing through a given cross-sectional area of the blood vessel) and lumen area (the total area of a cross section perpendicular to the blood vessel at a given point) with the use of this method. Nor can true velocity be obtained at more than one point, such as the full field of view of the blood vessel 6 . To calculate values accurately, it is necessary to find the true vector velocity of blood flow, including magnitude and direction, over the entire field of view.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The disadvantages and limitations of prior art ultrasound apparatus and methods are overcome by the present invention which includes, a method for determining the location of an effective center of a fluid flow in a vessel using an ultrasound apparatus with a transducer array for propagating and receiving ultrasound energy. Ultrasound energy is propagated along an axis of propagation Z, which can be described by a spacial coordinate system (x, y, z) in which the dimension z is in the same direction as the axis of propagation Z. The ultrasound energy projects upon the vessel defining a set of coordinates in the spacial coordinate system where the ultrasound energy impinges upon fluid in the vessel at a given value of the dimension y. A Doppler-shifted signal reflected from the fluid in the vessel at a plurality of the set of coordinates is received and a set of quantities expressed as a density a is derived from the Doppler shifted signal for each of the set of coordinates, the density being a function of the Doppler shift in frequency associated with each of the coordinates, the density being indicative of the movement of the fluid. One of a mean, mode or median is calculated of each of the dimensions of the set of coordinates in conjunction with the density associated therewith.
The steps above are repeated after changing the set of coordinates to a second set of coordinates to determine another center in the fluid flow at a different point along the length of the vessel and then determining a vector v which connects the two centers and indicates the approximate direction of flow and the approximate centerline. In a similar manner, a plurality of center points and vectors can be determined using the method just described to ascertain a centerline of the vessel over an entire field of view.
Further features and advantages of the invention are described in the following detailed description of an exemplary embodiment of the invention, by way of example with reference to the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
For a more complete understanding of the present invention, reference is made to the following detailed description of an exemplary embodiment considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a diagrammatic view of an ultrasound probe transmitting ultrasound waves to and receiving reflected waves from a blood vessel as is known in the prior art;
FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view of a centerline of a vessel determined in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a diagrammatic view of the vessel of FIG. 2 , showing a first surface defined by the intersection of the wavefronts of an ultrasound probe with the vessel and a second surface defined by the cross-sectional area of the vessel perpendicular to the centerline of the vessel at a line intersecting the first surface;
FIG. 4 is a perspective view of the planes associated with the first and second surfaces depicted in FIG. 3 , along with vectors parallel to the centerline and parallel to the direction of propagation of the ultrasound wave and the angles between the respective vectors and planes;
FIG. 5 is a schematic view of two rectangular coordinate systems imposed on a vessel and its associated centerline in three-on-two dimensions looking into the lumen of the vessel;
FIG. 6 is a schematic view of the projections of the vessel and centerline onto the coordinate planes of FIG. 5 ;
FIG. 7 is a frequency spectrum of the Doppler output power of the received signal vs. frequency both before and after a Wall filter;
FIG. 8 is a frequency spectrum of the Doppler output power of the received signal vs. frequency after a Wall filter along with a graph depicting FFT sampling in the frequency range of the Doppler output power;
FIG. 9 is a frequency spectrum of the Doppler output power of the received signal vs. frequency after a Wall filter which intersects the FFT samples of FIG. 8 ;
FIG. 10 is a diagrammatic view of the vessel of FIG. 2 with a superimposed diagrammatic representation of volume flow within the vessel in the vicinity of the centerline;
FIG. 11 is a diagrammatic view of a blood vessel with a stenosis;
FIG. 12 is a diagrammatic view of the vessel of FIG. 2 with a superimposed diagrammatic representation of a measure of “translucency” within the vessel;
FIG. 13 is a diagrammatic view of an image of a vessel composed of multiple subsections;
FIG. 14 is a diagrammatic view showing how a centerline can be used to bisect or divide a vessel in two; and
FIG. 15 depicts a block diagram of a system that implements the method in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
With reference to FIGS. 2 and 3 , a centerline 14 is drawn through a vessel 16 (e.g. a blood vessel) within the body of a living being (e.g. a human) within the field of view 18 of an ultrasound probe (not shown). The centerline 14 is defined as a plurality of statistical “centers” of the vessel 16 throughout the field of view 18 . The centerline 14 is derived from measured ultrasound parameters such as 4-D Power Doppler or 4-D color flow data. It can be, for instance, the mean (average), median (central value), or mode (location of maximum) of samples of ultrasound measurements taken over successive cross-sections of areas 20 along the vessel 16 . The mean of a dimension x representing the x dimension in the coordinate system of the frame of reference of the ultrasound probe using a(x) as a density of some desirable ultrasound parameter is ∫xa(x)dx, provided that a(x) is normalized so that it integrates to unity. The median is the value x 0 such that
∫ - ∞ x 0 a ( x ) ⅆ x = ∫ x 0 ∞ a ( x ) ⅆ x ,
and the mode is the value x p for which
max
x
{
a
(
x
)
}
=
a
(
x
p
)
.
Now referring to FIGS. 3 and 4 , the cross-section of area 20 forms a circle 22 in a plane 24 for 3-D or 4-D imaging if the vessel 16 can be modeled in a small region as a right-circular cylinder 26 and is perpendicular to the direction of fluid flow 28 through the vessel 16 . In contrast, a Doppler ultrasound probe 30 propagates ultrasound waves in a direction 32 through the vessel 16 . That ultrasound energy can be thought of as projecting onto an area 34 of the vessel 16 which forms an ellipse 36 in a plane 38 which contains the direction 32 of wave propagation. The direction of the centerline 14 is the same as the direction of fluid flow 28 , which is taken to be the average direction of all flow of fluid (e.g. blood) in any cross-section plane 24 through the centerline 14 . If fluid flow is measured as an average velocity of fluid flowing past the area 20 by the ultrasound equipment, and if that velocity were not along the centerline 14 , fluid would have to leak out of the vessel 16 . In any plane 22 , 38 drawn through the vessel 16 , the components of velocity perpendicular to the centerline 14 are assumed to average to zero. If not, there would be a net flow of fluid through the vessel walls. Since the average velocity direction is along the centerline 14 and only the component of velocity in the direction of wave propagation 32 of the ultrasound probe emitted energy can be measured, then it can be assumed, in the case of blood as the fluid, that all blood cells are moving parallel to the centerline 14 . It does not matter if this is not correct for every blood cell; it will be correct on average. The net flow or flux (integrated over the cross-sectional area 20 , 34 ) will be in the direction of the centerline 14 .
The direction of wave propagation 32 of the ultrasound probe emitted energy forms an angle θ with the direction of fluid flow 28 . Similarly, the plane 38 forms an angle φ with plane 24 . Since Doppler cannot measure true velocity s, but only its radial component, s cos θ, it is necessary to find the direction of fluid flow 34 and thus the direction of the centerline 14 relative to the direction 32 of wave propagation in order to correct for the angle θ. Likewise to find the proper orientation of cross-section of area 20 from the orientation of area 34 in order to find, say, the lumen area, then it is necessary to correct for the angle φ.
With reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 , to correct for θ and φ, it is necessary to impose a coordinate system of the reference frame of the ultrasound probe 30 onto the vessel 16 . The vessel 16 , in three dimensions is referenced, for example, by a rectangular coordinate system with dimensions x*, y*, z*, where x* and z* are the dimensions of the cross-section plane 24 perpendicular to the centerline 14 , and y* is measured parallel to the centerline 14 . The dimensions x, y, and z are the axes with reference to the ultrasound probe 30 where z is in the direction of ultrasound propagation from the probe 30 , the x-y plane at z=0 is the plane of the transducers (not shown) of the probe 30 , and the x-z plane at a fixed value of y cuts through the vessel 16 under examination, i.e., the plane 38 through the vessel 16 (to create the ellipse 36 if the vessel 16 is a circular cylinder).
If the plane 38 is divided into a large number of rectangular regions 40 , then each region 40 represents a three dimensional pixel known as a voxel. If the centerline 14 is defined with reference to a mean position of x and z dimensions at a fixed y on the plane 38 , then a point on the centerline 14 is given by the mean of the center, i.e. a point with dimensions x(y), y, z(y) such that
x _ ( y ) = ∑ n x n a n ∑ n a n = ∑ x , z xa ( x , y , z ) ∑ x , z a ( x , y , z ) ( 1 ) z _ ( y ) = ∑ n z n a n ∑ n a n = ∑ x , z za ( x , y , z ) ∑ x , z a ( x , y , z ) ( 2 )
at a given time t where n is the n th voxel within the ellipse 36 .
The centerline 14 is calculated from the density variable a(x, y, z) which is based on 2-D, 3-D, or 4-D Power Doppler or Color Doppler image data (after a Wall filter). The Power Doppler or Color Doppler densities a(x, y, z) are derived with the use of the method disclosed in International Patent Publication No. WO 00/72756 (i.e., international Patent Application No. PCT/US00/14691) and U.S. Pat. No. 6,524,253 B1, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entirety. With reference to page 34, lines 18–21, of International Patent Publication No. WO 00/72756, a generalized Doppler spectrum can be denoted by a 5-dimensional data set A 1 (r, a, e, f, t) which is the real-time signal return amplitude of what is being measured (to obtain blood flow velocity), where r=depth (or range), a=azimuth, e=elevation, f=Doppler frequency, and t=time. Such a data set can be readily converted to rectangular coordinates, where it becomes A 2 (x, y, z, f, t) or A 3 (x, y, z, v, t) where v is the radial velocity, the component of velocity of fluid flow in the direction 32 , and v is related to Doppler frequency by the relation
v = c 2 f 0 f ,
where c and f 0 are the sonic propagation speed and frequency, respectively. A still more interesting 5-D data set would be A 4 (x, y, z, s, t) where s is the fluid speed (e.g. blood speed), i.e., the signed magnitude of the true total vector velocity of fluid flow where v=s cos θ and θ is the angle described above for FIGS. 3 and 4 .
A 4-D Doppler ultrasound machine as described in International Patent Publication No. WO 00/72756 and U.S. Pat. No. 6,524,253 B1 will produce three different 4-D data sets corresponding to the three common vascular imaging modes:
B
(
x
,
y
,
z
,
t
)
=
A
2
(
x
,
y
,
z
,
0
,
t
)
“
4
-
D
B
-
mode
data
”
(
3
)
p
(
x
,
y
,
z
,
t
)
=
∫
f
>
f0
A
2
(
x
,
y
,
z
,
f
,
t
)
2
ⅆ
f
“
4
-
D
Power
Doppler
”
(
4
)
v
(
x
,
y
,
z
,
t
)
“
4
-
D
Color
Doppler
”
or
“
4
-
D
Color
Flow
.
”
(
5
)
With reference to FIGS. 7 , as is customary in Modern Doppler ultrasound, p plotted vs. frequency in FIG. 7 , which has a peak surrounding the carrier frequency f 0 and another peak around f 0 +f c where f c is the shift in frequency due to the Doppler effect. When passed through a Wall (high pass) filter (the dotted line in FIG. 7 ), the resulting plot of p vs. frequency is shown in FIG. 8 , which is the density to be obtained (usually after first maximizing p (or v) with respect to t—a process called “peak hold”). The centerline 14 is the mean, mode, or median of x (or y) and z as a function of y (or x) using p as a density. For the case of a point on the centerline 14 given by the mean of the center, i.e. a point with dimensions x(y), y, z(y) based on density p, values of the dimensions x and z are thus:
x
_
(
y
)
=
∑
n
x
n
p
n
∑
n
p
n
=
∑
x
,
z
xp
(
x
,
y
,
z
)
∑
x
,
z
p
(
x
,
y
,
z
)
(
6
)
z
_
(
y
)
=
∑
n
z
n
p
n
∑
n
p
n
=
∑
x
,
z
zp
(
x
,
y
,
z
)
∑
x
,
z
p
(
x
,
y
,
z
)
(
7
)
The quantity v is the mean radial velocity of fluid flow corresponding to the measured amplitude A 3 as already discussed above, which is obtained using the autocorrelation function described in “Real-Time Two-Dimensional Blood Flow Imaging Using an Autocorrelation Technique,” C. Kasai, K. Nemakawa, A. Koyano, and R. Omoto, IEEE Transactions on Sonics and Ultrasonics , vol. SU-32, no. 3, pp. 458–463, May 1985, which is incorporated herein by reference in its entirety. The centerline 14 for v is the mean, mode, or median of x(or y) and z as a function of y (or x) using v as a density. For the case of a point on the centerline 14 given by the mean of the center, i.e. a point with dimensions x(y), y, z(y) based on density v, values of the dimensions x and z are thus:
x
_
(
y
)
=
∑
n
x
n
v
n
∑
n
v
n
=
∑
x
,
z
xv
(
x
,
y
,
z
)
∑
x
,
z
v
(
x
,
y
,
z
)
(
8
)
z
_
(
y
)
=
∑
n
z
n
v
n
∑
n
v
n
=
∑
x
,
z
zv
(
x
,
y
,
z
)
∑
x
,
z
v
(
x
,
y
,
z
)
(
9
)
Since v is merely the radial component of velocity, it is desirable to calculate
s(x,y,z,t) “4-D True Velocity Flow” (10)
s is the magnitude of the vector v, the vector of true velocity in the direction of fluid flow 28 at the centerline 14 . Let n represent a voxel number (the n th voxel in or on the ellipse 36 ). The measured mean Doppler frequency, f n , at each voxel is proportional to v=v z , the z component of the mean velocity, v n , in that resolution cell. The flow center can be defined as the locus of centers of the elipses as y varies (i.e., along the centerline 14 ).
To derive v and s from v n which is itself derived from f n using the autocorrelation method mentioned above, let us obtain the complex output of the Wall filter in each bin n, or u nj . If N s ultrasound pulses are used (N s ≦32) with an N f tap Wall filter (N f ≦11), there will be J=N s −N f +1 values of j. Ignoring the voxel identifier, n (to simplify notation), let the autocorrelation vector u 1 =(u 1 , u 2 . . . u J-1 ) t and let u 2 =(u 2 , u 3 . . . u J ) t where u 1 is autocorrelated with u 2 , u 2 is autocorrelated with U 3 , etc. Let F=u 1 *u 2 (the complex inner product, where*is the conjugate transpose), then
f n =( PRF/ 2π)angle( F ) (11)
and
angle( F )= a tan 2 [Im ( F )/ Re ( F )] (12)
where PRF is the ultrasound pulse repetition frequency. Put another way, the quantity F is the autocorrelation function of the complex wall filter output at a lag of one. The 3-D orientation of the centerline 14 and hence the direction of the vector velocity v can be computed, for example, by using two consecutive values of y, forming the vector
v =( v x , v y , v z )∝( {overscore (x)} ( y 2 )− {overscore (x)} ( y 1 ), y 2 −y 1 , {overscore (z)} ( y 2 )− {overscore (z)} ( y 1 ) (13)
which can be transformed into a unit vector by dividing by the square root of the sum of the squares of the three coordinate differences. The magnitude of the velocity is then obtained by dividing the measured radial velocity by the cosine of the 3-Doppler angle θ to determine the speed s n at each voxel. Thus if f n (x,y,z) is the Doppler frequency calculated above and s n =s(x,y,z) is the blood speed, then
s n ( x , y , z ) = c 2 f 0 ( x - a ) 2 + ( y - b ) 2 + z 2 ( x - a ) v x + ( y - b ) v y + z v z f n ( x , y , z ) ( 14 )
where (a, b, 0) is the center of the sub-array of the ultrasound probe currently active to observe the point (x, y, z). The constant c is the speed of sound in soft tissue, about 1540 meters/second or mm/millisecond, and f 0 is the center frequency or carrier frequency of the ultrasound energy being used. A more convenient way to express this formula is to choose two points on the vessel centerline 14 , near where f n was measured, and let the coordinates of one with respect to the other be (x c , y c , z c ). The true speed s n of a voxel is then given by
s
n
=
c
2
f
0
f
n
cos
θ
=
cf
n
2
f
0
x
c
2
+
y
c
2
+
z
c
2
z
c
(
15
)
To obtain a centerline 14 from threshold flow data, the equations listed above for obtaining the mean, median, or mode, and particularly the x and z dimensions of the mean centers of the centerline 14 would apply to values of v or p above a certain threshold value.
With reference to FIG. 10 , another parameter of interest is to obtain the volume of fluid 42 passing through the plane 24 per unit of time. This quantity is defined as the volume flow. Obtaining this quantity is facilitated by calculating the centerline 14 of the fluid flow. The volume flow can be obtained by at least two methods: an N-point Fast Fourier Transform (FFT) or via “4-D True Velocity Flow” color-Doppler image data.
To obtain the volume flow using an N-point FFT, reference is made now to FIGS. 8–10 . The FFT samples 42 for each bin of frequencies i from an N-point FFT, where |i|<N/2 leads to a discrete power spectrum p i , the area under the output spectrum 44 after the Wall filter, whose output appears as pseudo-bar graph elements 46 . For a given voxel element n, the power spectrum in the voxel n in the frequency bin i is given by p n,i , and the power spectrum per bin, p i is obtained by summing the per-voxel power spectrum over all voxels at a given y. The power in each frequency bin is
p
i
=
∑
n
p
n
,
i
;
(
16
)
the Doppler frequency per frequency bin is
f i =PRF×i/N; (17)
and the velocity in a frequency bin is
v
i
=
c
2
f
0
f
i
=
PRF
N
c
2
f
0
i
;
(
18
)
The power-velocity integral is computed as
F
1
=
∑
-
N
2
-
1
+
N
2
-
1
i
×
p
i
(
19
)
and i≠0. The volume flow is then
Q
.
=
kF
1
/
p
0
where
k
=
PRF
N
c
2
f
0
Δ
x
Δ
z
,
(
20
)
where p 0 is the total power out of the Wall filter in a single central voxel about the centerline 14 , and Δx, Δz are the lengths of the dimensions of each voxel (n) in the summation. The result is independent of cos θ, provided that θ is not close to 90°.
Alternatively, volume flow can be estimated directly from “4-D True Velocity Flow” color-Doppler image data. Referring again to FIG. 3 , the direct approach is to choose the plane 24 (the plane that cuts though the vessel 16 orthogonal to the centerline 14 ), sum the s n 's for every non-zero pixel in the plane 24 , and multiply by the pixel area. An approximate way to estimate the volume flow from raw color Doppler data is to sum the autocorrelation Doppler values over all the pixels in the vessel 16 at a fixed y, and use the slope of the centerline 14 in the y-z plane as a correction factor. The result is
Q
.
=
(
c
2
f
0
Δ
x
Δ
z
)
y
c
z
c
∑
n
f
n
.
(
21
)
The simple y c /z c slope simultaneously corrects for both the Doppler angle θ and the orientation angle of the x-z image plane φ without having to compute the square root of the sum of the squares that is needed to determine s n .
To determine the lumen area from either power Doppler, color Doppler, or true velocity flow (p n , f n , or s n ), select the plane 24 (the plane that cuts though the vessel 16 orthogonal to the centerline 14 ), count the number of pixels in the vessel 16 , and multiply by the pixel area. Pixels on vessel boundaries can be given a reduced weight for a more precise measurement.
Additional parameters can be obtained or imaged once the centerline and true vector velocity is known. Referring now to FIGS. 11–14 , the location of a stenosis 48 can be found as the point of highest peak true (systolic) velocity along the centerline 14 of a vessel 16 . One can model the true velocity as a function of distance from the centerline to the walls 50 of the vessel 16 . Since velocity is likely to be higher in the area 52 near the centerline 14 than the area 54 closer to the walls 50 of the vessel 16 , a three dimensional image displaying the degree of translucency of a vessel 16 can be generated by imaging software within ultrasound equipment. That same imaging software can map the entire vessel along the entire field of view and keep track of that vessel despite the movement of a patient by beam tracking software that focuses on the location of the centerline 14 . The coordinates of the endpoints 56 of several centerlines 14 can be aligned so as to “stitch” together several fields of view 58 and thus display the entire length of the vessel 16 , no matter how tortuous its path. Once the centerline 14 is calculated in the field of view 60 throughout the vessel 16 , a bisection 62 of the vessel 16 can be obtained from a plane 62 that slices though the centerline 14 .
With reference to FIG. 15 , a block diagram of a system 64 that implements the method of obtaining a centerline in accordance with an exemplary embodiment of the present invention is depicted. The system 64 includes the ultrasound probe 66 , coaxial cables 68 , a connector panel 70 , an analog processor 72 , a digital interface processor 74 , a digital processor 76 , an image processor 78 , controls 80 , a display 82 , and data storage (memory) 84 , interconnected as shown through a system bus 86 . The ultrasound probe 66 contains a number of piezoelectric acoustic transducers (not shown) arranged as an array of elements. For 3-D or 4-D imaging, a two dimensional arrangement of elements is necessary. For 2-D imaging, a one dimensional array of 1×N elements is needed. The transducer elements can both send and receive, but the elements that transmit ultrasound pulses do not necessarily have to be the same elements of the array that receive reflections from a vessel 16 . The cables 68 transmit and receive electrical impulses and are generally coaxial cables.
The analog processor 72 contains circuitry for amplification, gain management, and analog-to-digital (A/D) conversion of the ultrasound pulses to be transmitted and the received reflections from the transducer elements. Between the transmitting and receiving circuitry (not shown) is an electrical protection circuit, since the signals emanating from the transducer elements require voltages in the neighborhood of 100 V, while the received reflected signals are on the order of microvolts. Since the dynamic range of the received signal is very high, there is a need for a circuit for performing time gain control. Since reflected signals are received from different locations in the body, these signals may be out of phase with each other, so that gain for each transducer received signal is adjusted dynamically in time to line up received signals. An anti-aliasing filter is located between the receiving amplifier and the A/D converter. The A/D converter can be of a type that outputs the signal in a parallel array of bits or can output the digital data serially.
A digital interface processor (DIP) 74 receives the digital version of the received signal from the analog processor 72 . The DIP 74 organizes the sampled data to put it in a proper format so that the digital processor 76 can form a beam. If the data from the A/D converter of the analog processor 72 is processed serially, then the DIP 74 can also packetize and time compress the data.
The digital processor (DP) 76 takes packetized (in the case of serial processing) or time division multiplexed (in the case of parallel processing) data and forms a beam representing the array of transduced elements in the ultrasound probe. 66 . For each transduced element, a time delay is added to cause all elements of the combined wavefront to be in phase. After beam forming, the combined beam contains the wavefronts represented by the frequency shifted Doppler signal. At this point, the Doppler information is separated from the non-Doppler information using a Wall filter as previously discussed with reference to FIGS. 7–9 . The imaginary part, I, and the real part, Q, from the autocorrelation functions of the data as previously discussed are extracted. The Doppler information is separated from the non-Doppler information by taking the arctangent of I/Q from which the angle is proportional to the radial component of the true velocity of the blood flow. The image processor 78 takes this output, organizes the data into volumes and generates the centerline 14 , and from the centerline 14 the true vector velocity, blood volume flow, lumen area, and other parameters of interest. The image processor 78 then puts these parameters in a format for displaying on the display 82 . The controls hardware/software 80 provides the man-machine interface to a user, so that a user can use an input device such as a joy stick to highlight portions of the centerline and display measurements. The data storage 84 , which can include RAM, ROM, floppy disks, hard disks, and/or optical media, provides the memory necessary for the DIP 74 , the digital processor 76 , and the image processor 78 to carry out their specific functions.
It will be understood that the embodiments described herein are merely exemplary and that a person skilled in the art may make many variations and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. All such variations and modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the invention.
|
A method and associated apparatus are disclosed for determining the location of an effective center of fluid flow in a vessel using an ultrasound apparatus. Ultrasound energy is propagated along an axis of propagation and projects upon the vessel. A Doppler-shifted signal reflected from the fluid in the vessel is received and a set of quantities expressed as a density is derived from the Doppler shifted signal for each of a set of coordinates, the density being a function of the Doppler shift in frequency associated with each of the coordinates. One of a mean, mode or median is calculated for each of the dimensions of the set of coordinates in conjunction with the density associated therewith. This calculation is repeated throughout the field of view of the vessel to define a centerline.
| 0
|
CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a continuation-in-part of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/120,761, filed Apr. 11, 2002 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,733,059, entitled “Outside Conversion Corner for Form Work”, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/721,077, filed Nov. 22, 2000 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,419,204, which claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/166,959 filed Nov. 23, 1999.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates in general to the field of building construction. More particularly, the present invention relates to building construction form work structures. Specifically, a preferred embodiment of the present invention relates to outside conversion corner piece for joining form work panels.
2. Description of the Related Art
Historically, builders have used form work panels to form walls and columns. For example when forming a wall, concrete is poured between two opposing panels of form work and over vertically projecting re-bar. After the concrete cures, the panels are removed to leave a free-standing wall. Similarly, when forming a column concrete is poured over inside pairs of opposing panels of form work and vertically projecting re-bar. When the concrete cures, the panels are removed to leave a free-standing column.
Some form work panels are imported from abroad. These panels are often made according to the exporting country's measurement system. For example, it is nearly impossible to use panels imported from Europe on construction projects in the U.S. or other home country. This is because imported panels are typically created to conform with metric units. Metric units do not translate well in the world of U.S. building construction because contractors are typically not as familiar with such measurements and equipment. Moreover, building codes and blueprint specifications are not easily tailored to metric units to meet the builders' needs.
As is known to those skilled in the art, wood slats or other “fillers” must often be used to extend the dimensions of the panels so that they can be used in U.S. construction projects. Others offset or cut the panels to meet their needs for forming walls. After crude modifications such as these are made, these panels can often meet most desired U.S. customary unit-based system measurement specifications.
However, the metric-sized panels are especially problematic when used to form columns on U.S. construction projects. One unsatisfactory previously recognized approach to solving the problem referred to herein involves the use of wood slats or fillers mentioned above. Fillers are generally impractical as they take time to construct and put into place. With the high cost of construction crew labor, this previously recognized solution also has the disadvantage of relatively high cost. Consequently, a preferred solution will be seen by the end-user as being cost effective. A solution is cost effective when it is seen by the end-user as compelling when compared with other potential uses that the end-user could make of limited resources.
Also, the fillers may shift during the concrete pouring or drying process. This may cause safety and/or structural problems. Because of this fact, a number of jurisdictions restrict the use of the aforementioned previously recognized approach because of the aforementioned disadvantages. However, since up until now there has been no suitable alternative, many jurisdictions are generally not enforcing such a prohibition.
What is needed therefore is a device which converts odd-sized imported form work building panels for use in the home country. Further, what is also needed is an inventive outside conversion corner configured and dimensioned such that the panels can be easily joined to fit most U.S. customary unit applications.
The below-referenced U.S. patents, and allowed U.S. applications in which the issue fees have been paid, disclose embodiments that were at least in-part satisfactory for the purposes for which they were intended. The disclosures of all the below-referenced prior United States patents, and applications, in their entireties are hereby expressly incorporated by reference into the present application for purposes including, but not limited to, indicating the background of the present invention and illustrating the state of the art.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,700,106 relates to an easily assembled concrete form including a plurality of elongated wall members manufactured by roll forming and connected together to define an enclosure. Each wall member has a first end and a second end, an inner surface and an outer surface. Attached to the inner surface of the wall member at the first end is a U-shaped key having legs extending beyond the first end of the wall member. Attached to the inner surface of the wall member at the second end is an interlocking bracket having two vertically spaced slots for receiving the legs of the U-shaped key to connect adjacent wall members together. One of the slots is enlarged for also receiving an extending flange from a support bracket to frictionally maintain the U-shaped key and interlocking bracket in a locked relationship.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,397,095 relates to a modular building system for constructing the frame of a structure. Standardized foundation forms, vertical forms, and tie beam forms are attached to each other. The vertical forms are hinged so as to be capable of defining a corner of any angle. Cover plates are selectively inserted into the tie beam forms so as to define a reception recess which corresponds to the size of a roof truss being used. The various forms can be attached to each other with a minimal amount of labor.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,044,601 relates to an outside bay adaptor for a concrete forming structure. The adaptor has a pair of elongated flat plates, each of substantial length. The plates are disposed in an angular V-shaped relation to one another. The plates have a pair of confronting slots. The slots on the plates are transversely aligned with one another. Slotted wedge bolts are extended through the line slots and extend outwardly and in diverging relation to one another and adjacent opposite ends of the plates. A weldment is located at each end of the plates. The weldment connects the slotted wedge bolts that extend through the slots to the plates in a unitary assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,958,800 discloses a locking hinge mechanism for concrete forms. The mechanism includes parallel hinge strips connected together by hinges positioned at intervals along the length of the strips. Each hinge includes a provision for a wedge lock. The wedge lock when fully inserted position the hinge strips at a secure 90 degree angle. The hinge strips are spaced apart from the juncture of the strips, when arranged at the 90 degree angle, so that concrete flashings do not clog the hinge. The hinge strips are in turn affixed to side rails of the joining concrete forms to form a 90 degree angle, such as for a column form arrangement.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,917,216 discloses a quick-release fastening device for releasably securing together the outer edges of two pivotally connected right angle sections of a concrete column form. The concrete form is comprised of a series of upstanding rectangular panels, some of which are in a contiguous relationship. Along their adjacent side edges are outwardly extending flange-like members which extend at right angles to each other and have transverse slots therein. The quick-release fastening device consists of a T-bolt embodying a plate-like body portion at one end and a reduced longitudinally slotted shank at the other end. The body portion is disposed in the space between the two flange-like members and abuts against one of the flange-like members. The shank portion extends through and beyond a transverse slot in one flange-like member. An additional T-bolt may also be employed.
U.S. Pat. No. 901,209 discloses an improved clip that is composed of sheet metal and made in one piece. It comprises a body portion 1 having two sets or pairs of spaced engaging portions or flanges, 2 and 3 , arranged respectively in planes at right angels to each other. A supplemental flange 6 having an opening 7 is formed on the body 1 at a point centrally between the flanges 3 , a flange 4 . Formed in the body 1 at points near its ends are openings or perforations 8 for reception of screws or other fastening members by means of which the clip may be attached to one of the mold sections or boards.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,109,810 discloses cross bars that are attached to the sides of the molding boards. The opposite members of each pair are drawn together to clamp the molding boards between them, by longitudinal strips, preferably, though not necessarily, in the form of angle irons 4 which extend lengthwise the column and overlie the ends of the cross bars. Bolts 5 are then employed to clamp the irons together at any appropriate points, preferably, however, near the top and bottom of the mold and at one or more intermediate points according to the dimensions of the mold. The angle irons may be drilled at frequent intervals as represented so that the bolts may be inserted at any point required.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,170,753 discloses a form for concrete columns. The form consists of a series of angle plates having a series of apertures formed in their edges and adapted to be adjustably secured together by bolts located in apertures of adjacent plates. A series of longitudinally extending notched braces are located at intermediate points of the sides of the mold, and a series of transversely extending clamps are located in the notches of the longitudinally extending braces. These embrace the joined plates and have a series of apertures formed therein.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,171,760 discloses the vertical end edges of the panels 2 and 5 along with angles 23 and 24 . These angles are similar to the angles 18 and 19 illustrated in FIG. 1 . Bolted to the flanges of these angles are the angles 25 and 26 , the free wings of which, as indicated in FIG. 3 , are provided with a plurality of horizontal slots 27 . Angle 25 has slots 27 at left-hand end of panel 2 in FIG. 1 . The corner panel 7 is provided with a plurality of rows of holes 28 (FIG. 1 ). This panel is secured to the angles 25 and 26 by means of stove bolts 29 that extend through the holes in the corner panel and through the slots 27 in the wings of the angles 25 and 26 . This arrangement gives any and all desired adjustments since the slots 27 in the arms or flanges of the angles 25 and 26 lying next the plates 7 give adjustments lying between the holes in the rows 28 .
U.S. Pat. No. 1,374,864 discloses a form which is designed for use in molding a concrete column of rectangular shape. In cross section, each of the sections will comprise four parts 1 , 2 , 3 and 4 of such proportions that, when they are arranged in the manner shown in FIG. 2 , they will overlap each other more or less according to the diameter of the column, each of said parts being substantially L-shaped in outline. The parts of the base section A are substantially channel-shaped in vertical cross-section, as shown in FIG. 4 , and each of the parts comprises a vertical web 5 provided at its upper and lower edges with an outwardly-projecting portion or vertical flange 7 a . The parts are adapted to be arranged in telescopic engagement with each other by slipping one end of each part longitudinally into the end of an adjacent part, thus forming a rectangular shaped frame composed of four parts that are interlocked securely with each other.
U.S. Pat. No. 1,468,702 discloses a structure preferably comprised of two elongated rectangular shaped walls A and B. These walls are permanently and integrally joined to each other along their meeting longitudinal edges so as to be disposed in planes at right angels to each other in transverse section. Adjacent the longitudinal edges, opposite the joined edges, walls A and B are, respectively, provided with parallel pairs of ears 5 and 6 . The movable walls C and D are hingedly connected to walls A and B by upper and lower hinge brackets 7 and 8 . The brackets extend from the respective walls, i.e., brackets 7 of wall C are positioned at their lateral ends between ears 6 and pivotally assembled therewith by pins 9 . On the other hand, the lateral ends of brackets 8 are similarly positioned between ears 5 and pivotally assembled therewith by pins 10 .
U.S. Pat. No. 1,861,766 discloses several wall sections, such as plates A, B, C, etc., that make up a form. The plates can be right-angular in cross-section and each have the walls 10 and 11 . In FIG. 12 , it is shown how these right-angular plates overlie one upon the marginal edge of the other so as to be adjustable to vary the width of the wall of the form that they will serve to make. FIG. 14 shows flanges 12 , 13 formed upon the corner parts of each right-angular plate A, B, C and D respectively, the terminals 10 A of the walls 10 of which plates project beyond the adjacent extreme end of the flange 12 , so these parts are shouldered one against the other. The flanges serve to reinforce the right-angular plates giving them more strength and durability.
FIG. 14 shows how these plates are arranged to provide a rectangular enclosure for building a concrete column or post therein. Since the sheet metal plates will be of inappreciable thickness their overlap will hardly interfere with the flush continuation of each side of the completed column.
In short, a device that converts odd-sized imported form work building panels for use in the home country in a cost-effective manner is of interest to, for example, those in the field of building construction.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In one aspect, the invention provides a conversion corner bracket for use with a building member forming apparatus. The bracket includes a body and a leg. The leg extends from the body and has a predetermined width. The conversion corner bracket is disposed within the apparatus to convert a metric unit dimensioned panel to a U.S. customary unit dimensioned panel.
In one embodiment, the conversion corner bracket is disposed within the apparatus to convert a U.S. customary unit dimensioned panel to a metric unit dimensioned panel. Also, in another embodiment, the conversion corner bracket and metric unit dimensioned panels are assembled to form a chamfered building member having U.S. customary unit dimensions.
A conversion corner bracket can also be used with a building member forming apparatus having metric unit dimensioned panels. Here, the bracket includes a body configured to chamfer a building member and a leg extending from the body. The leg has a predetermined width and is insertable between the metric unit dimensioned panels. When the leg of the conversion corner bracket is inserted between the metric unit dimension panels, the metric unit dimensioned panels are converted to U.S. customary unit dimensions such that a U.S. customary unit dimensioned building member is produced by the apparatus.
In another aspect, the invention provides a building member forming apparatus. The apparatus includes panels dimensioned in first units and a conversion corner bracket securable to the panels. The conversion corner bracket has a body and a leg extending from the body. The leg has a predetermined width. As such, a building member dimensioned in second units is formable by the apparatus when the panels dimensioned in the first units and the conversion corner bracket are assembled.
In a further aspect, the invention provides a method of converting building member panels used in construction projects. The method includes providing a corner assembly having panels that are securable to a conversion corner bracket structured to provide a chamfer to a building member. Using the conversion corner bracket, the panels are converted from a metric unit dimension to a U.S. customary unit dimension.
In one embodiment, a method of forming a chamfered building member of a first set of units includes providing a panels of a second set of units and a conversion corner bracket. The panels and the conversion corner bracket are then assembled to form an orifice of the first set of units. A construction material is thereafter introduced into the orifice to form the chamfered building member of the first set of units.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Embodiments of the invention are disclosed with reference to the accompanying drawings and are for illustrative purposes only. The invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction, or the arrangement of the components, illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of other embodiments or of being practiced or carried out in other various ways. Like reference numerals are used to indicate like components.
FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of one embodiment of the building structure forming apparatus of the current invention.
FIG. 1A shows a perspective view of another embodiment of the building structure forming apparatus of the current invention.
FIG. 1B shows a perspective view of a building structure or member that can be formed with the apparatus of FIGS. 1 and 1A .
FIG. 2 shows a top plan view of the apparatus of FIG. 1 .
FIG. 2A shows a top plan view of the apparatus of FIG. 1 A.
FIG. 3 shows one embodiment of a means of securing corners of the apparatus of FIG. 1 .
FIG. 3A shows an alternative embodiment of a means of securing corresponding to the apparatus of FIG. 1 A.
FIG. 3B shows an alternative embodiment of a means of securing capable of corresponding to the apparatus of FIG. 1 A.
FIG. 4 shows a perspective view of one embodiment of the conversion corner bracket of the present invention.
FIG. 5 shows a top plan view of the conversion corner bracket of FIG. 4 .
FIG. 5A shows an alternative top plan view of the conversion corner bracket of FIG. 5 .
FIG. 6 shows one embodiment of a forming apparatus as typically used in the art.
FIG. 6A shows another embodiment of a forming apparatus as typically used in the art.
FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of a corner forming apparatus comprising a means for securing.
FIG. 8 shows a top, plan view of the apparatus of FIG. 1A employing another embodiment of a conversion corner bracket according to the present invention.
FIG. 8A shows a top, plan view of the conversion corner bracket of FIG. 8 .
FIG. 8B shows a top, plan view of another embodiment of a conversion corner bracket, according to the present invention, that can be employed within the apparatus of FIG. 1 A.
FIG. 9 shows a perspective view of a structure produced using the building structure forming apparatus of FIG. 8 .
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Commonly-owned, co-pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/120,761, filed Apr. 11, 2002, entitled “Outside Conversion Corner for Form Work”, which is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/721,077, filed Nov. 22, 2000, which claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 60/166,959 filed Nov. 23, 1999, disclose other and various embodiments and components that are compatible with the present invention and, therefore, the contents and disclosure of these applications are incorporated into the present application by reference as if fully set forth herein.
The present invention and the various features and advantageous details thereof are explained more fully with reference to the non-limiting embodiments described in detail in the following description.
Specific embodiments of the present invention will now be further described by the following, non-limiting examples which will serve to illustrate various features of significance. The examples are intended merely to facilitate an understanding of ways in which the present invention may be practiced and to further enable those of skill in the art to practice the present invention. Accordingly, the examples should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention.
Referring to the drawings FIGS. 1-7 , it can be seen that the present invention is a building structure forming apparatus 5 . The structure forming apparatus is a form work mold which may be used to form columns and walls for construction projects. A typical building material contained by the form work is concrete, although other suitable building materials, such as polyurethane foam, can be used.
The apparatus 5 is formed generally from a plurality of panels 8 which may be constructed and arranged to form a column, a pilaster, a corner of wall, or some other building structure.
Referring to the embodiment shown in FIG. 1 , the panels 8 a , 8 b , 8 c , and 8 d may be used to construct corner pairs or sets. In the embodiment shown, these corner sets may be configured to form a generally square, box-like structure for forming columns, pilasters, or the like. Alternatively, the corner sets may be constructed and arranged to form a wall corner (see FIG. 7 ).
Referring again to FIG. 1 , the panels 8 a , 8 b , 8 c , and 8 d are preferably constructed of paneling 9 such as plywood. Attached to the paneling 9 is a support structure comprised of outer horizontal support beams 12 and vertical support beams 13 . In one preferred embodiment, inner horizontal support beams 14 are added for additional strength and support (best shown in FIG. 1 ). The vertical support beams 13 generally have a plurality of holes 15 throughout. Similarly, the horizontal support beams also have a plurality of holes 16 .
As is known in the art, panels 8 can be joined together by outer corner clamps 18 . The clamps 18 preferably can be adjusted and tightly secured by using securing mechanism 20 . As shown in FIG. 1 , a preferred mechanism 20 can be easily tightened by construction crew workers.
Referring now to FIG. 2 , once the clamps 18 are in place, a conversion corner bracket 24 connects the corner sets in the proper configuration to form a concrete column. Once the conversion corner brackets 24 are secured in place, they form a concrete receiving orifice 22 . As shown by the partial cut-away sectional view of FIG. 2 , as well as in FIG. 1 , a securing member 28 , such as a bolt, is generally inserted into a hole 15 in the vertical support beam 13 (both shown in FIG. 1 ) and secured on opposing sides by a nut 26 .
FIG. 3 (as well as FIGS. 1 and 2 described above and FIGS. 6 and 7 that follow) illustrate one acceptable nut 26 and bolt 28 arrangement. As is illustrated, bolt 28 preferably comprises a bent handle portion. In one preferred embodiment, the handle portion is bent approximately 90 degrees. The bend in the handle facilitates tightening of the nut and bolt arrangement by making it easier for one to grasp and hold. In addition the handle can act as a “stop” or “stopping” mechanism that can work to prevent the nut/bolt arrangement from loosening, and ultimately, becoming unfastened. It is understood that the number and placement of bolts (and their corresponding nuts) will vary to convenience, depending on the particular project requirements.
An alternative securing member embodiment comprising nut 26 a and bolt 28 a is illustrated in FIG. 3 A. FIGS. 1A and 2A also illustrate this alternative securing member embodiment and are primarily included for this purpose. FIG. 3B illustrates yet another securing member embodiment, comprising nut 26 b and bolt 28 b , that is similar to that of FIG. 3 but without the bent handle portion.
Referring to FIGS. 4 and 5 , the conversion corner bracket 24 has a bracket first leg 30 and a bracket second leg 32 . In the preferred embodiment, the conversion corner bracket 24 is generally W-shaped to maximize strength while reducing weight. The legs 30 , 32 are essentially joined to form a right angle. That is, a first plane of the first leg 30 and a second plane of the second leg 32 are perpendicular to each other, thus forming a 90 degree angle. An outer corner of the conversion corner bracket 24 is a V-shaped indented outer corner 34 that lies between the first leg 30 and the second leg 32 . Opposite the V-shaped indented corner 34 is a rounded inside corner 36 . Securing members or bolts secure the W-shaped conversion corner bracket 24 by penetrating bore 38 contained therein.
Alternatively, and as shown in FIG. 5A , the V-shaped indentation can be replaced with a substantially flat surface 34 a at 45 degrees to first leg 30 and second leg 32 . This would provide a poured concrete column with a 45 degree chamfered corner.
Preferably, a plurality of similar bolts 28 secure each conversion corner bracket 24 through numerous bores 38 displaced along the length of the bracket 24 , as best shown in FIG. 4 . Once a bolt 28 is inserted into a bore 38 , each bore 38 of the conversion corner 24 is then properly aligned with holes 15 in the vertical support beam 13 . Nuts 26 are then preferably engaged with each bolt 28 to secure the conversion corner bracket 24 to the panels 8 .
Referring to FIG. 6 , a typical form work column forming apparatus 5 is shown. In one preferred embodiment, the column forming apparatus 5 has a telescoping supporting tubular steel prop 40 . The prop 40 is constructed of a tubular strut 42 that may consist of two or more telescoping tubes within a tube. Strut base 44 serves to stabilize the prop 40 . A strut connector 46 connects the prop 40 to the vertical support beam 13 of a panel 8 . Once erected, building material, such as concrete, is poured in between the first corner 52 and the second corner 54 of the form work to form building structure 50 .
As shown in FIG. 6A , a horizontal stabilizer bar 48 may be connected from the strut base 44 to the base of the form work 7 at a point near the bottom of a vertical support beam 13 .
An important aspect of the inventive conversion corner bracket 24 is it can be properly dimensioned to allow for the use of standardized metric dimensioned panels to be used on U.S. customary unit based construction projects. Conversion corner bracket 24 can be constructed of extruded aluminum. The corner bracket typically will have a milled finish to ensure proper texture and dimensions.
In one preferred embodiment, the first leg 30 of conversion corner bracket 24 is about {fraction (5/16)}″ wide and about 4¾″ long. The V-shaped, indented outer corner 34 is approximately ⅜″ deep along one dimension and ⅜″ deep along the other. The second leg 32 is also about {fraction (5/16)}″ thick and about 4¾″ long. In one preferred embodiment, the extruded aluminum bracket 24 stands about 118.09″ high. The bores 38 are approximately 0.75″ in diameter. The radius of the rounded inside corner 36 is about 1¼″. In another embodiment, the outside conversion corner bracket stands approximately 106.298″ high. In another embodiment, the outside conversion corner stands approximately 5.045″ high.
Table I (set forth below) shows the standardized U.S. customary unit-based column sizes which can be constructed from various metric unit based panels by using one preferred embodiment of the present invention.
TABLE I
Column Size
Panel
Actual Dimension
18 inches
45 cm
18.09 inches
20 inches
50 cm
20.06 inches
22 inches
55 cm
22.03 inches
24 inches
60 cm
23.99 inches
26 inches
65 cm
25.96 inches
28 inches
70 cm
27.93 inches
30 inches
75 cm
29.90 inches
32 inches
80 cm
31.87 inches
34 inches
85 cm
33.84 inches
36 inches
90 cm
35.81 inches
For smaller columns the dimensions are:
12 inches
30 cm
12.186 inches
In the preferred embodiment illustrated above, the largest column that can be formed is 36 inches×32 inches. The smallest is (formed from 30 centimeters (cm) panels) is 18 inches×14 inches.
As can be expected, it is also possible to use a somewhat differently dimensioned conversion corner bracket 24 so that builders can use Imperial (also known as U.S. customary unit) unit based form work panels 8 to construct metric unit based building structures for metric unit based buildings. For example, a 60 centimeter column may be formed using a standardized 22-inch panel and 1⅝ inch conversion corner.
FIG. 7 shows an embodiment of a corner forming apparatus. The apparatus comprises means for securing such as bolt 28 and nut 26 .
Referring to FIG. 8 , building structure forming apparatus 5 is depicted employing conversion corner bracket 56 . As before, structure forming apparatus 5 comprises panels 8 a , 8 b , 8 c , and 8 d , that are dimensioned in metric units. When assembled as shown in FIG. 8 , panels 8 define orifice 22 . Orifice 22 can be filled with concrete or other construction material to form a structure or building member 50 as shown in FIG. 9 . By employing corner conversion bracket 56 , construction of the building member can be accomplished using metric dimensioned panels 8 even though the building member will possess U.S. customary units when completed. In other words, corner conversion bracket 56 functions to permit construction components configured in one set of units to nonetheless form a structure in another set of units.
As shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B , conversion corner bracket 56 comprises body 58 and leg 60 . Preferably, body 58 and leg 60 are formed or constructed of one piece of material or substance. However, if desired, body 58 and leg 60 can be distinct pieces or components that are secured together by, for example, joining techniques such as welding, and the like, or by fasteners such as one or more rivets, pins, screws, and the like.
As illustrated in FIG. 8 , body 58 can take or resemble the shape of a triangle and defines a member-facing surface 62 . In other embodiments, body 58 can also take the shape of, for example, a square, a circle, a rectangle, a trapezoid, a parallelogram, a rhombus, a regular polygon, an irregular polygon, and the like, as well as combinations of these shapes.
Referring to both FIGS. 8 , 8 A, and 8 B, member-facing surface 62 is that surface of body 58 exposed to orifice 22 and/or adjacent a building member 50 that can occupy the orifice when structure forming apparatus 5 is assembled and filled with a construction material such as concrete. Member-facing surface 62 can be flat, notched, serrated, rounded, beveled, contoured, and the like, as well as combinations thereof. As a result, body 58 and/or member-facing surface 62 can provide the building member 50 with a corner and/or surface that is chamfered, notched, serrated, rounded, beveled, contoured, and the like, or any combination thereof (e.g., chamfered and serrated). Thus, the building member can be molded, formed, or fashioned to convenience to achieve desired structural and/or aesthetic needs.
Leg 60 of corner bracket 56 depends or extends from body 58 . Leg 60 can be constructed similarly or somewhat like either of first leg 30 or second leg 32 as shown, for example, in FIGS. 4 and 5 . Also, in another embodiment as shown in FIG. 8 , leg 60 can be angled, curved, bent, and the like, as well as combinations thereof.
As illustrated in FIGS. 8 and 8B , leg 60 is disposed between adjacent panels 8 when building structure forming apparatus 5 is assembled. Since leg 60 has a predetermined, desired, and/or known width 64 , adjacent panels 8 are separated from one another by an amount generally equal to the width of the leg. As such, width 64 of leg 60 can be sized and/or configured to assist in or enable the construction of U.S. dimensioned building members (e.g., columns) from panels 8 having metric dimensions. Thus, as an example, columns having sizes or parameters of those columns illustrated in Table I can be formed.
In a preferred embodiment as depicted in FIG. 8B , width 64 of leg 60 and width 70 of body 58 can be substantially equal. In exemplary embodiments, width 64 of leg 60 is about {fraction (5/16)}″ and height 66 of the leg is about 4″ and length 68 of member-facing surface 62 is about 1″. Also, body 58 and leg 60 can have bores or apertures configured to secure a bolt, pin, or like device. Preferably, bores or apertures in body 58 and leg 60 are arranged so as to align and/or correspond with bores or apertures in other components of building structure forming apparatus 5 (e.g., vertical support beams 13 as shown in FIG. 1 ). When aligned, bores or apertures can receive pins, bolts, and other like devices to secure conversion corners 56 in place relative to the other components of structure forming apparatus 5 .
When in use and operation in one preferred embodiment, the following steps are followed:
Two form work panels 8 a and 8 b are connected with a first conversion corner bracket 56 to form a first corner pair or set 52 . Two additional form work panels 8 c and 8 d are connected to each other with a second conversion corner bracket 56 which is similar to the first conversion corner bracket to form a second corner pair or set 54 .
The second corner set 54 is then properly configured to oppose the first corner set 52 to correctly form the intended structure 50 . For example, if a corner of a wall is to be formed, the first corner set 52 or the second corner set 54 is configured to resemble an L-shape. On the other hand, if a column is to be formed, the first corner set 52 and the second corner set 54 are configured in a box shape (see FIG. 1 ). Once properly configured, the panels 8 a , 8 b , 8 c , 8 d are secured in place with a securing mechanism such as a clamp 20 .
The form work panels 8 a , 8 b , 8 c , and 8 d are then erected and supported if necessary by tubular steel props 40 . Building material, such as concrete, is then poured between the first corner set 52 and the second corner set 54 and allowed to harden, cure, and the like, to produce the structure 50 . As shown in FIG. 9 , the apparatus 5 (including corner sets, 52 , 54 , panels 8 , clamps 20 , among other components) can be disassembled and/or removed such that only the structure 50 or the building member remains.
Conveniently, although aluminum is preferred, the conversion corner bracket of the present invention can be made of a variety of materials. Nevertheless, for the manufacturing operation, it is moreover an advantage to employ an extrudable, aluminum-like material. Similarly, the panels may be made of a variety of suitable, durable, strong and light-weight materials.
Moreover, the individual components need not be formed in the disclosed shapes, or assembled in the disclosed configuration, but could be provided in a variety of shapes, and assembled in a variety of configurations. Further, although the panel components and conversion corner are described herein is physically separate modules, it will be manifest that they may be integrated. Furthermore, all the disclosed features of each disclosed embodiment can be combined with, or substituted for, the disclosed features of every other disclosed embodiment except where such features are mutually exclusive.
There may be innumerable uses for the present invention, all of which need not be detailed here. Moreover, all the disclosed embodiments can be practiced without undue experimentation.
Although the best mode contemplated by the inventors of carrying out the present invention is disclosed above, practice of the present invention is not limited thereto. It will be manifest that various additions, modifications and rearrangements of the features of the present invention may be made without deviating from the spirit and scope of the underlying inventive concept.
The terms upper lower, top, bottom and the like in the specification and claims are intended to assist the reader in understanding invention and are not intended as terms of limitation.
Despite any methods being outlined in a step-by-step sequence, the completion of acts or steps in a particular chronological order is not mandatory. Further, elimination, modification, rearrangement, combination, reordering, or the like, of acts or steps is contemplated and considered within the scope of the description and claims.
Furthermore, while the present invention has been described in terms of the preferred embodiment, it is recognized that equivalents, alternatives, and modifications, aside from those expressly stated, are possible and within the scope of the appending claims.
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A building member forming apparatus having panels and a conversion corner bracket. The panels are typically dimensioned in metric units. The conversion corner bracket can include a leg having a predetermined width and a body configured to chamfer a building member. The conversion corner bracket is securable to the panels to form an orifice. When the orifice receives a construction material, the building member can be formed. By using the panels and the conversion corner bracket, the building member that has been formed within the orifice is chamfered and possesses standard U.S. customary units. The conversion corner creates a chamfer upon the building member and permits dimensioned panels with one set of units to form a building member with another set of units. The leg and the body are not symmetrical and include bores or apertures that align with bores or apertures in the building member forming apparatus.
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CROSS REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
None; although an improvement is presently disclosed of the loop picker described and claimed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,605,820, which is of related interest for that reason.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A loop picker is mounted on a picker stick to throw and receive the impact of the shuttle during loom operation. A common form is built by assembling rubberized fabric layers to provide an uncured oversize blank of the general shape desired and then subjecting this blank to a vulcanizing cure under molding pressure to size the final picker body with the outward appearance of being solid. U.S. Pat. No. 2,032,734, for example, illustrates and describes the formation of such a picker.
In order to provide for picker stick mounting, the picker body is conventionally formed with a hole or loop that is sized for installation on the upper end of the picker stick, which is characteristically tapered. According to usual practice, the picker loop is undersized from front to back, in the order of 1/16 inch, so that the picker body will encounter some resistance on the picker stick taper requiring it to be pressed into place and allowing it to be aligned readily at the shuttle level.
With picker bodies of this sort as heretofore available, however, the allowable undersizing of the loop for the foregoing purpose was not sufficient to hold the picker in place during use, so that application of glue between the picker and stick or insertion of a fastening screw was needed to complete the installation. In either event, as the picker will wear and must be replaced a number of times during the life of the stick, the matter of picker replacement was rendered difficult and often resulted in damaging the stick at its upper end taper to such an extent that it would have to be discarded before its useful life was spent.
The above-noted prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,605,820 made it possible to undersize the loop to a greater extent for combatting such difficulties, but the picker stick holding grip obtained from such further undersizing has not heretofore been as great as desirable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to the present invention, a loop picker is provided in which the picker stick holding grip is significantly increased by interposing a layer of thermoplastic material in the course of wrapping the rubberized fabric layers about loop and face block portions to form the body of the picker blank for molding and curing.
The thermoplastic material used for the interposed layer must be sufficiently flexible for handling comparably with the rubberized fabric, and it must have a melting temperature above that employed for the vulcanizing cure. A nylon layer in fabric form is preferred, as will be noted further below, although a flexible film form can also be used and other thermoplastic materials can be employed, such as a terephthalic polyester or an acrylic. In building the picker with this interposed thermoplastic layer a substantially equal weight of the rubberized fabric layering, that would otherwise be used, is eliminated so that the normal bulk or volume of the picker structure is not essentially changed during formation or in finished form.
The picker structure formed in this manner not only allows greater undersizing of the loop for effective picker stick gripping without fastening in any way, but also provides superior wear characteristics at the face block portion by reason of arrangement of the interposed thermoplastic material in building this portion of the picker body as well. The result is due in part, of course, as was true in the case of prior U.S. Pat. No. 3,605,820, to the increased strength or reinforcement imparted by the interposed thermoplastic material, but a more important factor appears to be the increased length of the interposed material in affording greater gripping power at the undersized loop while strengthening the loop sufficiently for greater undersizing as well as improving wear resistance at the face block portion for appreciably better service.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a side elevation of a loop picker embodying the present invention in place on a picker stick;
FIG. 2 is a top plan view of the FIG. 1 picker;
FIG. 3 is a right end view of the FIG. 1 picker;
FIG. 4 is a top plan view of an uncured blank for the FIG. 1 picker; and
FIG. 5 is a side elevation corresponding to FIG. 4.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
A loop picker embodying the present invention is shown at 10' in FIG. 1 with its mounted operating disposition indicated in relation to a broken line representation of the upper end tapered portion of a picker stick S. FIGS. 2 and 3 additionally illustrate the form of hole 12' provided in the loop picker 10' for mounting on the stick S, and the front face recess 14' arranged to receive the nose of the shuttle (not shown) in relation to which the picker 10' acts during loom operation.
FIGS. 4 and 5, in turn, illustrate the type of blank 10 prepared for forming the picker 10'. In general, the blank preparation follows the procedure described in the previously noted U.S. Pat. No. 2,032,734, although in the present instance wrapping of the rubberized fabric starts at the back side of the loop 12 provided for forming the picker stick hole 12' in the finished picker 10'.
A 25% nylon-75% cotton fabric may be suitably employed according to the present invention at a 38 × 38 count of 61/2s warp and filling to provide a square yard weight of about 8 or 9 ounces. Any other fabric of equivalent or greater strength may, of course, be used instead. After rubber impregnation, a short length of the fabric is doubled back upon itself to form the starting edge (represented at 14 in FIG. 4) at which wrapping is commenced around a core bar (not shown) to form the loop 12, which starts at the back side of the loop as previously noted.
After wrapping of the rubberized fabric has been continued to superimpose further layers at the loop structure, a face block portion 18 is disposed at the front side of the loop 12 for incorporation in the picker body. This face block portion 18 is provided to receive and bear directly the impact from shuttle contact during operation of the picker, and it is formed of rubberized fabric strips laid up or stacked to build the block core.
Once the face block portion 18 has been formed and is in place, wrapping of the rubberized fabric used initially in forming the loop 12 is continued about the face block portion 18 as well to build the body of the picker blank 10 to a suitable fullness for molding. The supplementary thermoplastic layer that characterizes the present invention is interposed during this continued body-building wrapping to form a differential wrap as indicated at 16 in FIG. 4. It is preferred to interpose the thermoplastic layer 16 about one-third of the way outward from the individually wrapped picker loop and face block portions 12 and 18. For example, if nine wraps are employed in the body building, the thermoplastic layer 16 is interposed as the third wrap is being completed. Such an arrangement appears to increase loop holding power and face block wear resistance at the best advantage.
As noted earlier, the thermoplastic layer or wrap 16 is preferably provided in fabric form. Excellent results have been obtained with a nylon fabric constructed of 840/2 nylon 714 filament having a 12 × 12 twist and employed at a 22 × 22 count to yield a square yard weight of about 12.5 ounces. Any or all of the fabric characteristics can be varied as a matter of choice as long as a square yard weight of 12 ounces or more is maintained. Interposition of the thermoplastic layer 16 is begun to extend across the back side of the loop 12 at the outset and is continued for a complete wrap and overlapping at this back side, so that the result is to interpose the layer 16 over layers of the rubberized fabric directly at three sides of loop 12 at which the picker stick hole 12' is to be formed. This overlapping of the interposed layer end portions at the back side of loop 12 results in building up the picker wall thickness in back of the picker stick hold 12', as is usually done by back-lapping rubberized fabric layering at this point and which can be dispensed with together with enough of the rubberized layering otherwise to maintain a substantially equal weight or bulk in the picker structure as previously mentioned.
Before commencing the body-building wrapping it may be desirable, although not essential to place filler bead elements at each base corner of face block portion 18 as proposed in the earlier noted U.S. Pat. No. 2,032,734. If used, such bead elements are satisfactorily formed of cotton cord having a sufficient filler size.
Building of the picker blanks 10 in the foregoing manner is done in a composite length extending perpendicular to the plane of FIG. 4 that corresponds to a standard fabric width (e.g., 60 inches), and the individual blanks 10 are cut from this composite length to a form such as is illustrated in FIG. 5 in which the vertical blank height will correspond essentially with that desired in the finished picker 10', while the outer transverse dimensions of the blank 10 will be somewhat oversize for molding to the finished size and shape of picker 10' during a vulcanizing cure.
For this finishing step, the cut blanks 10 are placed in individual mold cavities in which a core of picker stick shape is provided to form the tapered mounting hole 12', and a projection is arranged to form the shuttle nose recess 14'. The molding is done under pressure of about 100 p.s.i., at a temperature around 300° F., and is continued for approximately 18 minutes to effect the vulcanizing cure as the final picker shape is obtained.
The resulting loop picker 10' will mount on picker sticks S measuring more from front to back than the picker stick hole 12' without any adverse effect on the picker structure, and when so mounted will grip the picker stick firmly enough to maintain operating alignment simply from having been pressed into place. And, as the need for auxiliary fastening is thereby eliminated, the loop pickers 10' may also be pressed out of place for replacement just as readily as they are mounted, so that commonly resulting picker stick damage or marring during picker installation and removal is avoided.
The present invention has been described in detail above for purposes of illustration only and is not intended to be limited by this description or otherwise to exclude any variation or equivalent arrangement that would be apparent from, or reasonably suggested by, the foregoing disclosure to the skill of the art.
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The picker stick holding grip of a loop picker is significantly increased, and overall picker performance is materially improved through superior wear characteristics, by interposing a layer of thermoplastic material (e.g., nylon fabric) in the course of building the picker body by wrapping layers of rubberized fabric about picker loop and face block portions in preparation for molding the same during a vulcanizing cure.
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INTRODUCTION AND BACKGROUND
The present invention relates to a method of producing workpieces and objects fabricated from materials including non-corrosion-resistant metals and metal alloys which are coated with wear-resistant, non-metallic coatings of nitrides, carbides, borides, oxides or silicides of elements of the fourth to the sixth b subgroup of the Periodic Table of Elements and in which a corrosion-resistant intermediate layer is arranged between the workpiece surface and the wear-resistant, non-metallic coating. In another aspect, the present invention relates to the articles having improved properties.
Workpieces and objects formed of metals and metal alloys exhibiting little resistance to corrosion are increasingly provided for technical and decorative applications with hard, wear-resistant and in some instances also decorative coatings of nitrides, carbides, borides, oxides and silicides of elements of the fourth to the sixth b subgroup of the periodic table such as e.g. titanium, zirconium, vanadium, niobium, tantalum, chromium, molybdenum or tungsten. The application of these coatings takes place in accordance with the so-called PVD method (physical vapor deposition) which is well known in the art (see, for example, Kirk-Other's Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, Third Edition, Volume 20, pages 42-47 and Volume 23, pages 295-299; these excerpts are entirely incorporated herein by reference). Coatings of titanium nitride and titanium carbide are preferred. As used herein, the expression "PVD" coating or layer is intended to refer to these known coatings or claddings.
However, the coatings produced in this manner have the disadvantage that they are brittle, porous and form microcracks. These layers exhibit a high so-called pinhole density due to their columnar growth. As a result, they do not offer good corrosion protection for the material thereunder, especially since these layers behave in an electrochemically inert manner so that the baser substrata are corrosively dissolved.
DE 38 09 139 (GB 2,218,111) teaches the arranging of a corrosion-resistant, dense layer of a palladium-nickel alloy between the workpiece surface and the PVD coating. This layer prevents the attack of corrosion through the porous PVD coating of the non-corrosion-resistant material of the foundation. In addition, a palladium-nickel layer has the advantage that it is almost as noble as the PVD layer and is therefore also barely attacked electrochemically. However, such layers have the disadvantage that they contain nickel which can act as an initiator of allergies. Palladium can also initiate allergies in some instances. Thus there was a need to avoid nickel and, if possible, palladium as alloy components for objects and workpieces which can come in contact with human skin.
DE 42 17 612, which is not a prior publication, describes metallic workpieces and their production which are provided with a corrosion-resistant underlayer of copper-tin alloys and with a wear-resistant upper layer consisting of metals such as chromium steel, molybdenum or manganese, or oxides, carbides or materials containing other hard substances. They are applied exclusively by means of thermal spraying methods such as flame spraying.
The use of galvanically applied copper-tin alloys as corrosion-resistant coatings is also known from "Ullmanns Encyklopadie der Technischen Chemie", 4th edition, volume 12, pages 190-194.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the present invention therefore was to develop a method of producing workpieces and objects of non-corrosion-resistant metals and metal alloys which are coated or cladded with wear-resistant, non-metallic coatings of nitrides, carbides, borides, oxides or silicides of elements of the fourth to the sixth b subgroup of the Periodic Table of Elements and in which a corrosion-resistant intermediate layer is arranged between the workpiece surface and the wear-resistant, non-metallic coating, which intermediate layer should be free of nickel and palladium, should exhibit an electrochemical potential comparable to the wear-resistant, non-metallic layer, and be corrosion-resistant. In addition, this intermediate layer should be able to be separated out of galvanic baths and exhibit a leveling action.
Another object of the present invention is to provide workpieces and other metallic objects and articles of improved properties.
In achieving the above and other objects, one feature of the present invention resides in a method where at first an intermediate layer of a copper-tin alloy with 45 to 80% by weight copper, 10 to 55% by weight tin and 0 to 15% by weight zinc is galvanically applied onto the surface of the workpieces or objects formed from non-corrosion resistant metals and metal alloys and subsequently the wear-resistant, non-metallic layer is applied by means of the PVD method.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
According to a more detailed aspect of the invention, it is preferable to apply the copper-tin alloys as the intermediate layer which consist of 45 to 65% by weight copper and 35 to 55% by weight tin or of 50 to 80% by weight copper, 10 to 35% by weight tin and 1 to 15% by weight zinc.
These intermediate layers are very corrosion-resistant and exhibit an electrochemical potential which comes close to that of brass alloys and bronze alloys which are frequently used as underlayer materials. Moreover, they exhibit a high degree of hardness of approximately 600 HV and therefore offer a good transition between the PVD applied layers (1000-1500 HV) and the underlayer material. In contrast, softer intermediate layers such as palladium-nickel tend to result in a flaking off of the PVD layers upon mechanical stressing.
Copper-tin alloy layers can be galvanically deposited economically on practically all metallic substrate materials yielding bonded layers with uniform layer thicknesses even if the underlying substrate is of complicated geometry. Baths like those described in DE 33 39 541 (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,565,608 and 4,605,474) have proven themselves for this purpose. They contain 1 to 60 g/1 copper as copper cyanide, 7 to 30 g/1 tin in the form of alkali stannate (e.g., sodium stannate or potassium stannate), 0.1 to 100 g/1 of a complexing agent, 1 to 50 g/1 free alkali cyanide (e.g., sodium cyanide or potassium cyanide), 1 to 50 g/1 alkali hydroxide (e.g., sodium hydroxide or potassium hydroxide), up to 50 g/1 alkali carbonate (e.g., sodium carbonate or potassium carbonate) and 0.05 to 5 g/1 of an organic fatty acid compound or of a naphthol. Complexing agents, organic fatty acid compounds and naphthols are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,565,608 and 4,605,474. All these details of galvanic deposition are known in the art and the selection of specific conditions will be apparent to those skilled in the art (see, for example, Kirk-Other's Encyclopedia of Chemical Technology, Third Edition, Volume 8, pages 826-869, this excerpt is entirely incorporated herein by reference; U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,565,608 and 4,605,474 are incorporated by reference in their entirety, especially for their teachings of alkaline cyanide baths).
Practically all metallic substrate materials such as e.g. aluminum, copper, steel, zinc, nickel and aluminum-nickel alloys, copper-nickel alloys, nickel alloys and metallized plastics can be coated therewith. The most preferable substrate material to be used is brass.
The intermediate layers are preferably applied with a layer thickness between 0.1 and 10 μm.
In addition to assuring corrosion protection, the copper-tin layers or copper-tin-zinc layers can also assume the function of leveling and formation of luster. A copper-tin-zinc layer is preferably used to achieve leveling and formation of luster. The term "leveling" and "luster" are well understood in the art. Usually, acidic copper electrolytes are otherwise used for the leveling and formation of luster of rack goods. In the case of drum or barrel goods only a leveling but no formation of luster can be achieved with the acidic copper electrolytes. A leveling and formation o:f luster is possible both in the case of rack goods and also of drum goods with an electrolyte for depositing copper-tin-zinc Layers.
In order to improve the binding of the layer of hard material applied by PVD methods to the copper-tin intermediate layer or the copper-tin-zinc intermediate layer, the intermediate layers of copper-tin or of copper-tin-zinc can be galvanically coated with a layer of precious metals 0.1 μm thick. Conditions to accomplish this will be known to those skilled in the art.
The following examples are intended to explain the method of the invention in detail:
EXAMPLE 1
Polished steel buttons are precleaned in an aqueous, alkaline manner as is known in the art, electrolytically defatted according to known procedures, pickled in a known way in a mineral acid and galvanically coated with a copper-tin layer with differing layer thicknesses (1 μm, 2 μm, 3 μm, 5 μm). The layers are then checked with the ferroxyl test and with the dimethylglyoxim test for pores. These tests are known in the art. After a layer thickness of 3 μm neither of the two solutions produces a discoloration of the surfaces, that is, they demonstrate no pores. Galvanic baths are used to deposit the copper-tin layers (55 Cu, 45 Sn), the baths contain 5 to 10 g/1 copper as copper cyanide, 15 to 30 g/1 tin as stannate, 30 to 50 g/1 potassium cyanide, and 5 to 25 g/1 potassium hydroxide. The deposition took place at 50° to 60° C. with current strengths of 2 to 4 A/dm 2 .
EXAMPLE 2
Polished brass sheets are treated in a conventional way; i.e., precleaned in an aqueous, alkaline manner, electrolytically defatted, and pickled in a mineral acid. They are then directly coated galvanically with a copper-tin layer 3 μm thick in accordance with example 1. The coated sheets are then subjected to a Kesernich test (DIN (German Industrial Standard) 50018) of 5 rounds with 0.2 1 SO 2 . The layers exhibit no attack by corrosion either on the surface (REM photograph) or in a polish of the cross-section.
EXAMPLE 3
Brass sheets and brass casings are precleaned in an aqueous, alkaline manner, electrolytically defatted, and pickled in a mineral acid as is known in the art. Then they are coated galvanically with a copper-tin-zinc layer 10 μm thick (60 Cu, 35 Sn, 5 Zn) for leveling and formation of luster. A 3 μm thick copper-tin layer (55 Cn, 45 Sn) is applied onto this layer as a functional corrosion protection layer. Then the coated sheets are subjected to a Kesternich test (DIN 50018) of 5 rounds with 0.2 1 SO 2 as in example 2. The layers exhibit no corrosion attack as in example 2.
Further variations and modifications of the foregoing will be apparent to those skilled in the art and such variations and modifications are attended to be encompassed by the claims that are appended hereto.
German Priority Application P 43 36 664.3, filed on Oct. 27, 1993, is noted for background.
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Workpieces of non-corrosion-resistant metals are provided with a wear-resistant, non-metallic layer of a nitride, carbide, boride, oxide or silicide of an element of the fourth to the sixth subgroup applied by PVD (physical vapor deposition) after a corrosion-resistant intermediate layer had been previously applied. An intermediate layer consisting of a copper-tin alloy with 45 to 80% copper, 10 to 55% tin and 0 to 15% zinc proved to be corrosion-resistant and noble and in addition does not cause any skin allergy.
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TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates generally to a trigger sprayer reservoir system for containing multiple fluids, and more particularly, to a reservoir system allowing for the mixing of a diluent and a chemical concentrate within the reservoir system prior to the mixture entering and being sprayed by a standard trigger sprayer head.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Hand held trigger sprayers have been in use and commercially available for decades. Trigger sprayers are typically used to apply a single fluid to a surface by spraying the fluid contained within a bottle through a sprayer head. In such standard sprayer-reservoir systems, a feed tube from a trigger sprayer extends down into a bottle or reservoir. Squeezing the trigger activates a positive displacement pump and evacuates any fluid residing in the pump chamber out through a spray nozzle. Releasing the trigger creates a vacuum which draws fluid from the reservoir into the sprayer pump chamber. The liquids in such reservoirs are generally mixtures of a chemical concentrate and a diluent, such as water. Such mixtures are typically created ahead of time, and deposited within the bottle as needed.
[0003] However, as such hand held trigger sprayers are often used by cleaning or maintenance personnel, a single bottle often has insufficient capacity to hold enough of a mixture to last an entire shift. Thus, when a bottle empties, a worker must stop working and travel back to an often central location where a large amount of pre-mixed solution is kept to refill the bottle. This is an inefficient use of a worker's time.
[0004] Several sprayers have been created which are designed to hold two separate fluids, such as a chemical concentrate and a diluent (such as water), and to combine such liquids on demand via a specialized spray head. This allows workers to possess enough concentrate for an entire shift, and to refill the water diluent from readily available sources as needed.
[0005] However, such dual fluid sprayer systems are relatively complicated, and often require a complete redesign of standard trigger sprayer heads. Even previous systems which attempt to solve this problem simply, such as that shown in U.S. Pat. No. 5,439,141 to Clark et al., still require some modification to a standard sprayer head. For example, in Clark, the sleeve which press fits into the throat and creates a ball check valve arrangement must be modified or replaced to practice that invention.
[0006] Thus, there is a need for an improved sprayer reservoir system allowing for the mixing of a diluent and a chemical concentrate within the reservoir system that does not require a completely custom trigger sprayer head.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] One aspect of the invention generally pertains to refillable chemical concentrate reservoir that is able to be utilized with standard trigger sprayer heads and bottle reservoir with only minor modifications, if any, required thereto.
[0008] Another aspect of the invention pertains to a chemical concentrate reservoir for use with a trigger sprayer head that provides an enhanced method of refilling that prevents overfilling of the reservoir.
[0009] In accordance with one or more of the above aspects of the invention, there is provided a chemical concentrate reservoir system for use with a hand held trigger sprayer device and a bottle reservoir that includes a chemical reservoir for containing a chemical concentrate; a first adapter connected with the chemical reservoir and the bottle reservoir and having a mixing chamber with at least one inlet and an outlet; wherein the bottle reservoir and the chemical reservoir are in fluid communication with the mixing chamber through the at least one inlet; a first valve at the at least one inlet of the mixing chamber for selective control of fluid flow from the bottle reservoir and the chemical reservoir into the mixing chamber; and a fluid conduit connected with the outlet of the mixing chamber and with the hand held trigger sprayer device.
[0010] There is also provided a chemical concentrate reservoir system for use with a hand held trigger sprayer device and a bottle reservoir that includes a chemical reservoir for containing a chemical concentrate; a first adapter connected with the chemical reservoir and the bottle reservoir and having a mixing chamber with at least one inlet and an outlet; wherein the bottle reservoir and the chemical reservoir are in fluid communication with the mixing chamber through the at least one inlet; a first valve at the at least one inlet of the mixing chamber for selective control of fluid flow from bottle reservoir and the chemical reservoir into said mixing chamber; a fluid conduit connected with the outlet of the mixing chamber and with the hand held trigger sprayer device; and a second adapter connected between the chemical reservoir and the hand held trigger sprayer device and also connected with the fluid conduit and comprising a conduit for allowing the flow of fluid from the fluid conduit to the hand held trigger sprayer device, the second adapter also includes a filling port that is in fluid communication with the chemical reservoir.
[0011] These aspects are merely illustrative of the innumerable aspects associated with the present invention and should not be deemed as limiting in any manner. These and other aspects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the referenced drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0012] Reference is now made more particularly to the drawings, which illustrate the best presently known mode of carrying out the invention and wherein similar reference characters indicate the same parts throughout the views.
[0013] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a reservoir system according to a second embodiment.
[0014] FIG. 2 is a side section view of the reservoir system.
[0015] FIG. 3 is a rear section view of the reservoir system showing the trigger sprayer head and filling device to which the system is connected for filling.
[0016] FIG. 4 is a section view of the draw tube adapter of the reservoir system of FIG. 3 .
[0017] FIG. 5 is a section view of the reservoir system showing the trigger sprayer head and filling device to which the system is connected for filling.
[0018] FIG. 6 is a side section view of the reservoir system showing the trigger sprayer head and filling adapter.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0019] In the following detailed description numerous specific details are set forth in order to provide a thorough understanding of the invention. However, it will be understood by those skilled in the art that the present invention may be practiced without these specific details. For example, the invention is not limited in scope to the particular type of industry application depicted in the figures. In other instances, well-known methods, procedures, and components have not been described in detail so as not to obscure the present invention.
[0020] FIGS. 1-6 illustrate a refillable chemical reservoir system 100 for a trigger sprayer head 200 and bottle reservoir (not shown) containing a diluent according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention. The trigger sprayer head would be attachable to the bottle reservoir by means of a threaded neck on the bottle reservoir and a corresponding threaded collar 201 on the trigger sprayer head 200 .
[0021] The system further includes a chemical reservoir 110 . The chemical reservoir 110 in the illustrated embodiment is provided with an elongated, cylindrically shaped body 112 . The body 112 is advantageously provided with a diameter that is at least marginally smaller than the diameter of the neck of the bottle reservoir so that the chemical reservoir 110 can be inserted through the neck of and into the bottle reservoir. The chemical reservoir 110 incorporates at its bottom end a draw tube 114 that extends toward the bottom of the bottle reservoir.
[0022] The draw tube 114 is connected with the body 112 of the chemical reservoir 110 by a draw tube adapter 116 . The draw tube adapter 116 has a first male tubing nipple 118 located at its bottom end that is arranged to engage and retain one end of the draw tube 114 . The adapter 116 has at its top end a second male tubing nipple 120 , which in some cases may be of a larger diameter than the first tubing nipple 118 , arranged to engage and retain the bottom end of the chemical reservoir body 112 . A flange 122 having a diameter exceeding the inside diameter of at least the bottom end of the chemical reservoir body 112 separates the first 118 and second 120 male tubing nipples. The flange 122 also serves, in combination with a series of ridges 124 encircling the second tubing nipple 120 , to seal the bottom end of the chemical reservoir body 112 . Each of the ridges 124 engages in a sealing contact with the interior of the chemical reservoir body 112 , while the flange 122 engages the end surface of the chemical reservoir body 112 .
[0023] The adapter 116 is also provided with a longitudinal, central passage 126 extending through the length of the adapter 116 . As discussed in more detail below, the adapter's central passage 126 provides a flow path, which is controlled by other elements discussed below, for diluent from the bottle reservoir, through the draw tube 114 , into the mixing chamber 162 .
[0024] At the middle portion of the adapter 116 there is provided a segmented divider 128 . The segmented divider 128 separates the adapter 116 into top and bottom sections. In the embodiment of FIG. 4 , the segmented divider 128 takes the form of a circular opening that is coaxial with the central passage 126 and having a series of spokes 130 extending laterally from the edge of the circular opening toward and meeting near the middle of the circular opening. The open areas between the spokes 130 allow for the flow of diluent from the bottom section to the top section of the adapter 116 .
[0025] At the center of the circular opening where the spokes 130 converge, there is provided a central orifice. This central orifice is arranged to accommodate the stem 134 of an umbrella valve 132 . The stem 134 is inserted through the central orifice, which is sized to prevent flow of diluent around the valve stem 134 . The valve flap 136 of the umbrella valve 132 lies over the top side of the segmented divider 128 and completely covers the open areas between the spokes 130 . In a first, sealing position—to which the valve 132 is biased, the valve flap 136 lies against the top surface of the divider 128 to prevent the flow of diluent through the open areas between the spokes 130 . When the valve flap 136 is raised from the top surface of the divider 128 , e.g., by a lowering of ambient pressure above the valve 132 , diluent can flow through the open areas between the spokes 130 and into the top section of the adapter 116 .
[0026] The adapter 116 is also provided with an insert 142 positioned within the top section of the adapter 116 . In the illustrated embodiment, the insert 142 slidingly engages with the top section of the adapter 116 . Advantageously, the outer diameter of the insert 142 is sized to have a press fit with the interior diameter of the top section of the adapter 116 to secure the insert into place. The insert 142 has an annular flange 144 at its upper, outside edge to limit the depth of insertion of the insert 142 into the adapter 116 .
[0027] The insert 142 is provided with two upwardly facing cavities. The first of these cavities 146 is in communication with and remains open to the interior of the chemical reservoir body 112 . The second cavity 148 is intended to communicate with an inner draw tube 140 as described in more detail below. An interior dividing wall 150 separates the first and second cavities from one another, and a bottom wall 152 partially encloses the bottom end of the insert 142 and the cavities.
[0028] At the bottom of the first cavity 146 , there is provided a metering orifice 154 in the bottom wall 152 that communicates with the first cavity 146 and allows for the flow of chemical concentrate from the chemical reservoir through the first cavity 146 . Flow of chemical concentrate through the metering orifice 154 is controlled by a second umbrella valve 156 . As with the first umbrella valve 132 described above, the second such valve is provided with a stem 158 and valve flap 160 . The valve stem 158 is inserted into a vertical opening in the bottom wall 152 of the insert 142 to secure the valve 156 in place. The valve flap 160 is positioned to lie against the bottom surface of the bottom wall 152 and seal the metering orifice 154 in the valve's biased position. When the valve flap 160 is allowed to move away from the bottom wall 152 , chemical concentrate is able to flow through the bottom wall 152 of the insert 142 via the metering orifice 154 .
[0029] As can be seen most clearly in FIG. 4 , there is an open area within the adapter 116 located between the bottom wall 152 of the insert 142 and the top of the segmented divider 128 . This open area represents a mixing chamber 162 . It is in the mixing chamber 162 that diluent flowing through the segmented divider 128 and chemical concentrate flowing through metering orifice 154 are intermingled to create the desired dispensing product. The ratios of diluent and chemical concentrate that are mixed together in the mixing chamber 162 are controlled by adjusting the size of the open areas between the spokes 130 of the segmented divider 128 and the flow area of the metering orifice 154 . Alternately, or in combination with adjustment of the respective flow areas of the segmented divider 128 and metering orifice 154 , the ratio of diluent and chemical concentrate can be adjusted through the use of different valve types in the segmented divider 128 and metering orifice 154 or by using valves having different performance characteristics, for example, varying durometers and/or cracking pressures.
[0030] While the illustrated embodiment makes use of umbrella valves in connection with the segmented divider 128 and metering orifice 154 , those of skill in the art will recognize that other types of valves may be utilized with the present invention.
[0031] In the bottom wall 152 of the insert 142 there is provided an opening into the second cavity 148 . In the illustrated embodiment, this opening remains open to the mixing chamber 162 at all times and permits the flow of mixed diluent and chemical concentrate from the mixing chamber 162 into the second cavity 148 .
[0032] The chemical reservoir 110 also incorporates an inner draw tube 140 that is largely contained within the chemical reservoir body 112 . The inner draw tube 140 is oriented longitudinally within the chemical reservoir body 112 and is connected at one end with the trigger sprayer 200 and at its other end with the insert 142 . The inner draw tube 140 provides a conduit for the flow of a diluent/chemical mixture to the trigger sprayer 200 for dispensing.
[0033] The first cavity 148 of the insert 142 is advantageously formed to slidingly accommodate the bottom end of the inner draw tube 140 . The top of the first cavity 148 is provided with the upwardly extending circular wall 164 . An O-ring seal 168 is arranged to sealingly engage the outer surface of the inner draw tube 140 and prevent flow of mixed diluent/chemical concentrate around the outside of the inner draw tube 140 back into the interior of the chemical reservoir body 112 . In alternate embodiments, an annular groove is provided along the interior surface of the circular wall 164 to accommodate the O-ring seal 168 .
[0034] A filling adapter 170 is positioned at the top of the chemical reservoir 110 . The filling adapter 170 is advantageously arranged to cooperate with a novel filling station, described in more detail below, to allow nearly automated refilling of the chemical reservoir 110 with chemical concentrate. As with many of the other components described herein, the filling adapter 170 is connected to the body 112 of the chemical reservoir by means of a nipple section 172 having a series of ridges 174 and a flange 176 . Each of the ridges 174 engages in a sealing contact with the interior of the chemical reservoir body 112 , while the flange 176 engages the end surface of the chemical reservoir body 112 . The filling adapter is divided into a top portion 178 and a bottom portion 180 , which are divided by a wall 182 . The bottom portion 180 is in largely open fluid communication with the interior of the chemical reservoir body 112 , while the top portion 178 is isolated from the chemical reservoir body 112 by dividing wall 182 .
[0035] The filling adapter 170 includes two interior tube structures. The first is a fluid tube 184 , into which the top end of the inner draw tub 140 is inserted. The fluid tube 184 passes through wall 182 and extends upwardly through the top portion 178 of the filling adapter 170 . The second tube is a float check valve tube 186 and houses a float check valve 188 , which is involved in the filling operation as described in more detail below. The float check valve tube 186 terminates at an orifice in wall 182 , which allows selective fluid communication between the top portion 180 of the filling adapter 170 and the float check valve tube 186 as described in more detail below.
[0036] In the illustrated embodiment, the float check valve 188 is formed by a generally cylindrical valve body with a seal mounted on the top end of the valve body. The valve body has a diameter larger than that of the orifice in wall 182 but smaller than the inside diameter of the float check valve tube 186 . This arrangement keeps the float check valve from passing through the orifice at the top of the float check valve tube 186 . At the bottom end of the float check valve tube 186 , a retainer keeps the float check valve 188 from falling out of the float check valve tube 186 .
[0037] When the float check valve 188 is positioned at the top of the float check valve tube 186 , the seal of the float check valve 188 engages the orifice in wall 182 to seal the orifice and prevent fluid communication from the top portion 178 of the filling adapter to the float check valve tube 186 and into the chemical reservoir body 112 . As the float check valve 188 drops away from the wall 182 , fluid communication is possible between the top portion 178 of the filling adapter and the interior of the chemical reservoir body 112 , with fluid, including air, being able to pass through the orifice, between the valve body and the interior of the float valve check tube 186 and out the bottom end of the float valve check tube 186 .
[0038] The filling adapter 170 also includes two ports in one of its exterior walls: a filling port 190 and an air port 194 . In a preferred embodiment, the filling port 190 and air port 194 are arranged on the same side of the filling adapter 170 , one above the other. More particularly, the air port 194 is oriented above the filling port 190 . The air port 194 is positioned in the top portion 178 of the filling adapter above wall 182 , while the filling port 190 is in the bottom portion 180 of the filling adapter and below wall 182 . In this arrangement, the filling port 190 is in direct fluid communication with the interior of the chemical reservoir body 112 . As can be seen in FIG. 5 , the filling port 190 is outside of the float check valve tube 186 . In one embodiment, the filling port 190 is positioned at a vertical level higher than the bottom of the float check valve tube 186 . In another embodiment, the air port 194 is positioned further above the filling port 190 and in a position that places it outside of the bottle reservoir when the chemical reservoir system is inserted therein.
[0039] A trigger sprayer adapter 198 is positioned at the top of the filling adapter 170 . The trigger sprayer adapter 198 is formed primarily from a cylindrical fluid passage. At its bottom end, the trigger sprayer adapter 198 is arranged to engage the top end of the fluid tube 184 of the filling adapter. At its top end, the trigger sprayer 198 engages the trigger sprayer 200 . The trigger sprayer adapter 198 serves two primary purposes: it conveys the concentrate/diluent mixture from the fluid tube 184 of the filling adapter 170 to the trigger sprayer head 200 ; and it seals the top portion 178 of the filling adapter 170 .
[0040] The trigger sprayer head 200 is of a generally conventional design utilizing a trigger actuated pump cylinder 204 and a dispensing path 206 fluidly connected with the pump cylinder and leading to a nozzle 208 . The nozzle 208 may be of the spinning adjustment type or fixed. The trigger sprayer head 200 also incorporates an entry cylinder 202 to which the top end of the trigger sprayer adapter connects to fluidly connect the trigger sprayer head 200 to the inner draw tube 140 via the fluid tube 184 of the filling adapter 170 . A check valve 203 in the entry cylinder 202 prevents back flow of fluid once drawn into the trigger sprayer head 200 during the compression stroke of the pump cylinder 204 . The trigger sprayer head 200 operates in a known manner to draw fluid from the fluid path formed by the entry cylinder 202 , trigger sprayer adapter 198 , fluid tube 184 , and inner draw tube 140 into the trigger sprayer head 200 during the return stroke of the trigger. During the compression stroke of the trigger, check valve 203 closes in reaction to the increase in pressure created by the stroke of the pump cylinder 204 . Fluid trapped with the trigger sprayer head 200 is forced into the dispensing path 206 and out nozzle 208 .
[0041] FIGS. 1 , 3 , and 5 illustrate a novel filling station 210 suitable for use with this embodiment of the chemical reservoir system 100 . The filling station 210 is contained within a housing 218 that may be wall mounted and is arranged with supporting elements to hold one or more chemical reservoir systems 100 for the purpose of refilling the reservoirs. These supporting elements include upper supporting arms 212 , lower supporting arms 216 , and a securing clip 214 , which keeps the chemical reservoir system in place during the refilling operation. In alternate embodiments, the securing clip 214 may be incorporating into the upper supporting arms 212 . The refilling station 210 further incorporates a bulk chemical concentrate source (not shown) and a vacuum source, e.g., a pump, (also not shown) of known design. The bulk chemical concentrate source and vacuum source may be located within housing 212 or located remotely and connected by tubes, piping or similar means. Within the housing 212 is a manifold comprised of a chemical outlet 220 with a chemical nipple 222 for attachment of a tube or pipe leading from the bulk chemical concentrate source. The manifold also includes an air outlet 224 having a nipple 226 for connection to the vacuum source. The outer ends of the chemical 220 and vacuum 224 outlet paths are provided with outlet seals 221 , 225 (preferably O-ring seals) that sealingly engage with the filling 190 and air 194 ports of the filling adapter 170 .
[0042] When chemical reservoir system 100 is placed into the filling station 210 , the filling 190 and air 194 ports of the filling adapter are aligned with the chemical 220 and air 224 outlets, respectively, of the filling station 210 . Advantageously, the upper 212 and lower 216 supporting arms and securing clip 214 are arranged to position the chemical reservoir system 100 in a manner that aids the alignment of the ports of the respective components. When the outer ends of the chemical 220 and air 224 outlet paths engage the filling 190 and air 194 ports of the filling adapter 170 , the filling port 192 and air port 196 check valves are pushed open to create a continuous conduit between the filling port 190 and chemical outlet 220 and between the air port 194 and the air outlet 224 . Seals 221 , 225 engage with the filling 190 and air 194 ports to prevent leaks during the filling process. In alternate embodiments, one or both of the chemical 220 and air 224 outlets may also be provided with check valves 223 to prevent possible back flow of fluid or air and allow for the chemical 220 and air 224 outlets to be shut off when no chemical reservoir system 100 is docked. This positive shut off feature allows multiple filling stations 210 to be connected together in series and operated from a single vacuum source and/or bulk chemical concentrate source.
[0043] Having described the structure of the illustrated embodiment, the filling and dispensing operations of the system will now be explained.
Filling/Refilling Operation
[0044] As can be seen from the figures and above description, a reservoir is formed within the chemical reservoir body 112 for the retention of chemical concentrate in preparation for mixing with a diluent and subsequent dispensing. In order to fill or refill this reservoir with chemical concentrate, the system 100 is first placed into the filling station 210 in the manner described above. As noted above, this places the top portion 178 of the filling adapter 170 into fluid communication with the vacuum pump via the air port 194 and air outlet 224 . In addition, the bottom portion 180 of the filling adapter is placed into fluid communication with the bulk chemical concentrate source via the filling port 190 and chemical outlet 220 . At this point, the system 100 is ready for filling or refilling.
[0045] First, the vacuum source is activated. Activation of the vacuum source may occur manually or automatically as result of the chemical reservoir system 100 being placed into the filling station 210 , for example by means of a trigger switch activated by contact with the system 100 . The vacuum source acts to draw air from the reservoir through the float check valve tube 186 , which is open at this stage due to the downward biasing of the float check valve 188 and the absence of any counteracting buoyant force. As air is removed from the reservoir, the pressure within the reservoir drops thereby drawing chemical concentrate from the bulk source through the chemical outlet 220 and fluid port 190 and into the reservoir.
[0046] The vacuum source continues to operate, and chemical concentrate continues to be drawn into the reservoir, until the reservoir is nearly filled. As chemical concentrate fills the reservoir and reaches the level of the float check valve 188 , it forces the float check valve 188 upward until the check valve seal engages the orifice in wall 182 . This disconnects the reservoir from the vacuum pump, resulting in the pressure within the reservoir equalizing. At this point, chemical concentrate ceases to be drawn from the bulk source. As can be readily seen, this particularly advantageous arrangement automatically results in complete filling of the reservoir while eliminating the possibility of overfilling and damage to the chemical reservoir system 100 . It should be noted that the filling port 190 in the illustrated embodiment is advantageously arranged at a higher vertical position than the bottom of the float check valve tube 188 . As the vertical positioning of the filling port 190 will directly impact the fill level of the reservoir, this higher positioning allows for more complete filling of the reservoir.
[0047] In one embodiment, the vacuum source utilized with the filling station 210 is sensitive to changes in its air intake and automatically shuts off in reaction to the increase in resistance experienced once the float check valve 188 closes. Such a system provides the added benefit of minimizing the need for operator involvement and the possibility of damage to the vacuum pump.
[0048] In an alternate embodiment, a positive pressure pump is utilized to push chemical concentrate from a bulk source into the reservoir. In such an embodiment, air within the reservoir is forced out of the reservoir through the air port as chemical concentrate fills the reservoir.
[0049] When filling is complete, the chemical reservoir system 100 may be removed from the filling station 210 , whereupon the filling port check valve 192 and air port check valve 196 automatically close to seal the reservoir. The system is ready for dispensing at this point.
[0050] It should be noted that while a preferred embodiment of a filling station has been described herein, the chemical reservoir system 100 may be utilized without such a station. Further, it is possible to use variants of the described filling station. For example, a pump may be incorporated into the chemical supply path of the filling station such that fluid is pumped into the chemical reservoir, resulting in air being forced out of the chemical reservoir body through the air port instead of a vacuum pump being used.
Mixing/Metering Operation
[0051] As previously noted, the trigger sprayer head 200 draws fluid upward from the inner draw tube 140 in a known manner through the action of the pump cylinder 204 . The manner in which fluid is introduced into the inner draw tube 140 is now described. Prior to an initial dispense after refilling, chemical concentrate is stored within the chemical reservoir body 112 while diluent is stored within the bottle reservoir. The inner draw tube 140 and mixing chamber 162 are generally empty.
[0052] Upon operation of the pump cylinder 204 with a first depression of the trigger followed by the return stroke of the pump cylinder 204 , air is drawn from the space in the inner draw tube 140 and mixing chamber 162 , thereby reducing the pressure within this space. This reduces the pressure exerted on the surfaces of the valve flaps 136 , 160 of the first and second umbrella valves 132 , 156 relative to the pressure present within the bottle reservoir and the chemical reservoir, respectively, which allows the valve flaps, 136 , 160 to move away from their biased closed positions. This motion opens flow paths from both the bottle reservoir and the interior of the chemical reservoir body 112 —through the segmented divider 128 and metering orifice 154 , respectively to allow diluent and chemical concentrate to flow into the mixing chamber 162 .
[0053] As the return stroke of the pump cylinder 204 is completed, the pressure within the inner draw tube 140 and mixing chamber 165 is allowed to equalize relative to the pressure within the bottle reservoir and the chemical reservoir. This equalization of pressure forces the valve flaps 136 , 160 back into their sealing positions, thereby preventing additional diluent and chemical concentrate from flowing into the mixing chamber 162 and inner draw tube 140 .
[0054] With subsequent return strokes of the pump cylinder 204 , mixed chemical concentrate and diluent are drawn up the inner draw tube 140 and into the trigger sprayer for dispensing through the nozzle 208 as the mixing chamber 162 is simultaneously filled with fresh chemical concentrate and diluent.
[0055] As will be appreciated by those of skill in the art, the chemical reservoir systems described herein provide a system that allows for the use of generally standard trigger sprayer components, in particular, trigger sprayer heads and reservoir, while rendering those components readily refillable with predetermined quantities of chemical concentrate. This allows for the use of bulk chemical sources while ensuring a consistently proper concentrate/diluent ratio.
[0056] The preferred embodiments of the invention have been described above to explain the principles of the invention and its practical application to thereby enable others skilled in the art to utilize the invention in the best mode known to the inventors. However, as various modifications could be made in the constructions and methods herein described and illustrated without departing from the scope of the invention, it is intended that all matter contained in the foregoing description or shown in the accompanying drawings shall be interpreted as illustrative rather than limiting. Thus, the breadth and scope of the present invention should not be limited by the above-described exemplary embodiments, but should be defined only in accordance with the following claims appended hereto and their equivalents.
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A chemical concentrate reservoir system for use with a hand held trigger sprayer device and a bottle reservoir includes a chemical reservoir for containing a chemical concentrate; a first adapter connected with the chemical reservoir and having a mixing chamber with at least one inlet and an outlet; wherein the bottle reservoir and the chemical reservoir are in fluid communication with the mixing chamber through said at least one inlet; a first valve at the inlet of the mixing chamber for selective control of fluid flow into said mixing chamber; and a fluid conduit connected with the outlet of the mixing chamber and with the hand held trigger sprayer device.
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FIELD
The present application relates to a universal machine tool for machining workpieces.
BACKGROUND
DE 100 61 934 B4 and DE 102 45 058 A1 disclose machine tools, which, due to their make, are distinguished by a special rigidity and thus also a high-cutting capacity as well as high accuracy during the machining operation. This machine tool has a dimensionally rigid machine column at the front end of which a work spindle is guided in guide rails and is arranged in a horizontally and vertically movable fashion. The universal machine tool comprises a highly rigid machine bed which is arranged at the front end of the machine column and the top side of which accommodates a horizontal linear guide for a workpiece table that can be moved by means of a linear motor in a further coordinate axis Z along the machine bed.
The chips accumulating with universal machine tools can be relatively extensive. For this reason, the protection of the machine units and components from flying chips as well as the collection and removal of accumulating chips have always been an inherent problem in the machining of metals by means of universal machine tools.
It has thus been proposed in the prior art to provide chip collecting and removing spaces when machine tools are designed. For example, DE 198 30 391 A1 proposes a milling machine in which the workpiece spindle is movably guided in a cantilever arrangement and a chip collecting space extending in the transverse direction relative to the machine bed is located at the rear end of the machine table in the direct vicinity of the workpiece clamping surface of the workpiece table. However, this design is not very suitable for a workpiece table which can be moved horizontally on the machine bed in a longitudinal direction since a reliable chip collection and removal would not be ensured in this case.
In addition, the provision of a chip collecting space is accompanied by design limitations as far as the fundamental configuration of the machine frame and of the machine column is concerned. An important aspect is to guarantee a sufficiently high rigidity of both the machine column and the machine bed.
A heavy-duty machining center which ensures a reliable and extremely fast chip disposal from the work area has been presented by the company StarragHeckert, by means of the CWK 400 D machining centers. However, the machine configuration of this machining center, which is a cross-bed design having an inclined bed, is rather complicated and not very compact.
BRIEF SUMMARY
Disclosed herein is a universal machine tool that is as compact as possible and is improved as regarding the collection and removal of accumulating chips, without reducing the rigidity of the machine frame.
The universal machine tool has a dimensionally stable machine column along which a work spindle is guided, which can be moved in guides in two coordinate axes X and Y by means of a motor and is adapted to receive a cutting tool. At the front end of the machine column a machine bed is attached, and the top side of said bed is provided with a horizontal linear guide for a workpiece table and a linear motor for moving the workpiece table in the horizontal linear guide with a further coordinate axis.
A channel-like chip space for collecting chips accumulating when the workpiece is machined is provided in or on the machine bed and the longitudinal axis of said chip space extends in a horizontal direction along the machine bed, wherein the linear motor is arranged on the top side of the machine bed laterally and parallel to the channel-like chip space. First and second guide rails of the horizontal linear guide for guiding the workpiece table are arranged on opposite sides of the linear motor, i.e., the linear motor is located between two guide rails of the horizontal linear guide, said rails being arranged laterally on the top side of the machine bed adjacent to the linear motor.
The arrangement of a channel-like chip space in the longitudinal direction of the machine bed enables an improved collection and removal of the chips accumulating when the workpiece is machined, without the stability of the machine bed being impaired.
Arranging the linear motor for the workpiece table laterally adjacent to the chip channel ensures an efficient protection from accumulating flying chips. In addition, the arrangement of the linear motor and of the channel-like chip space in combination with the arrangement of the guide rails on both sides of the linear motor makes it possible to position various workpiece tables for the universal machine tool in an optimum way.
A turnable rotary table can be guided on the first and second guide rails, advantageously by means of ball or linear roller bearings.
In an advantageous embodiment, the machine structure has, f r this purpose, a third guide rail which, with respect to the first guide rail, is arranged on an opposite side of the channel-like chip space, and therefore the bottom side of a table slide, which carries an NC rotary table and is guided along the three guide rails, overlaps the channel and is moved directly above the channel along its entire longitudinal side when the linear motor is driven. This arrangement enables an optimum chip collection when a workpiece clamped on the NC rotary table is machined.
In an alternative embodiment, the universal machine tool can be equipped for 5-axis machining, with a swivel rotary table that is advantageously also guided on first and second guide rails by means of ball or linear roller bearings, wherein the bottom side of the table slide covers the linear motor.
The swivel rotary table is advantageously equipped with a swivel axis that enables a swivel angle of >180°, preferably up to 220°, so as to move the tool table to an upside-down position in which a workpiece clamped on the workpiece table can be machined by the work spindle, wherein the chips fall directly into the channel-like chip collecting space.
The channel-like chip space of a preferred exemplary embodiment is inserted in the top side of the machine bed and has side walls steeply sloping towards a bottom region. In addition, angular plates are mounted directly on the table and protrude downwardly into the channel-like chip space so as to ensure that the accumulating chips are conveyed directly into the chip space.
In a preferred exemplary embodiment, the channel-like chip space extends centrally in the machine bed in the Z-axis shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 .
A chip screw conveyor for removing chips disposed in the chip space is advantageously provided at the bottom of the channel-like chip space in a horizontal direction.
The configuration of the machine bed of the universal machine tool is particularly advantageous in the case of a moving column-bed design of the universal machine tool since the machine stability necessary for precision machining is reliably ensured.
In a particularly stable version of the machine tool for machining workpieces, the machine column is equipped with three vertical and parallel guides along which the work spindle is guided, wherein the middle guide carries the load which is produced by the magnetic force of a linear motor that is provided for moving the work spindle in a vertical direction. In this way, the stability of the machine design can be further improved in the area of the moving column, without having to increase the masses contributing to stability. Surprisingly, this is particularly advantageous in the case of moving column-bed type machine tools in which the moving column is made as a triangular closed box design, as is the case, e.g., in DE 102 45 058 A1 described at the beginning, since the stability of a machine model of this type is thus particularly increased when the high-speed spindle is moved.
The machine bed configuration disclosed herein enables an optimum removal of machining chips for configurations having NC rotary tables and also for machine tools with a swivel rotary table for 5-axis machining, without having to make further design modifications to the machine. The basic configuration described herein can be realized according to the required conditions or customer's desire without further modification using both an NC rotary table and a swivel rotary table, in both cases a reliable chip removal being ensured over the entire travel of the respective workpiece table.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Further details and advantages of the present invention become apparent by means of the following description of exemplary embodiments of the universal machine tool including a chip space using the drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 shows a perspective view of a first exemplary embodiment of a universal machine tool including an NC rotary table;
FIG. 2 shows a perspective view of a further exemplary embodiment of a universal machine tool which includes a chip space and on which a swivel rotary table is mounted;
FIG. 3 shows a cross-section of an exemplary embodiment of a universal machine tool including a chip space and an NC rotary table as illustrated in FIG. 1 ;
FIG. 4 shows a cross-section of an exemplary embodiment of a universal machine tool including a chip space and a swivel rotary table as illustrated in FIG. 1 ;
FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of an exemplary embodiment of a swivel rotary table for assembly on a universal machine tool; and
FIG. 6 shows a schematic diagram of a universal machine tool including a swivel rotary table to illustrate the swivel range.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
A first exemplary embodiment of a universal machine tool including an NC rotary table is shown in a perspective inclined front view in FIG. 1 . The universal machine tool having a moving column-bed design consists of a front machine bed 2 made as a box design and a rear stationary moving column 3 at the front end of which the box-shaped machine bed 2 is attached. In this embodiment according to FIG. 1 , the column is made of two parts and has a bottom part 4 which is permanently fixed to the machine bed 2 and a moving column part 5 which can be moved in two guide rails 6 and 7 in the X-direction by means of a linear motor. The moving column part 5 has a front side including three vertical guide rails 8 , 9 , 10 , on which a vertical slide 11 with a spindle head 12 for receiving a cutting tool is movably arranged by means of a linear motor 70 . The middle guide rail 9 carries the load of the magnetic drive. The machine bed is supported via the two supports 2 a , 2 b towards the bottom.
The top side of the box-like machine bed 2 accommodates three guide rails 13 , 14 , 15 of a horizontal linear guide, on which a workpiece table 16 is movably guided in a Z-direction by means of a linear motor. The linear motor (not shown in FIG. 1 ) for moving the table slide is arranged between the guide rails 14 , 15 and is protected toward the top by a cover 20 .
A table slide 18 carries an NC rotary table 21 , the top side of which carries a pallet 22 which is suitable for clamping a workpiece (not shown). The bottom side of the table slide 18 is movably arranged directly above a channel-like chip space 19 , the structure of which is more clearly seen in FIG. 3 .
In the front area of the machine bed, a recess having a U-shaped section 25 is inserted in the machine bed 2 , which enables the connection of a pallet changer (not shown in FIG. 1 ). The spatial arrangement of the channel-like chip space 19 , which directly borders on the U-shaped wall portion of the machine bed enables an optimum space efficiency with the machine bed configuration, and therefore the universal machine tool is also compact when designed as a machining center having a pallet changer.
FIG. 2 shows an inclined front view of a further exemplary embodiment of a universal machine tool, said exemplary embodiment differing from that shown in FIG. 1 in that the machine bed 2 of this exemplary embodiment carries a swivel rotary table 30 , and in addition a pallet changer 40 is attached to the front area of the machine bed 2 , said pallet changer having an exchangeable pallet 41 for exchange with the pallet 31 supported on the swivel rotary table 30 .
The swivel rotary table 30 comprises a lower slide part 32 which is guided on the guide rails 14 , 15 and carries a box-shaped table housing 33 . A drive motor for swiveling the console 34 of the machine table is attached to or accommodated in or at the box-shaped housing 33 . By means of said motor, the working plane of the workpiece table can be rotated, as explained in detail below with reference to FIGS. 5 and 6 . By means of the swivel axis, it is possible to take the working plane of the workpiece table 34 by swiveling the console 34 to an upside-down position which is shown in FIG. 6 , and therefore the working plane 35 of the workpiece table which is swiveled so as to be upside-down can be positioned directly above the chip channel 19 .
A pallet changer 40 is attached to the front head end of the machine bed 2 and is inserted in the recess that has a U-shaped section and is shown in FIG. 1 . The compactness here results, above all, from the fact that the pallet changer can be attached directly to a machine bed portion which borders on the channel-like chip space so as to guarantee, on the one hand, that the pallet changer must only travel short distances when the pallet is exchanged and, on the other hand, that even in the basic exchange position of the pallet changer, the workpiece table is also already arranged directly above the channel-like chip space.
FIG. 3 shows a cross-section through the machine bed 2 of the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 1 , said cross-section clearly showing the structure of the channel-like chip space 19 in the machine bed 2 .
The chip channel 19 is formed by two almost vertically sloping side walls 19 a , 19 b . The bottom area of the channel is formed by the slightly inclined bottom portions 19 c , 19 d . The area of the lowest point at the bottom of channel 19 accommodates a conveyor screw 50 which serves for removing the accumulating chips. Angular guide plates 25 a , 25 b are mounted on the workpiece table and ensure that the chips accumulating when a workpiece clamped on the pallet 22 is machined are directly fed to the channel-like chip space so as to prevent, in particular, contamination of the horizontal linear guide and the linear motor 17 . These angular guide plates 25 a , 25 b , which are mounted in the longitudinal direction of the machine bed advantageously on the front and rear sides of the workpiece table, move at the front end of the machine bed into a recess of the pallet changer or the machine bed portion receiving the same and at the rear side into a recess formed for this purpose in the front end of the moving column, and therefore the travel of the table is not limited by the guide plates.
On the bottom side, the workpiece table 16 has a table slide 18 , at the bottom side of which linear roller bearings 13 a , 14 a , 15 a are mounted which are guided on the profile rails 13 , 14 , 15 . The table slide 18 is movable by means of the linear motor 17 in the Z-direction shown in FIG. 1 , wherein the linear motor primary part 17 a is connected to the console of the table slide 18 and is guided along the linear motor secondary part 17 b which is formed on magnetic path segments. In this connection, it is advantageous for the linear motor primary part 17 a and the linear motor secondary part 17 b to be arranged in a width-wise direction between the profile rails 14 , 15 and parallel to the channel-like chip space 19 which, in turn, extends along the entire length of the linear guide rails 13 , 14 , 15 and parallel thereto.
The profile rails are advantageously provided with thermo-symmetrical linear measuring scales 13 b , 14 b , 15 b , which contribute considerably to the accuracy of the determination of the position of the workpiece table.
The table slide 18 carries a cylindrical middle part 21 , the top side of which supports a workpiece pallet 22 that can hold a workpiece in clamped fashion by means of a suitable clamping device. As evident from the illustration of FIG. 3 , the table slide 18 overlaps the channel-like chip space in the width-wise direction, wherein the top side of the workpiece table 16 , on which the workpiece (not shown) is clamped, is arranged so as to be moveable directly above the channel and over its entire length in a Y-direction.
An improved stability of the guide is achieved by guiding the NC rotary table in the three guide rails 13 , 14 , 15 . An optimum protection of the linear motor from accumulating chips is simultaneously achieved by a lateral displacement of the linear motor with respect to the plane of the channel-like chip space or the movement plane of the NC table. In addition, the inventive structure of the machine bed enables an optimum combination of the machine tool with a chip conveyor.
A cross-section through a universal machine tool, as shown in the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 2 , is explained below by means of FIG. 4 . Reference signs identical to those in FIGS. 2 and 3 refer to corresponding parts without special mention.
In the example illustrated in FIG. 4 , an overhung swivel rotary table 30 is mounted on the universal machine tool, said table being guided via linear roller bearings 14 a , 15 a , which are mounted on the bottom side of the table housing 33 , in the profile rails 14 , 15 of the horizontal linear guide. The drive for moving the swivel rotary table 30 in a Z-direction is accomplished via the linear motor 17 which is arranged between the guide rails 14 , 15 , wherein the linear motor primary part 17 a oriented horizontally in cross-section is mounted on the bottom side of the housing 33 of the swivel rotary table 30 and is moved along the linear motor secondary part 17 b . As in the exemplary embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 3 and as illustrated in FIG. 2 , the channel-like chip space extends along the entire length of the guide rails 14 , 15 , and therefore a reliable feed of the accumulating chips into the chip space is ensured in every operating position of the swivel rotary table 30 movable in a Z-direction.
In the basic position of the swivel rotary table, the working area for clamping the workpiece on the workpiece table 35 is oriented horizontally on the protruding console 34 and is arranged below the work spindle 12 . By means of a swivel axis which is not shown in FIG. 4 , the console 34 of the swivel rotary table 30 can, however, be swiveled upwards about a swivel axis in a horizontal drawing plane, and therefore the surface 35 of the swivel rotary table on which the workpiece is clamped is arranged above the work spindle in an upside-down position.
Optimum removal of the accumulating chips into the chip space is ensured in every operating position of the work spindle and of the swivel rotary table by the arrangement described herein and the movability of the swivel rotary table via the channel-like chip space in any swivel position of the workpiece table.
In this exemplary embodiment too, the channel-like chip space has almost vertical side walls 19 a , 19 b to which a bottom portion having the inclined bottom portions 19 c , 19 d is attached. As in the preceding exemplary embodiment, a chip conveyor screw 50 is provided at the lowest point of the bottom of the channel-like chip space in the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 4 , said conveyor screw serving for removing the accumulating chips.
The arrangement of the guide rails of the linear motor and of the channel-like chip space in the machine bed of the universal machine tool, and in particular in the moving column-bed model, ensures that in both the use of an NC rotary table and the use of a swivel rotary table, the workpiece table top side is moved directly above the channel-like chip space so as to ensure optimum chip removal in every operating position. Due to the steeply sloping side walls of the channel-like chip space in combination with the lateral arrangement of the guide plates, an optimum collection of the chips is ensured, which is, in particular, important for a dry processing operation on the machine tool.
FIG. 5 shows details of a preferred embodiment of a swivel rotary table for use with the machine configuration described herein. It should be noted here that the swivel rotary table shown in FIG. 5 is not confined to use with the machine configuration described herein but can also be employed in conventional machine tools. For this reason, separate protection may be sought for the central features of the swivel rotary table.
The swivel rotary table comprises two electric motors 37 and 38 for turning and swiveling the table 30 about an A-axis shown in FIG. 6 . Here, the motor 38 is mounted outside the housing 33 on the outer side thereof, and the motor 37 is mounted centrally in the housing. At least one of the motors 37 , 38 , preferably both motors as shown in the swivel rotary table of FIG. 5 , is arranged in the range of the housing 34 outside the cast parts of the machine. The advantage is that the motors are well accessible on the one hand, which is useful in the case of a repair or exchange, and in addition they are arranged outside the zone of thermal influence, i.e., in the temperature-neutral portion and not in the overhung portion, and therefore their functioning is not impaired by heat transfer caused by the cast parts. In addition, the motors 37 , 38 which are not arranged in the overhung portion of the console 34 of the swivel rotary table are not exposed to any weight load, which also adds to the positioning accuracy.
A cable carrier system for conducting electric supply cables to the motor 37 is mounted on the rear side of the table housing 33 , which ensures an efficient and reliable cable guiding for operating the motors when the swivel rotary table 30 is moved. The drive torque of the motor 38 for pivoting the console is transmitted to the transmission 39 via a V-belt.
FIG. 6 illustrates the swivel range of the swivel rotary table for use with a machine configuration described herein. The diagram illustrates that the swivel axis (A-axis) enables swiveling of the working plane 35 of the tool table by up to 220°, which allows optimum 5-axis processing.
Because of this swivel range, optimum processing of workpieces in an upside-down position is possible, wherein a combination of the swivel rotary table and of the machine configuration ensures a reliable removal of the accumulating chips via the channel-like chip space.
The achievable acceleration or speed values, which can be 20/S 2 and/or 20 minutes −1 for the A-axis and 30/S 2 and 40 minutes −1 for the axis of rotation, are further features of the swivel rotary table.
The invention is not confined to the presented exemplary embodiments but comprises further combinations of the structural details presented in this description so as to create further exemplary embodiments according to the required use on the basis of the knowledge of a person skilled in the art.
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A machine tool comprising a machine column, a work spindle moveable in guides along the machine column in two coordinate axes by a motor and adapted to receive a cutting tool, a machine bed arranged on the front end of the machine column and on the top side of which a horizontal linear guide for a workpiece table is arranged, and a linear motor for moving the workpiece table in the horizontal linear guide in a further coordinate axis. A channel-like chip space for collecting chips accumulating when the workpiece is machined extends on the top side of the machine bed in the direction of the further coordinate axis. The linear motor is arranged on the top side of the machine bed laterally and parallel to the channel-like chip space, wherein first and second guide rails of the horizontal linear guide are arranged on opposite sides of the linear motor.
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BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention relates to compounds of the formula ##STR2## wherein R 1 is hydrogen, halogen, trihalomethyl, --SO 2 NR 2 R 3 , alkyl, alkylthio or alkoxy, X is oxygen or sulfur, m is 2 to 6, n and s are, independently, zero or 1, A is alkylene and, when X is oxygen, is also 2-hydroxytrimethylene, and R 2 and R 3 , independently, are hydrogen or alkyl, or taken together with the nitrogen atom are a 5-, 6- or 7-membered unsubstituted or substituted heterocyclic ring,
when A is 2-hydroxytrimethylene, the respective enantiomers, and acid addition salts thereof with pharmaceutically acceptable acids.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
As used herein, the term "alkyl" preferably denotes "lower alkyl", which denotes a straight or branched chain saturated hydrocarbon containing 1 to 7 carbon atoms, for example, methyl, ethyl, propyl, isopropyl, butyl, t-butyl, neopentyl, pentyl, heptyl and the like. The term "alkoxy" preferably denotes "lower alkoxy", which denotes an alkyl ether group in which the lower alkyl group is as described above, for example, methoxy, ethoxy, propoxy, butoxy, isobutoxy, pentoxy and the like. The term "alkylthio" preferably denotes "lower alkylthio", which denotes an alkyl thioether group in which the lower alkyl group is as described above, for example, methylthio, ethylthio, propylthio, butylthio, isobutylthio, pentylthio and the like. The term "halogen" or "HAL" denotes all the halogens, i.e., bromine, chlorine, fluorine and iodine. The term "alkylene" preferably denotes a "lower alkylene", which denotes a divalent, straight or branched chain saturated hydrocarbon containing 1 to 7 carbon atoms, for example, methylene, ethylene, trimethylene, tetramethylene, 1,1-dimethylethylene, pentamethylene and the like. The term "5-, 6- or 7 -membered unsubstituted or substituted heterocyclic ring" denotes phthalimido, morpholino and the like.
The invention relates to compounds of the formula ##STR3## wherein R 1 is hydrogen, halogen, trihalomethyl, --SO 2 NR 2 R 3 , alkyl, alkylthio or alkoxy, X is oxygen or sulfur, m is 2 to 6, n and s are, independently, zero or 1, A is alkylene and, when X is oxygen, is also 2-hydroxytrimethylene, and R 2 and R 3 , independently, are hydrogen or alkyl, or taken together with the nitrogen atom are a 5-, 6- or 7-membered unsubstituted or substituted heterocyclic ring,
when A is 2-hydroxytrimethylene, the respective enantiomers, and acid addition salts thereof with pharmaceutically acceptable acids.
A preferred group of compounds of the inventions comprised compounds of formula I wherein X is oxygen, and n and s each is 1.
A more preferred group of compounds of the invention comprise compounds of formula I wherein R 2 and R 3 , independently, are hydrogen or lower alkyl, and n and s each is zero.
A most preferred group of compounds of the invention comprise compounds of formula I wherein R 1 is halogen or trifluoromethyl, X is oxygen, m is 2, n and s each is 1, and R 2 and R 3 , independently, are hydrogen or lower alkyl.
Preferred compounds of formula I are: (S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazine-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol; and
N-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]-methylethaneamine.
Exemplary of the compounds of formula I are:
(R)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol;
(S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-trifluoromethyl)-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol;
1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[2-(1-methylethyl)aminoethoxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride;
1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminopropoxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine;
1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[4-(1-methylethyl)aminobutoxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride;
1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[5-(1-methylethyl)aminopentoxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine;
1-[3-(2-methylthio-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[5-(1-methylethyl)aminopentoxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trimaleate;
1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)-4-[2-[4-[6-(1-methylethyl)aminohexyloxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride;
(S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-N,N-dimethylsulfamoyl-10H-phenothiazine-10-yl)propyl]piperazine-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol trihydrochloride;
(S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-methoxy-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol trihydrochloride;
(S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-methylthio-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol trihydrochloride;
(S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-methyl-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol trihydrochloride;
3-[[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]oxy]propanamine;
3-[[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]oxy]-N-methylpropanamine;
3-[[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]oxy]-N,N-dimethylpropanamine trihydrochloride;
N-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)-propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]-alpha-methylethanamine trimaleate;
1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[2-(1-methylethyl)aminoethyl]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trimaleate;
1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminopropyl]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine;
1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[4-(1-methylethyl)aminobutyl]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine;
N-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-trifluoromethyl-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]-α-methylethanamine trimaleate;
N-[4-[3-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazine-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazinyl]propoxy]phenyl]-α-methanamine trimaleate; and the like.
The compounds of formula I of the invention can be prepared in accordance with Reaction Scheme I which follows: ##STR4## wherein R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , A, X, m, n and s are as previously described.
In Reaction Scheme I, a compound of formula II is reacted with a compound of formula III to yield a compound of formula I in a Williamson ether synthesis utilizing standard conditions. More specifically, the reaction is carried out in the presence of a base, for example, sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, sodium carbonate, potassium carbonate and the like, and a solvent, for example, aqueous dimethylsulfoxide, aqueous dimethylformamide, and the like. Preferably the reaction is carried out at a temperature in the range of from about 20° C. to about 100° C., most preferably at about 50° C.
The resulting compound of formula I can be recovered utilizing conventional extraction procedures, and solvents. More conveniently, the resulting compound of formula I is converted to an acid addition salt utilizing conventional procedures, as hereinafter further described. The salts produced can be recovered utilizing procedures, such as, crystallization and the like.
The starting materials of the formula ##STR5## wherein R 1 and m are as previously described, and HAL is halogen, are known compounds or can be prepared according to known procedures.
Exemplary of the compounds of formula II are:
1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine;
1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(3-chloropropyl)piperazine;
1-[3-(2-trifluoromethyl-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine;
1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(4-chlorobutyl)piperazine;
1-[3-(2-methylthio-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine; and the like.
The starting materials of the formula ##STR6## wherein R 2 , R 3 , A, X, n and s are as previously described, are known compounds or can be prepared according to known procedures.
Exemplary of the compounds of formula III are: ##STR7##
The compounds of formula I form acid addition salts with inorganic or organic acids. Thus, they form pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts with both pharmaceutically acceptable organic and inorganic acids, for example, with hydrohalic acid, such as, hydrochloric acid, hydrobromic acid, hydroiodic acid, other mineral acid salts, such as sulfuric acid, nitric acid, phosphoric acid, or the like, alkyl- and mono-aryl sulfonic acids, such as ethanesulfonic acid, toluenesulfonic acid, benzenesulfonic acid, or the like, other organic acids such as acetic acid, tartaric acid, maleic acid, citric acid, benzoic acid, salicyclic acid, ascorbic acid, and the like. Non-pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts of compounds of formula I can be converted into pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts via conventional metathetic reactions whereby the non-pharmaceutically acceptable anion is replaced by a pharmaceutically acceptable anion; or alternatively, by neutralizing the non-pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salt and then reacting the so-obtained free base with a reagent yielding a pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salt.
The compounds of formula I and their pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts exhibit neuroleptic activity of long duration. Accordingly, the compounds of formula A are useful as long acting antipsychotic agents, for instance, in the treatment of schizophrenia. The activity of the compounds of formula I which makes them orally useful as antipsychotic agents can be demonstrated in warm-blooded animals, in accordance with known procedures.
For example, by one procedure, trained rats are placed in experimental chambers equipped with a response lever, a steel grid floor for delivery of electric shock and a loudspeaker for presentation of auditory stimuli. Each trial consists of a fifteen-second warning tone (conditioned stimulus), continuing for an additional fifteen seconds accompanied by electric shock (unconditioned stimulus; 1.0 mA, 350 V.A.C., scrambled). The rats can terminate a trial at any point by depression of the response lever. A response during the initial fifteen-second warning tone ends the trial before shock delivery and is considered an avoidance response, while a response occurring during shock delivery is an escape response. Trials are presented every two minutes during a one-hour test session (30 trials per session).
Trained rats maintain a reliable control baseline of avoidance behavior (zero to three avoidance failures per session). Compounds are administered to a minimum of three to four rats at each dose level over a range of doses. Rats receive vehicle alone, during control sessions prior to drug administration. Each rat is tested daily or weekly, after a single drug administration, until avoidance behavior returns to pre-drug baseline levels.
The session is divided into three consecutive twenty minute (ten trial) segments. Response counts are summed over all subjects at a given dose within each segment.
The number of trials in which the rats failed to exhibit an avoidance response (avoidance block) or failed to exhibit an escape response (escape block) is determined for the segment displaying the maximum such effect at each dose. This number is expressed as a percentage of the total trials within the segment. The dose calculated to produce a 50% block of avoidance (ABD 50) is obtained from the dose-effect regression line fitted by the Method of Least Squares. The lowest dose which produced a 20% block of escape responding (EBD 20) is read from a graphic dose-effect plot. In obtaining these values, percent effect is plotted against the log dose.
Antipsychotic agents can be distinguished from other types of drugs, which affect the behavior of rats in this procedure, by the larger separation between doses which block avoidance responding and doses which block escape responding. The clinical potency of antipsychotic drugs with known therapeutic uses and properties is significantly and highly correlated with their potency in this procedure. Consequently, the compounds of formula I may be used therapeutically in dosage ranges consistent with their potency in the test procedure.
When (S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazine-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol trihydrochloride (Compound A), which, after a single dose has demonstrated an LD 50 of, for example, 45 mg/kg, p.o., 7 days, and 77.5 mg/kg, i.p., 24 hours, in mice, is utilized as the test substance, maximum neuroleptic activity is observed 7-10 days after administration at an ABD 50 of 13.5 mg/kg, p.o.
When N-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]-α-methylethaneamine (Z)-2-butenedioate (Compound B), which, after a single dose, has demonstrated an LD 50 of, for example, >1000 mg/kg, p.o., 24 hours, 248 mg/kg, p.o., 7 days, and 230 mg/kg, i.p., 7 days, in mice, is utilized as the test substance, maximum neuroleptic activity is observed on the day of administration at an ABD 50 of 8.7 mg/kg, p.o. (60 minutes pretreatment). In this discrete avoidance procedure, which is highly predictive of antipsychotic activity, the avoidance blocking effect of both compounds was highly specific with little or no escape blocks. The neuroleptic effect of Compound A lasted for several weeks and that of Compound B lasted for several days.
The relative antipsychotic and prolonged duration of activity of the compounds of formula I in the discrete avoidance test are shown in Table I.
The prolonged duration of activity of the Compound A can also be demonstrated in other test procedures sensitive to the effects of neuroleptics. These results are shown in Table 2. The effects of Compound A in several test procedures which are used to predict neuroleptic activity are shown in Table 3.
TABLE 1__________________________________________________________________________Discrete Avoidance - Rats Percentage Block of Avoidance Time of 60 min. 24 hrs. Peak Duration of Dose post- post- Effect Sig. ActivityCompound mg/kg po drug drug (AB)* (AB)*__________________________________________________________________________(S)--1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2- 40 40% 77% 2-10 days 8 weekschloro-10H--phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl] (90%) (30%)piperazine-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol trihydrochloride1-[3-(2-chloro-10H--phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]- 40 10% 100% 1 day 8 weeks4-[2-[4-[2-(1-methylethyl)aminoethoxy] (100%) (37%)phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride3-[[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H--phenothiazin- 40 50% 100% 1 day >6 weeks10-yl)-propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl (100%) (25%)oxy]-N,N--dimethylpropanaminetrihydrochlorideN--[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H--phenothiazin-10-yl)- 30 100% 70% 60 min. 3 dayspropyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]-alpha- (100%) (43%)methylethanamine trimaleate(S)--1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4- 25 33% 57% 3-10 days 61/2 weeks[3-(2-trifluoromethyl)-10H--phenothiazin-10- (77-87%) (37%)yl)propyl]piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol trihydrochloride3-[[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H--phenothiazin- 40 40% 73% 3 days 51/2 weeks10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl] (90%) (27%)oxy]propanamine trihydrochloride1-[3-(2-chloro-10H--phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]- 40 17% 100% 1 day 51/2 weeks4-[2-[4-[4-(1-methylethyl)aminobutyl] (100%) (55%)phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine1-[3-(2-chloro-10H--phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]- 40 10% 100% 1 day 5 weeks4-[2-[4-[2-(1-methylethyl)aminoethyl]phenoxy] (100%) (80%)ethyl]piperazine trimaleate1-[3-(2-chloro-10H--phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]- 40 45% 100% 1 day 5 weeks4-[2-[4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminopropyl]phenoxy] (100%) (55%)ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride3-[[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H--phenothiazin-10-yl) 40 65 100% 1 day 5 weekspropyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]oxy]- (100%) (25%)N--methylpropanamine trihydrochloride1-[3-(2-chloro-10H--phenothiazin-10-yl) 40 10% 97% 1 day 5 weekspropyl]-4-[2-[4-[3-(1-methylethyl)amino- (97%) (50%)propoxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride1-[3-(2-chloro-10H--phenothiazin-10-yl) 40 20% 33% 3-10 days 5 weeksPropyl]-4-[2-[4-[4-(1-methylethyl)aminobutoxy] (97-100%) (30%)phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride(R)--1-(1-methylethylamino-3-[4-[2-[4- 40 20% 27% 10 days 3 weeks[3-(2-chloro-10H--phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl] (37%) (27%)piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanoltrihydrochloride1-[3-(2-chloro-10H--phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]- 40 10% 97% 1 day 2 weeks4-[2-[4-[5-(1-methylethyl)aminopentoxy]phenoxy] (97%) (23%)ethyl]piperazine trimaleate1-[3-(2-chloro-10H--phenothiazin-10-yl)- 40 23% 40% 1 day 1 week4-[2-[4-[6-(1-methylethyl)aminohexyloxy] (40%) (30%)phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride1-[3-(2-methylthio-10H--phenothiazin-10-yl) 40 60% 45% 60 min. 3 dayspropyl]-4-[2-[4-[5-(1-methylethyl)aminopentoxy] (60%) (35%)phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trimaleate__________________________________________________________________________ *(AB) = Avoidance block at indicated time.
TABLE 2__________________________________________________________________________Effects of Compound A*After A Single Administration 1-4 2-4 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8Test Procedure hours hours week weeks weeks weeks weeks weeks weeks weeks__________________________________________________________________________Discrete Avoidance, 40% 78% 84% 80% 84% 82% 56% 50% 31% 30%% Block (Rats, 40 mg/kg,oral)Pole-Climb Avoidance, 30% -- 50% 44% 11% -- -- -- -- --% Block (Rats, 40 mg/kg,oral)Continuous Avoidance, 0% 59% 97% 96% 93% 84% 82% 55% 48% 32%% Decrease ofResponding (Rats,40 mg/kg, oral)Continuous Avoidance, 0% 15% 35% 37% 24% -- -- -- -- --% Decrease ofResponding (SquirrelMonkeys, 5 mg/kg, oral)Apomorphine Induced 93% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 100% 56% 40%Emesis % Antagonism(Dogs, 5 mg/kg, subcutaneous)Serum Prolactin Levels 215% 97% 525% -- 251% 56% -- -- -- --% Increase(Rats, 15 mg/kg,oral)Amphetamine Induced 14% -- 97% 95% 87% 87% 62% 28% 4% --Rotation% Antagonism(S. Nigra LesionedRats, 40 mg/kg, oral)__________________________________________________________________________ *Compound A (S)--1(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4[2[4[3(2-chloro-10H--phenothiazin10-yl)proyl]piperazine1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy2-propanol trihydrochloride.
TABLE 3__________________________________________________________________________ Compound A Haloperidol Chlorpromazine (7 Days (1 Hour (1 HourTest Procedure Species Post-Drug) Post-Drug) Post-Drug)__________________________________________________________________________Discrete Avoidance RatABD50 (mg/kg, PO) 19 0.35 5EBD20/ABD50 Ratio >2.1 7.8 9.6Continuous Avoidance Squirrel <5 0.28 2MED Shocks (mg/kg, PO) MonkeyRotation Antagonism Rat <15 0.35 20.5ED50 (mg/kg, PO)Confinement Motor Activity Rat 19.6 0.4 4.6DD50 (mg/kg, PO)Anti-Apomorphine Emesis Dog <5 0.02 1.4ED50 (mg/kg, SC)Inhibition of 3H--Spiroperidol Rat 1.8 6.2 11Binding-Caudate (in-vitro)IC50 (nM)Dopamine Turnover-Brain Rat 40 mg/kg PO 1 mg/kg IP 10 mg/kg IPCaudate Signif. ↑ Signif. ↑ Signif. ↑Limbic and Remainder Not signif. Signif. ↑ Signif. ↑Dopamine Adenylate Cyclase Rat 500 250 150Inhibition-Limbic (in-vitro)IC50 (nM)Prolactin Secretion Rat 15 27 130ID50 (nM) (in-vitro)__________________________________________________________________________
The compounds of formula I and their pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts have antipsychotic effects which, except for duration, are qualitatively similar to those of haloperidol, and chlorpromazine, known for their therapeutic uses and properties. At all concentrations tested, Compound N-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)-propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]-alpha-methylethanamine trimaleate produced no increase in revertant colonies when tested for mutogenicity according to the Ames procedure and it is considered to be free of mutogenic effects. Compound (S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazine-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol trihydrochloride increased revertant colonies at the highest concentration tested, however in the absence of data in mammalian test systems, conclusive statements of mutogenic effects in warm-blooded animals cannot be made.
The compounds of formula I and their pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts can be used in the form of conventional pharmaceutical preparations. By way of exemplification, suitable oral dosage units comprise or are in the range of from 1 to 500 mg., and suitable oral dosage regimens in warm-blooded animals comprise or are in the range of from about 0.01 mg/kg per day to 50 mg/kg administered at intervals of 3 days to 8 weeks. However, for any particular warm-blooded animal, the specific dosage regimen may be variable and should be adjusted according to individual need and the professional judgment of the person administering or supervising the administration of a compound of formula I or a pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salt thereof. Furthermore, the frequency with which any such dosage form will be administered will vary, depending upon the quantity of active medicament present therein and the needs and requirements of the pharmacological situation.
For the disclosed use, the compounds of formula I and their pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts are formulated, using conventional inert pharmaceutical adjuvant materials, into dosage forms which are suitable for oral or parenteral administration. Such dosage forms include tablets, suspensions, solutions, and the like. Furthermore, the compounds of formula A can be embodied into, and administered in the form of, suitable hard or soft capsules. The identity of the inert adjuvant materials which are used in formulating the compounds of formula I and their pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts into oral and parenteral dosage forms will be immediately apparent to persons skilled in the art. These adjuvant materials, either inorganic or organic in nature, include, for example, water, gelatin, lactose, starch, magnesium stearate, talc, vegetable oils, gums, polyalkylene glycols, etc. Moreover, preservatives, stabilizers, wetting agents, emulsifying agents, salts for altering osmotic pressure, buffers, or the like, can be incorporated, if desired, into such formulations.
The compounds of formula I wherein A is 2-hydroxytrimethylene, and their pharmaceutically acceptable acid addition salts possess an asymmetric carbon atom. They are ordinarily obtained as racemic mixtures. The resolution of individual racemates into the optically active isomers, that is, the enantiomers can be carried out by known procedures. Alternatively, optically active isomers can be prepared utilizing, in the processes herein described, corresponding optically active starting materials. Some racemic mixtures can be precipitated as eutectics and can thereafter be separated. Chemical resolution is, however, preferred. By this method, the desired enantiomer is formed from the racemic mixture with an optically active resolving agent, for example, an optically active acid, such as (+)-tartaric acid, (+)-dibenzoyl-D-tartaric acid, (+)-d-10-camphor-sulfonic acid, (-)-3-pinanecarboxylic acid, and the like, to form enantiomeric salt. The formed enantiomers are separated by fractional crystallization and can be converted to the corresponding optical isomer base. Thus, the invention covers the optically active isomers of the compounds of formula I, wherein A is 2-hydroxytrimethylene, as well as their racemates.
The Examples which follow further illustrate the invention. All temperatures are in degrees Centigrade.
EXAMPLE 1
Preparation of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine
4-[3-(2-chlorophenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazineethanol (22.5 g) was added to 186 ml of dry dichloromethane containing triethylamine (7.8 ml). The stirred solution was cooled to -10° and maintained at that temperature during the dropwise addition of a solution of 5.1 ml of mesyl chloride in 50 ml of dry dichloromethane. The ice bath was then removed and the reaction was stirred overnight at room temperature. The solution was washed with 25 ml of a 5% sodium bicarbonate solution and then dried over anhydrous potassium carbonate. The solvent was removed in vacuo (bath temperature, 25°) to yield 24.2 g of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4(2-chloroethyl)piperazine 2a as an oil.
This compound was used as such in subsequent reactions or it could be converted to its dihydrochloride salt and used in that form. Thus in a separate experiment the base 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenthiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine (75 g) in 700 ml of methanol was treated with excess methanlic hydrochloric acid (75 ml; ˜3.5N) and immediately the satl began to crystallize from solution. After stirring for 1 hour at room temperature, the mixture was cooled to 0° and the crystals were removed by filtration, washed with cold methanol and dried in vacuo to constant weight to give 69 g of the di-hydrochloric acid salt of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine, mp 147°-149°.
Analysis Calculated for C 21 H 25 Cl 2 N 3 S.2HCl: C, 50.92; H, 5.49; N, 8.48; Cl, 28.63; S, 6.47. Found: C, 51.11; H, 5.48; N, 8.69; Cl, 28.75; S, 6.77.
EXAMPLE 2
Preparation of 1-[3-(2-trifluoromethyl-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine
4[3-[2-(Trifluoromethyl)phenothiazin-10-yl]propyl]-1-piperazineethanol was converted as described in Example 1 into the chloroethyl compound 1-[3-(2-trifluoromethyl-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine obtained as an oil.
EXAMPLE 3
Preparation of 1-[3-(2-methylthio-10H-phenothiazine-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine
4-[3-(2-Methylthio-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazineethanol was converted as described above in Example 1 to give the corresponding chloro compound 1-[3-(2-methylthio-10H-phenothiazine-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine as an oil. cl EXAMPLE 4
Preparation of 2(S)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-1,2-propanediol acetonide
Lead tetraacetate (263 g) was dispersed in 1500 ml dry benzene under argon. To the rapidly stirred mixture 140 g of (2R, 3R, 4R, 5R)-mannitol-1,2:5,6-diacetonide was added in 5-10 g portions over 15 minutes and then an additional 1 g portions of the acetonide were added until the reaction gave a negative test for oxidant(potassium iodide-starch paper). A total of 150 g of acetonide (140 g+10×1 g) was used. The mixture was filtered through Celite and the filter cake was washed with 2×100 ml portions of dry benzene. The filtrate was stirred with 300 g anhydrous potassium carbonate for 30 minutes to neutralize acetic acid which was produced in the oxidation. After a second filtration through Celite, the solution of D-glyclraldehyde acetonide thus produced was treated with 450 ml isopropylamine and was hydrogenated over 15 g 10% palladium on carbon (1 atmosphere; 23°). The reaction essentially stopped after the uptake of 26.4 liters of hydrogen. The catalyst was removed by filtration and concentration of the filtrate furnished 188 g of the amine 2(S)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-1,2-propanediol acetonide. 865 mg of 2(S)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-1,2-propanediol acetonide in 20 ml ether was cooled to 0° and 4 mmol hydrogen chloride in ether was added. The resulting ppt was collected and washed with ether to give 500 mg of the amine hydrochloride salt, mp 135°-136°; [α] D 25 -40.5° (c, 1.0, H 2 O).
Analysis Calculated for C 9 H 18 NO 2 .HCl: C, 51.55; H, 9.61; N, 6.68; Cl, 16.91. Found: C, 51.56; H, 9.89; N, 7.00; Cl, 16.62.
EXAMPLE 5
Preparation of (2S)-3-[N-mesyl-(1-methylethyl)amino]-1,2-propanediol acetonide
90 ml mesyl chloride was added with stirring to a previously chilled (-10°) solution of (2S)-3-isopropylamino-1,2-propanediol acetonide (188 g; 1.087 mol) and triethylamine (228 ml; 1.63 mol) in dry tetrahydrofuran at such a rate that the reaction temperature did not exceed 5°. Reaction was then stirred at 10°-15° for 30 minutes whereupon it was diluted with 1.5 L brine. The layers were separated and the aqueous layers were extracted with ether (3×500 ml). The organic layers were washed in turn with brine (2×500 ml) and then were combined, dried over sodium sulfate, and evaporated to give 264 g of (2S)-3-[N-mesyl-(1-methylethyl)amino]-1,2-propanediol acetonide as an oil.
A small portion was recrystallized three times from hexane to give analytically pure material, mp 33°-34°; [α] D 25 -14.76° (c, 1.0, CHCl 3 ).
Analysis Calculated for C 10 H 21 NO 4 S: C, 47.79; H, 8.42; N, 5.57; S, 12.76. Found: C, 47.87; H, 8.66; N, 5.72; S, 12.89.
EXAMPLE 6
Preparation of (2S)-3-[N-mesyl-(1-methylethyl)amino]-1,2-propanediol
200 ml of prewashed (water and methanol) Dowex 50W-8X ion exchange resin (H 30 form) was added to a solution of 264 g crude (2S)-3-[N-mesyl-(1-methylethyl)amino]-1,2-propanediol acetonide in methanol (1 liter) and water (325 ml). The mixture was stirred under reflux for 90 minutes. The cooled mixture was filtered and the filtrate was concentrated in vacuo. The residue was evaporated several times from benzene-ethanol mixtures to remove the last traces of water. The resulting solid was triturated with 2.5 L ether to give 159.7 g of (2S)-3-[N-mesyl-(1-methylethyl)amino]-1,2-propanediol, mp 67°-70°. Concentration of the ether furnished an additional 27.7 g of (2S)-3-[N-mesyl-(1-methylethyl)amino]-1,2-propanediol, mp 62°-66°. Crystallization from ethyl acetate-hexane furnished the analytically pure material, mp 73°-74°; [α] D 25 -15.94° (c, 1.0, H 2 O).
Analysis Calculated for C 7 H 17 NO 4 S: C, 39.79; H, 8.11; N, 6.63; S, 15.18. Found: C, 39.83; H, 8.40; N, 6,66; S, 14.96.
EXAMPLE 7
Preparation of (S)-N-(1-methylethyl)-N-(methylsulfonyl)oxiranemethaneamine
A solution of (2S)-3-[N-mesyl-(1-methylethyl)amino]-1,2-propanediol (211.3 g) and benzoic acid (2.5 g) in 180 ml trimethylorthoacetate was heated at 80°-85° in a flask equipped to distill off the methanol as it was formed. After 45 minutes the reaction was cooled and partitioned between dichloromethane (600 ml) and a 5% sodium bicarbonate solution (600 ml). The organic layer was washed with dilute sodium hydroxide solution (2×200 ml) and the aqueous layers were backwashed with dichloromethane (2×200 ml). The combined organic extracts were dried over potassium carbonate and evaporated yielding 265 g of the intermediate orthoacetate as an oil.
The above oil was dissolved in dichloromethane (500 ml) and was treated with 150 ml of chlorotrimethylsilane. The solution was heated at reflux for 45 minutes, then was cooled and concentrated to dryness in vacuo to give 268 g of the chloroacetate.
The above material was dissolved in methanol (400 ml). To this rapidly stirred solution was added water (200 ml) and ice (200 g), followed by a solution of sodium hydroxide (85 g) in water (300 ml) over 2-3 minutes such that the temperature did not exceed 15°. After stirring at 15° for 30 minutes, most of the methanol was removed in vacuo and the mixture was extracted with dichloromethane (2×400 ml). The organic phases were washed with 5% sodium chloride solution (1×200 ml), then were combined, dried and evaporated. The resulting oil was distilled in vacuo to give 182 g of (S)-N-(1-methylethyl)-N-(methylsulfonyl)oxiranemethaneamine (118°/0.1 mm); [α] D 25 -20.06° (c, 1.0, methanol).
Analysis Calculated for C 7 H 15 NO 3 S: C, 43.50; H, 7.82; N, 7.25; S, 16.59. Found: C, 43.26; H, 7.72; N, 7.29; S, 16.65.
EXAMPLE 8
Preparation of (S)-1-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-3-[N-mesyl-(1-methylethyl)amino]-2-propanol
To a solution of (S)-N-(1-methylethyl)-N-(methylsulfonyl)oxiranemethaneamine (86.98 g) and 4-benzyloxyphenol (100 g) in 100 ml methanol was added potassium t-butoxide (5.04 g) and the mixture was stirred under reflux for 16 hours, whereupon 150 ml 2N sodium hydroxide was added and the reaction turned to a solid mass. It was diluted further with 1 L 1N sodium hydroxide solution and stirred for 1 hour to digest the solids which were then removed by filtration, washed with 1N sodium hydroxide and with water. The still wet crude material was taken up in dichloromethane, and the solution was dried over sodium sulfate and partially evaporated in vacuo to a thick oil (wt 250 g) which was then diluted with stirring using 1 L of ether. The mixture was chilled and the product filtered to give 157.1 g of (S)-1-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-3-[N-mesyl-(1-methylethyl)amino]-2-propanol, mp 96°-97°.
Analysis Calculated for C 20 H 27 NO 5 S: C, 61.04; H, 6.91; N, 3.56 Found: C, 61.17; H, 6.90; N, 3.43.
EXAMPLE 9
Preparation of (S)-1-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-2-propanol
To a stirred slurry of (S)-1-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-3-[N-mesyl-(1-methylethyl)amino]-2-propanol (78.7 g) in 300 ml toluene was added isopropenyl methyl ether (29 ml) followed by 0.1 ml phosphorus oxychloride. The reaction mixture was stirred for 2 hours at room temperature to ensure formation of the isopropenyl methylether derivative, whereupon 1 ml of triethylamine was added to neutralize the acid catalyst. The solution was then added dropwise over 30 minutes to a stirred solution of sodium bis-(2-methoxyethoxy) aluminum hydride (70% in benzene; 286 ml) and 300 ml toluene which was maintained at 80° throughout the addition. After stirring for an additional 2 hours at 80°, the reaction was cooled and excess reagent was destroyed by the dropwise addition of 30 ml 2N sodium hydroxide and when the reaction had subsided, 300 ml 2N sodium hydroxide were added. The layers were separated and the organic layer was washed in turn with 1N sodium hydroxide (2×) and with brine (2×). The toluene layer was then diluted with ether (300 ml) and extracted using 800 ml 0.5N hydrochloric acid. The acidic extract was washed with ether and the organic layers were backwashed with 0.5N hydrochloric acid (100 ml). The stirred aqueous extracts were basified using 100 ml 10N sodium hydroxide and the resulting solids were removed by filtration and dried. Crystallization of the crude material from ethyl acetate-hexane furnished 54.7 g of (S)-1-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-2-propanol, mp 94°-96°.
Analysis Calculated for C 19 H 25 NO 3 : C, 72.35; H, 7.99; N, 4.44 Found: C, 72.38; H, 8.16; N, 4.43.
EXAMPLE 10
Preparation of (2R)-3-mesyloxy-1,2-propanediol acetonide
A solution of 2(S)-glycerol-2,3-acetonide (109 g), obtained from mannitol-1,2:5,6-diacetonide via D-glyceraldehyde acetonide using the method described by LeCocq et al., Biochem., 3, 976 (1964), in 1 L dry dichloromethane was cooled to -35° with stirring. Triethylamine (140 ml) was added followed by the dropwise addition of mesyl chloride (71 ml) over 10 minutes while maintaining the reaction between -35° and -25°. The cooling bath was removed and after 45 minutes, 250 ml 1N hydrochloric acid was added. The layers were separated and the dichloromethane solution was washed in turn with 250 ml portions of water (1×), 1N sodium hydroxide (1×) and water (1×). The aqueous layers were dried over sodium sulfate and evaporated to give 172.1 g of (2R)-3-mesyloxy-1,2-propanediol acetonide as a pale yellow oil.
EXAMPLE 11
Preparation of (2S)-3-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-1,2 -propanediol acetonide
A solution of sodium hydroxide (39 g) in 200 ml water added to a rapidly stirred solution of (2R)-3-mesyloxy-1,2-propanediol acetonide (172.1 g) and 4-benzyloxyphenol (200 g) in 1.5 L dimethylsulfoxide, and the reaction was heated on a steam bath for 3 hours. The cooled solution was diluted with 1 L 1N sodium hydroxide solution and the resulting solids were washed with dilute sodium hydroxide solution with water. The air-dried solids were taken up in benzene (2 L) and the solution was dried over sodium sulfate, decolorized with charcoal and evaporated in vacuo. The product was dissolved in hot methanol (˜1.5 L), cooled to ˜40° and filtered free from some non-polar impurity. A small portion of the methanol solution was diluted with water to give (2S)-3-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-1,2-propanediol acetonide. Crystallization from hexane furnished the pure specimen, mp 69.5°-71°; [α] D 25 , +6.26° (c, 1.0, methanol).
Analysis Calculated for C 19 H 22 O 4 : C, 72.59; H, 7.05. Found: C, 72.67; H, 6.90.
EXAMPLE 12
Preparation of (2R)-3-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-1,2-propanediol
The methanolic solution of (2S)-3-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-1,2-propanediol acetonide (˜2 L) from the previous example was diluted with 120 ml water and combined with Dowex 50W-8X ion exchange resin (50 ml) in a flask fitted for distillation. The stirred mixture was heated to boiling and 1.8 L of distillate was collected over 3 hours. The reaction was diluted with ethanol (500 ml) and benzene (500 ml) filtered free of the resin and concentrated to dryness in vacuo. The residue was crystallized from ether and from ethyl acetate to give 137.0 g of (2R)-3-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-1,2-propanediol in several crops.
Recrystallization of a sample from ethyl acetate furnished the analytical specimen, mp 125°-126.5°; [α] D 25 -5.52° (c, 1.0, methanol).
Analysis Calculated for C 16 H 18 O 4 : C, 70.06; H, 6.61. Found: C, 70.01; H, 6.51.
EXAMPLE 13
Preparation of (2S)-1-chloro-3-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-2-propanol
A mixture of (2R)-3-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-1,2-propanediol (137 g), trimethylorthoacetate (90 g) and benzoic acid (4 g) stirred and heated at 80° for 45 minutes while distilling methanol from the reaction. The reaction was poured into benzene (750 ml) and the solution was washed with 250 mL 1N sodium hydroxide solution. The aqueous layer was backwashed with benzene and the combined organic extracts were dried over potassium carbonate and evaporated to give 166 g of crude orthoacetate as an oil. The oil was dissolved in dry dichloromethane (500 ml) and treated with chlorotrimethylsilane (135 ml) and refluxed for 30 minutes. The solvent was removed in vacuo to give 170 g of chloroacetate, which was dissolved in 800 ml methanol containing 200 ml 2N methanolic hydrochloric acid. The mixture was left overnight at room temperature and then was concentrated to dryness under reduced pressure and the residue was crystallized from dichloromethane-hexane to give 128.9 g of (2S)-1-chloro-3-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-2-propanol. A small amount was recrystallized from ethyl acetate to give the analytical sample, mp 78°-80°; [α] D 25 +3.09 (c, 1.0, methanol).
Analysis Calculated for C 16 H 17 O 3 Cl: C, 65.69; H, 5.85; Cl, 12.11. Found: C, 65.43; H, 5.74; Cl, 12.06.
EXAMPLE 14
Preparation of (2R)-1-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-2-propanol
(2S)-1-chloro-3-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-2-propanol (14.6 g) and sodium acetate (4.2 g) in 150 ml methanol containing 45 ml isopropylamine was heated at reflux for 16 hours. The solvents were removed in vacuo and the residue was partitioned between benzene (600 ml) and 1N sodium hydroxide (125 ml). The aqueous layer was washed with benzene (200 ml) and the combined organic layers were combined, dried over potassium carbonate and concentrated under reduced pressure to give crude (2R)-1-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-2-propanol as a crystalline solid. Crystallization from ether afforded 13.7 g of (2R)-1-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-2-propanol, mp 93°-95°, and recrystallization from ether furnished the analytical material, mp 93.5°-94.5°; [α] D 25 +22.1° (c, 1.0, 0.1N hydrochloric acid).
Analysis Calculated for C 19 H 25 NO 3 : C, 72.35; H, 7.99; N, 4.44. Found: C, 72.40; H, 8.02; N, 4.29.
EXAMPLE 15
Preparation of 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-bromopropoxy)benzene
A mixture of 4-benzyloxyphenol (50 g), 1,3-dibromopropane (101 g) and powdered anhydrous potassium carbonate (17.3 g) in acetone (500 ml) was stirred under reflux for 30 hours. The solids were removed by filtration and the filtrate was evaporated to dryness in vacuo. The residue was dissolved in 300 ml of dichloromethane and the resulting solution was washed with 10% sodium hydroxide solution to remove unreacted p-benzyloxyphenol. The dichloromethane extract was dried over potassium carbonate, concentrated in vacuo and distilled giving 33.4 g of 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-bromopropoxy)benzene; bp 180°-195° (0.6 mm) (41% yield, 98% pure by gas chromatography). The structure was confirmed by mass spectrum analysis.
EXAMPLE 16
Preparation of 1-benzyloxy-4-(4-bromobutoxy)benzene
4-Benzyloxyphenol was condensed with 1,4-dibromopropane using essentially the same reaction conditions reported above in Example 15, except that the reaction time was 118 hours and the extraction solvent was toluene. The crude product was crystallized from hexane to afford 1-benzyloxy-4-(4-bromobutoxy)benzene, mp 70°-72°.
Analysis Calculated for C 17 H 19 BrO 2 : C, 60.91; H, 5.71. Found: C, 61.36; H, 5.78.
EXAMPLE 17
Preparation of 1-benzyloxy-4-(5-bromopentoxy)benzene
4-Benzyloxyphenol and 1,5-dibromopentane were reacted under conditions described in Example 15 for 5 days. The crude product isolated by a toluene extraction, was distilled to give 1-benzyloxy-4-(5-bromopentoxy)benzene as an oil (88.9% pure by gas chromatography).
EXAMPLE 18
Preparation of 1-benzyloxy-4-(6-bromohexyloxy)benzene
4-Benzyloxyphenol and 1,6-dibromohexane were reacted using conditions reported in Example 15. The reaction time was 4 days and the extraction solvent used was toluene. The crude product was crystallized from hexane to give 1-benzyloxy-4-(6-bromohexyloxy)benzene, mp 72°-3°.
EXAMPLE 19
Preparation of 1-benzyloxy-4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminopropoxy]benzene
In a glass lined vessel, 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-bromopropoxy)benzene (33.4 g) in 300 ml of isopropylamine was heated at 100° for 10 hours under nitrogen at 1000 psi, then the excess isopropylamine was removed in vacuo and the residue was dissolved in 300 ml of water. The solution was made alkaline with 10% sodium hydroxide and the resulting oil extracted with dichloromethane. The dichloromethane extract, dried over potassium carbonate, was concentrated and distilled to yield 22.5 g of 1-benzyloxy-4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminopropoxy]benzene, boiling range 180°-190° (0.5 mm) (97.8% pure by gas chromatography).
EXAMPLE 20
Preparation of 1-benzyloxy-4-[4-(1-methylethyl)aminobutoxy]benzene
As described in Example 19, 1-benzyloxy-4-(4-bromobutoxy)benzene was reacted with isopropylamine at 100° (12 hours; 500 psi) to give 1-benzyloxy-4-[4-(1-methylethyl)aminobutoxyl]benzene. The crude product was not distilled.
EXAMPLE 21
Preparation of 1-benzyloxy-4-[5-(1-methylethyl)aminopentoxy]benzene
As described in Example 19, 1-benzyloxy-4-(5-bromopentoxy)benzene was reacted with isopropylamine at 100° (12 hours; 150 psi) to give 1-benzyloxy-4-[5-(1-methylethyl)aminopentoxy]benzene. The distilled product was 95.2% pure by gas chromatography.
EXAMPLE 22
Preparation of 1-benzyloxy-4-[6-(1-methylethyl)aminohexyloxy]benzene
As described in Example 19, 1-benzyloxy-4-(6-bromohexyloxy)benzene was reacted with isopropylamine at 100° (12 hours; 500 psi) to give 1-benzyloxy-4-[6-(1-methylethyl)aminohexyloxy]benzene. The crude oil was crystallized from pentane yielding the purified product, mp 47°-49°.
EXAMPLE 23
Preparation of 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-methylaminopropoxy)benzene
To 150 ml of ethanol containing methylamine (16 g) was added 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-bromopropyloxy)benzene (14 g). The solution was heated for 12 hours at 100° under nitrogen at 1000 psi. The solvent was evaporated in vacuo and the residue treated with 20% sodium hydroxide to ˜pH10. The oil was extracted with ethyl acetate and converted in its hydrochloride salt in the usual manner to give 8.4 g (70%) of 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-methylaminopropoxy)benzene as its hydrochloride salt, mp 202°-204.
Analysis Calculated for C 17 H 21 NO 2 .HCl: C, 66.33; N, 7.20; N, 4.55. Found: C, 66.30; H, 7.08; N, 4.60.
EXAMPLE 24
Preparation of 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-dimethylaminopropoxy)benzene
In the manner described above for the preparation of 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-methylaminopropoxy)benzene, 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-bromopropyloxy)benzene was reacted with dimethylamine to give 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-dimethylaminopropoxy)benzene. The product was isolated as its hydrochloride salt and crystallization from isopropanol gave the purified hydrochloride salt of 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-dimethylaminopropoxy)benzene, mp 183°-185°.
EXAMPLE 25
Preparation of 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-phthalimidopropoxy)benzene
A solution of 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-bromopropyloxy)benzene (29.4 g) and potassium phthalimide (20.4 g) in dimethylformamide (150 ml) was stirred and heated on a steam bath for 17 hours under nitrogen. The solvent was distilled in vacuo and water (250 ml) was added to the residue. The mixture was extracted with dichloromethane and the extract dried over anhydrous potassium carbonate. The solvent was evaporated in vacuo and the residue was crystallized from ethanol-acetone to give 10.9 g (31%) of 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-phthalimidopropoxy)benzene, mp 143°-145°. A second crop which was obtained by concentrating the filtrate, weighed 9.2 g (26%), mp 137°-140°. The analysis of a sample, mp 141°-143°, from an earlier run was as follows:
Analysis Calculated for C 24 H 21 NO 4 : C, 74.40; H, 5.46; N, 3.62. Found: C, 74.58; H, 5.58; N, 3.45.
EXAMPLE 26
Preparation of 4-(3-bromopropyl)phenol
To 48% hydrobromic acid solution (110 g) was added 4-(3-hydroxypropyl)phenol (25 g) and heated on a steam bath for 3 hours. After cooling, water (500 ml) was added, the oil was extracted with ether, washed with water and then with dilute sodium bicarbonate solution. The etheral extract was dried over potassium carbonate, evaporated and the residue was distilled in a Kugelrohr apparatus giving 29.6 g (84%) of 4-(3-bromopropyl)phenol, bp 180° (2 mm). The product was 92.6% pure by gas chromatography and mass spectrum was compatible with 4-(3-bromopropyl)phenol.
EXAMPLE 27
Preparation of 4-(4-methoxyphenyl)-N-(1-methylethyl)butylamine
A solution of (50 ml) isopropylamine and 4-(4-methoxyphenyl)butyl bromide (13.7 g) in a glass lined vessel was heated under nitrogen (initial pressure, 500 psi) for 12 hours at 100° C. The solvent was removed in vacuo and water (200 ml) was added to the residue. The solution was acidified with concentrated hydrochloric acid and the solution was extracted with ether. The extract was dried over potassium carbonate and the solvent was removed in vacuo. The residue, 4-(4-methoxyphenyl)-N-(1-methylethyl)butylamine, weighed 9.3 g (75%). The identity and purity (94.8%) of the product was determined by mass spectrum and gas chromatography.
EXAMPLE 28
Preparation of (S)-1-(4-hydroxyphenoxy)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-2-propanol
A solution of (S)-1-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-2-propanol (53.4 g) in 500 ml methanol was hydrogenated over 5 g 10% palladium on carbon (room temperature; 1 atmosphere). Within 40 minutes the uptake of nitrogen stopped abruptly after the absorption of 4,300 ml. The mixture was filtered through Celite and the filtrate was concentrated to dryness under reduced pressure. The resulting colorless solid residue was crystallized from acetone to give 35.2 g of (S)-1-(4-hydroxyphenoxy)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-2-propanol, mp 127°-129°; [α] D 25 -20.67° (c, 1.0, 0.1N hydrochloric acid).
Analysis Calculated for C 12 H 19 NO 3 : C, 63.98; H, 8.50; N, 6.22. Found: C, 63.81; H, 8.68; N, 6.40.
EXAMPLE 29
Preparation of (R)-1-(4-hydroxyphenoxy)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-2-propanol
Hydrogenation of (2R)-1-(4-benzyloxyphenoxy)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-2-propanol under the conditions reported above for the preparation of (S)-1-(4-hydroxyphenoxy)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-2-propanol, furnished the dextrorotatory isomer (R)-1-(4-hydroxyphenoxy)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-2-propanol, mp 126°-127°, [α] D 25 +20.85° (c, 1.0, 0.1N hydrochloric acid.
Analysis Calculated for C 12 H 19 NO 3 : C, 63.98; H, 8.50; N, 6.22. Found: C, 64.04; H, 8.53; N, 6.04.
EXAMPLE 30
Preparation of 4-[2-(1-methylethyl)aminoethoxy]phenol
4-(2-Bromoethoxy)phenol (41 g) was added to 300 ml of isopropylamine and the solution was heated for 12 hours at 100° under nitrogen at 250 psi. Excess isopropylamine was removed in vacuo and 300 ml of water added to dissolve the residue. The solution was basified with solid potassium carbonate and the oil extracted with ether. The ether extract was dried over anhydrous potassium carbonate. After the solvent was removed in vacuo and the residue was crystallized from acetone-hexane to yield 21.8 g (59%) of 4-[2-(1-methylethyl)aminoethoxy]phenol, mp 78°-80°.
Analysis Calculated for C 11 H 17 NO 2 : C, 67.66; H, 8.78; N, 7.17. Found: C, 67.57; H, 9.06; N, 7.25.
EXAMPLE 31
Preparation of 4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminopropoxy]phenol
1-Benzyloxy-4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminopropoxy]benzene (11.5 g) was added to an hydrogenation bottle containing 250 ml of ethanol and hydrogenated over 1 g of 10% palladium on carbon (room temperature; starting pressure of 50 psi). After the theoretical uptake of hydrogen, the mixture was filtered and the solvent distilled in vacuo giving 8.1 g of 4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminopropoxy]phenol, mp 92°-100° (96.4% pure by gas chromatography). Mass spectrum was compatible.
EXAMPLE 32
Preparation of 4-[4-(1-methylethyl)aminobutoxy]phenol
1-Benzyloxy-4-[4-(1-methylethyl)aminobutoxy]benzene was debenzylated under the hydrogenating conditions reported above in Example 31. The crude product was crystallized from cyclohexane to give 4-[4-(1-methylethyl)aminobutoxy]phenol, mp 91°-93° (98.6% pure by gas chromatography).
EXAMPLE 33
Preparation of 4-[5-(1-methylethyl)aminopentoxy]phenol
A solution of 1-benzyloxy-4-[5-(1-methylethyl)aminophenoxy]benzene (24 g) in acetic acid (250 ml) was hydrogenated over 1 g 10% palladium on carbon. After shaking for 0.5 hours at room temperature, the theoretical amount of hydrogen was taken up. The solvent was removed by distillation in vacuo and the residue dissolved in water. The solution was basified with saturated sodium bicarbonate solution and the product was recovered by filtration to give 13.0 g (75%) of 4-[5-(1-methylethyl)aminopentoxy]phenol, mp 95°-99° (95.7% pure by gas chromatography). Mass spectrum was compatible with the expected product.
EXAMPLE 34
Preparation of 4-[6-(1-methylethyl)aminohexyloxy]phenol
A solution of the crude 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-dimethylaminopropoxy)benzene was hydrogenated under conditions described above for the preparation of 4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminoproxy]phenol. A small sample of the crude product, mp 78°-86° was crystallized from cyclohexane to give the analytically pure 4-[6-(1-methylethyl)aminohexyloxy]phenol, mp 90°-92°.
Analysis Calculated for C 15 H 25 NO 2 : C, 71.67; H, 10.03; N, 5.57. Found: C, 71.50; H, 9.93; N, 5.64.
EXAMPLE 35
Preparation of 4-(3-methylaminopropoxy)phenol hydrochloride
A solution of 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-methylaminopropoxy)benzene hydrochloride (8.4 g) in acetic acid (250 ml) was hydrogenated over 0.5 g of 10% palladium on carbon in a Parr apparatus (50°; initial pressure 50 psi). The reaction was completed within 0.4 hours and after the catalyst was removed by filtration, the solvent was distilled in vacuo. The residue was crystallized from methanol-ethyl acetate to give 4.8 g (80% of 4-(3-methylaminopropoxy)phenol hydrochloride, mp 167°-169°.
Analysis Calculated for C 10 H 15 NO 2 HCl: C, 55.17; H, 7.41; N, 6.43. Found: C, 54.97; H, 7.42; N, 6.60.
EXAMPLE 36
Preparation of 4-(3-dimethylaminopropoxy)phenol hydrochloride
In the manner described above for the preparation of 4-(3-methylaminopropoxy)phenol hydrochloride, 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-dimethylaminopropoxy)benzene was converted to 4-(3-dimethylaminopropoxy)phenol hydrochloride with the exception that ethanol was used as the reaction solvent. The crude product, after crystallization from ethanol, yielded purified 4-(3-dimethylaminopropoxy)phenol hydrochloride, mp 188°-190°.
EXAMPLE 37
Preparation of 4-[2-(1-methylethyl)aminoethyl]phenol
A mixture of isopropanol (300 ml) and 4-(2-bromoethyl)phenol (17.2 g) in a glass lined vessel was heated at 100° for 12 hours under nitrogen at a starting pressure of 250 psi. The solvent was removed in vacuo and the residue was basified using 10% sodium carbonate solution. The mixture was extracted using ether and the ethereal solution, dried over potassium carbonate, was evaporated in vacuo. The resulting residue crystallized on standing, giving 13.5 g of 4-[2-(1-methylethyl)aminoethyl]phenol, (98% pure by gas chromatography). Mass spectrum was compatible. A small sample was crystallized from cyclohexane-benzene and melted at 102°-104°.
EXAMPLE 38
Preparation of 4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminopropyl]phenol
Under the conditions outlined above for the preparation of 4-[2-(1-methylethyl)aminoethyl]phenol, 4-(3-bromopropyl)phenol was reacted with isopropylamine. The crude product was distilled in a Kugelrohr apparatus (150°; 1 mm) and the distillate was crystallized from ether to give 4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminopropyl]phenol (97.9% pure by gas chromatography).
EXAMPLE 39
Preparation of 4-[4-(1-methylethyl)aminobutyl]phenol
4-[4-methoxyphenyl]-N-(1-methylethyl)butylamine (10 g) was added to 48% hydrobromic acid solution (70 ml) and the mixture was refluxed for 3 hours. The residual hydrobromic hydrogen acid was distilled off in vacuo and the residue was made alkaline with 10% sodium carbonate solution. The product was filtered, washed with water and dried to give 5.0 g of 4-[4-(1-methylethyl)aminobutyl]phenol. Mass spectrum and gas chromatography confirmed the identity and purity (93.5%) of the product.
EXAMPLE 40
Preparation of 4-(3-phthalimidopropoxy)phenol
To a hydrogen bottle containing 0.5 g of 10% palladium on carbon and acetic acid (250 ml) was added the above 1-benzyloxy-4-(3-phthalimidopropoxy)benzene (16 g). The mixture was shaken at 50° in the Parr hydrogenation apparatus for about 4 hours and cooled to room temperature. The mixture was filtered and the solvent distilled in vacuo. The residue was crystallized from toluene to yield 10.8 g (88%), mp 135°-7° of 4-(3-phthalimidopropoxy)phenol.
Analysis Calculated for C 17 H 15 NO 4 : C, 68.68; H, 5.09; N, 4.71. Found: C, 68.64; H, 5.22; N, 4.33.
EXAMPLE 41
Preparation of (S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol trihydrochloride.
Method A
To a solution of the chloride of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine (9.4 g) in 75 ml dimethylsulfoxide was added (S)-1-(4-hydroxyphenoxy)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-2-propanol (6.0 g) followed by 6.25 ml 4N sodium hydroxide solution. The mixture was stirred under argon at 55° for 2 hours then was cooled and diluted with 500 ml water and 35 ml 1N sodium hydroxide, and extracted with dichloromethane (3×). The extracts were backwashed with water (2×), dried over potassium carbonate and the solvent was removed in vacuo to give 12.8 g of crude (S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol as an oil.
The oil was dissolved in methanol and treated with an excess of methanolic hydrogen chloride (˜6N; 12 ml). The solution was concentrated by boiling to 70 ml then it was cooled and 70 ml of ether was added to the cloud point. The mixture was cooled and the resulting solid was filtered to give 13.4 g of the trihydrochloride of (S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol, mp 245°-248°.
The material was recrystallized from methanol-ethyl acetate to give 11.0 g of (S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol trihydrochloride, 247°-249°.
Method B
To a mixture of the dihydrochloride salt of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine (12.4 g) and (S)-1-(4-hydroxyphenoxy)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-2-propanol (6.2 g) in 100 ml dimethylsulfoxide was added 15.25 ml of 5N sodium hydroxide solution and the mixture was stirred under argon for 2 hours at 50°. The reaction was worked up as in method A to give 14.7 g of the crude (S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol.
The product was converted to its trihydrochloride salt as before yielding 15.5 g of crude salt. Two crystallizations from methanol-ethyl acetate furnished 11.2 g of the trihydrochloride salt of (S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol, mp 251°-253°; [α] D 25 -9.82° (c, 1.0, methanol.
Analysis Calculated for C 33 H 43 ClN 4 O 3 S.3 HCl: C, 55.00; H, 6.43; N, 7.77; Cl, 19.68; S, 4.44. Found: C, 54.66; H, 6.44; N, 7.75; Cl, 19.60; S, 4.28.
EXAMPLE 42
Preparation of (R)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol, trihydrochloride
Using the conditions outlined in method A, 11.7 g of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine was reacted with 7.5 g of (R)-1-(4-hydroxyphenoxy)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-2-propanol to give, after recrystallization from methanol-ethyl acetate and from methanol-ethanol, the trihydrochloride salt of (S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol, trihydrochloride, mp 251.5°-253°; [α] D 25 +10.37° (c, 1.0, methanol).
Analysis Calculated for C 33 H 43 ClN 4 O 3 S.3HCl: C, 55.00; H, 6.43; N, 7.77; Cl, 19.68; S, 4.44. Found: C, 55.18; H, 6.50; N, 7.69; Cl, 19.35; S, 4.50.
EXAMPLE 43
Preparation of (S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-trifluoromethyl)-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]piperazin-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol trihydrochloride
1-[3-(2-Trifluoromethyl)-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine (4.8 g) and (S)-1-(4-hydroxyphenoxy)-3-(1-methylethyl)amino-2-propanol (2.84 g) in 100 ml dimethylsulfoxide were heated with 2.9 ml 4N sodium hydroxide solution and maintained at 55° for 1 hour. The usual work up afforded 6.4 g of crude free base.
6.0 g of the product was converted to its trihydrochloride using methanolic hydrogen chloride and the salt was recrystallized (2×) from methanol-ethyl acetate to give 4.03 g of (S)-1-(1-methylethylamino)-3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-trifluoromethyl)-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-piperazine-1-yl]ethoxy]phenoxy]-2-propanol trihydrochloride, mp 242°-244°; [α]-7.59° (c, 1.0, methanol).
Analysis Calculated for C 34 H 43 F 3 N 4 O 3 S.HCl: C, 54.15; H, 6.15; N, 7.43; F, 7.56; Cl, 14.10; S, 4.25. Found: C, 53.96; N, 6.17; N, 7.28; F, 7.31; Cl, 14.06; S, 4.38.
EXAMPLE 44
Preparation of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-2-(1-methylethyl)aminoethoxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride
Using the conditions essentially described in method A above, 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine (10.6 g) was reacted with 4-[2-(1-methylethyl)aminoethoxy]phenol (4.88) in dimethylsulfoxide (125 ml) containing sodium hydroxide (1.0 g) in water (7 ml). The crude free base was extracted using ethyl acetate and the dried extract was treated with excess hydrogen chloride in ethyl acetate to furnish the crude trihydrochloride salt. Crystallization of the crude from methanol-isopropanol afforded 2.5 g of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[2-(1-methylethyl)aminoethoxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride, mp 223°-235°.
Analysis Calculated for C 32 H 41 ClN 4 O 2 S.3HCl: C, 55.65; H, 6.42; N, 8.11 Found: C, 55.61; H, 6.56; N, 7.97.
EXAMPLE 45
Preparation of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-2-[4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminopropoxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride
Using the conditions described above in method A, 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine (13.9 g) and 4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminopropyl]phenol (7.0 g) were reacted in the presence of 9.25 ml 4.0N sodium hydroxide in 100 ml dimethylsulfoxide. The crude free base, isolated by extraction using chloroform, was dissolved in ethyl acetate and treated with hydrogen chloride in ethyl acetate to give the crude trihydrochloride salt. Crystallization from methanol-isopropanol yielded 10.8 g of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminopropyl]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride, mp 215°-225°.
Analysis Calculated for C 33 H 43 ClN 4 O 2 S.3HCl: C, 56.25; H, 6.58; N, 7.95. Found: C, 56.59; H, 6.48; N, 7.78.
EXAMPLE 46
Preparation of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[4-(1-methylethyl)aminobutoxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride
A solution of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine (3.8 g) and 4-[4-(1-methylethyl)aminobutoxy]phenol (2.0 g), in 100 ml dimethylsulfoxide was reacted with sodium hydroxide (0.4 g) in 3 ml water under the conditions described in method A. The crude amine, extracted into ethyl acetate, was converted to the trihydrochloride salt by addition of excess hydrogen chloride in ethyl acetate to the dried extract. The crude salt was triturated with a small amount of hot methanol, then was crystallized from methanol-ethyl acetate to give 2.0 g of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[4-(1-methylethyl)aminobutoxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride, mp 220°-221°.
Analysis Calculated for C 34 H 45 ClN 4 O 2 S.3HCl: C, 56.82; H, 6.73; N, 7.80. Found: C, 56.95; H, 6.59; N, 7.78.
EXAMPLE 47
Preparation of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[5-(1-methylethyl)aminopentoxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride
A solution of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine (9.2 g) and 4-[5-(1-methylethyl)aminopentoxy]phenol (5.16 g) in 150 ml dimethylsulfoxide was treated with sodium hydroxide (0.87 g) in water (7 ml) and was stirred at 55°-60° for 5 hours. The usual work-up furnished the crude trihydrochloride salt which was recrystallized from methanol to give 5.8 g of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[5-(1-methylethyl)aminopentoxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride, mp 237°-239°.
Analysis Calculated for C 35 H 47 ClN 4 O 2 S.3HCl: C, 57.38; H, 6.88; N, 7.65. Found: C, 57.09; H, 6.98; N, 7.50.
EXAMPLE 48
Preparation of 1-[3-(2-methylthio-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[5-(1-methylethyl)aminopentoxy ]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trimaleate
A solution of 1-[3-(2-methylthio-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine (3.2 g) and 4-[5-(1-methylethyl)aminopentoxy]phenol (2.0 g) in 50 ml dimethylsulfoxide was treated with a solution of sodium hydroxide (0.3 g) in water (2 ml). The mixture was stirred for 5 hours at 55°-60° and then was worked up in the usual manner. The product was isolated as its trimaleate salt which was purified by crystallization from methanol-ethyl acetate to yield 1-[3-(2-methylthio-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[5-(1-methylethyl)aminopentoxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trimaleate, mp 136°-138°.
Analysis Calculated for C 36 H 50 N 4 O 2 S 2 .3C 4 H 4 O 4 : C, 58.64; H, 6.36; N, 5.70; S, 6.52. Found: C, 58.60; H, 6.51; N, 5.83; S, 6.23.
EXAMPLE 49
Preparation of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)]-4-[2-[4-[6-(1-methylethyl)aminohexyloxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride
A solution of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine (10.8 g) and 4-[6-(1-methylethyl)aminohexyloxy]phenol (6.3 g) in 125 ml dimethylsulfoxide was treated with sodium hydroxide (1.0 g) in 7 ml water. The reaction was run as before (1 hour; 55°) and worked up in the usual manner ethyl acetate extraction and precipitation of the salt using hydrogen chloride in ethyl acetate. The crude trihydrochloride salt was crystallized from methanol to give 5.1 g of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)]-4-[2-[4-[6-(1-methylethyl)aminohexyloxy]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride, mp 199°-203°.
Analysis Calculated for C 36 H 49 ClN 4 O 2 S.3HCl:C, 57.91; H, 7.02; N, 7.50. Found: C, 57.99; H, 7.15; N, 7.23.
EXAMPLE 50
Preparation of 3-[[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]oxy]propanamine trihydrochloride
To a stirred solution of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl) piperazine (24 g) and 14.5 g of 4-(3-phthalimidopropyloxy)phenol in dimethylsulfoxide (500 ml) at 50° under nitrogen was added sodium hydroxide (1.9 g) in water (15 ml), and the solution was stirred for 5 hours 55°-60°. After standing at room temperature overnight, the reaction was poured into water (1 L) and the oil was extracted using ethyl acetate. The extract dried over sodium sulfate was evaporated in vacuo and the residual material was dissolved in acetonitrile. The supernatant was decanted from some insoluble material and then hydrogen chloride was bubbled into the solution to precipitate the product as the dihydrochloride salt. Methanol was added to the mixture to redissolve the salt and the solution was concentrated until a solid started to precipitate. The solid was collected by filtration to give 2 g of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2 -[4-(3-phthalimidopropyloxy)phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine as its di-hydrochloride salt, mp 233°-246°. The filtrate was evaporated and the resulting oil was crystallized from methanol yielding an additional 8.3 g of the same material, mp 225°-240°
To 500 ml of ethanol containing 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-(3-phthalimidopropyloxy)phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine (10.5 g) was added 85% hydrazine hydrate (2.95 g). The solution was stirred and refluxed for 24 hours. The insoluble phthalazinedione was then removed by filtration and the filtrate concentrated in vacuo. Water (200 ml) and concentrated ammonium hydroxide (50 ml) was added to the residue. The oil was extracted with dichloromethane and the solution dried over anhydrous sodium sulfate. The solvent was removed in vacuo and the residue dissolved in ethyl acetate. Hydrogen chloride was bubbled into the solution to precipitate the product as its trihydrochloride salt which was recovered by filtration and crystallized from acetonitrile-methanol. The yield of 3-[[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]oxy]propanamine trihydrochloride, mp 237°-240°, was 6.0 g.
Analysis Calculated for C 30 H 37 ClN 4 O 2 S.3HCl:C, 54.39; H, 6.09; N, 8.46. Found: C, 54.06; H, 6.03; N, 8.18.
EXAMPLE 51
Preparation of 3-[[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]oxy]-N-methylpropanamine trihydrochloride
A solution of 4-(3-methylaminopropoxy)phenol hydrochloride (4.7 g) and 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine (10.7 g) (as its dihydrochloride) in dimethylsulfoxide (125 ml) was stirred under nitrogen during the addition of sodium hydroxide (3.46 g) in water (5 ml). The reaction was then stirred at 55° for 4 hours and then was diluted with water (500 ml). The oil which separated was extracted into ethyl acetate and hydrogen chloride was bubbled into the solution previously dried over potassium carbonate to precipitate the crude product as its trihydrochloride salt (4.3 g). Crystallization of the salt from acetonitrile-methanol yielded 1.9 g of 3-[[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]oxy]-N-methylpropanamine trihydrochloride, mp 223°-226°.
Analysis Calculated for C 31 H 39 ClN 4 O 2 S.3HCl: C, 55.03; H, 6.26; N, 8.28. Found:C, 54.96; H, 6.27; N, 8.23.
EXAMPLE 52
Preparation of 3-[[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]oxy]-N,N-dimethylpropanamine trihydrochloride
A solution of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine (4.22 g) and 4-(3-dimethylaminopropoxy)phenol hydrochloride, (2.3 g) in dimethylsulfoxide (100 ml) was stirred under nitrogen and warmed to 55° C. Then a solution of sodium hydroxide (0.8 g) in water (3 ml) was added and the reaction was stirred at 55°-65° for 2 hours. The usual work-up furnished the crude salt, which was crystallized from methanol-ethyl acetate to give 1.5 g of 3-[[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]oxy] -N,N-dimethylpropanamine trihydrochloride, mp 228°-230°.
EXAMPLE 53
Preparation of N-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]-alpha-methylethanamine trimaleate
A mixture of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl) piperazine dihydrochloride (52.0 g) and 4-isopropylaminophenol (16.65 g) in dimethylsulfoxide (500 ml) was treated with an aqueous solution of sodium hydroxide (4.0N; 79.5 ml) and the reaction was stirred under an atmosphere of argon 55° for 3 hours. The cooled mixture was diluted with water (0.1.5 L) and extracted (2×) with toluene. The extracts dried over potassium carbonate were decolorized using charcoal, and then evaporated under reduced pressure. The residual oil was dissolved in ethyl acetate (1.2 L). The resulting solution was treated with a solution of maleic acid (38 g) in methanol (300 ml). The precipitated crude trimalate salt was removed by filtration and recrystallized (2×) from methanol to yield 43.2 g of N-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-1-piperazinyl]ethoxy]phenyl]-alpha -methylethanamine trimaleate, mp 183°-185° .
Analysis Calculated for C 30 H 37 ClN 4 OS.3C 4 H 4 O 4 : C, 56.98; H, 5.58; N, 6.33. Found: C, 57.13; H, 5.64; N, 6.14.
EXAMPLE 54
Preparation of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[2-(1-methylethyl)aminoethyl]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trimaleate
A solution of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine (10 g) and 4-[2-(1-methylethyl)aminoethyl]phenol (4.22 g) in dimethylsulfoxide (100 ml) was stirred under nitrogen and warmed to 50° C. A solution of sodium hydroxide (1 g) in water (7 ml) was added. The resulting solution was heated at 55°-60° for 5 hours. To the cooled reaction mixture was added water (200 ml) and the oil extracted with dichloromethane. The solution, dried over potassium carbonate, was evaporated in vacuo and the residue was converted to the trihydrochloride salt. The crude salt was crystallized from methanol-ethyl acetate to afford 3.9 g of product, mp 244°-246°. This salt was dissolved in water and converted to the base by the addition of potassium carbonate. The oil was extracted with ethyl acetate and the solution dried as above. The solvent was distilled in vacuo to yield 3 g of the free base. A solution of the crude 4-[6-(1-methylethyl)aminohexyloxy]phenol in ethanol (10 ml) was added to a solution of maleic acid (1.85 g) in ethanol (10 ml). The resulting crystalline solid was filtered to give 4 g of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[2-(1-methylethyl)aminoethyl]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trimaleate, mp 178°-180°.
Analysis Calculated for C 32 H 41 ClN 4 OS.3C 4 H 4 O 4 : C, 57.86; H, 5.85; N, 6.13. Found: C, 58.05; H, 5.91; N, 5.94.
EXAMPLE 55
Preparation of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminopropyl]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride
A stirred solution of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl) piperazine (10 g) and 4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminopropyl]phenol (4.5 g) in 100 ml dimethylsulfoxide containing sodium hydroxide (0.94 g) in water (7 ml) was stirred at 55°-60° for 5 hours. The crude trihydrochloride salt obtained after the usual work-up was crystallized from methanol-acetonitrile to yield 4.5 g of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[3-(1-methylethyl)aminopropyl]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride, mp 216°-218°.
Analysis Calculated for C 33 H 43 ClN 4 OS.3HCl: C, 57.56; H, 6.73; N, 8.14. Found: C, 57.25; H, 6.94; N, 7.93.
EXAMPLE 56
Preparation of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[4-(1-methylethyl) aminobutyl]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride
A solution of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-(2-chloroethyl)piperazine (10 g) and 4-[4-(1-methylethyl)aminobutyl]phenol (4.9 g) was stirred at 55° under nitrogen and a solution of sodium hydroxide (0.94 g) in water (7 ml) was added. The reaction was stirred and heated at 55°-65° for 5 hours. The usual work-up yielded the crude trihydrochloride salt. Crystallization of the product from methanol-ethanol yielded 5.3 g of 1-[3-(2-chloro-10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl]-4-[2-[4-[4-(1-methylethyl)aminobutyl]phenoxy]ethyl]piperazine trihydrochloride, mp 245°-248°.
Analysis Calculated for C 34 H 45 ClN 4 OS.3HCl: C, 58.12; H, 6.89; N, 7.97. Found: C, 57.88; H, 6.83; N, 7.85
EXAMPLE 57
__________________________________________________________________________CAPSULE FORMULATIONSItem Ingredients 1 mg 5 mg 15 mg 30 mg 60 mg 100 mg 250 mg 500 mg__________________________________________________________________________1. (S)--1-(1-Methyl- 1 5 15 30 60 100 250 500 ethylamino)- 3-[4-[2-[4-[3-(2- chloro-10H-- phenothiazin-10-yl) propyl]piperazine- 1-yl)ethoxy]phenoxy]- 2-propanol trihydrochloride2. Lactose 203 199 239 224 194 99 148 --3. Starch 30 30 30 30 30 30 30 454. Talc 15 15 15 15 15 15 15 155. Magnesium stearate 1 1 1 1 1 1 2 3 250 mg 250 mg 300 mg 300 mg 300 mg 245 mg 445 mg 563 mgProcedure:1. Mix Items 1-3 in a suitable mixer.2. Add talc and magnesium stearate and mix for a short period of time.3. Encapsulate on an appropriate encapsulation machine.__________________________________________________________________________
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Substituted (10H-phenothiazin-10-yl)propyl-1-piperazines of the formula ##STR1## wherein R 1 , R 2 , R 3 , A, X, m, n and s are as hereinafter set forth,
are described. The compounds of formula I, which contain a piperazine moiety combined by an ether linkage to different phenolic moieties, are useful as orally active long lasting antipsychotic agents.
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of pending U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/650,709 filed on Aug. 29, 2003, the entirety of which is incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] This invention relates to a method and apparatus to stimulate a well through ignition of a propellant in a well adjacent openings such as perforations and then to immediately thereafter circulate foam for removing blockage material from an underground formation.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] The primary bottlenecks to the production of hydrocarbons from a well is the inflow rate from the hydrocarbon formation into the wellbore. The inflow is affected by near wellbore condition and formation characteristics. The near wellbore conditions and the formations of damaged wells can be positively influenced, with increased hydrocarbon production, through stimulation treatment. Methods for well stimulation include, but are not limited to, treatments with various chemicals, hydraulic fracturing where liquids are injected under high pressure (usually with propping agents), methods in which explosives are detonated within the formations to effect mechanical fracture, and combinations of the above procedures.
[0004] Oil and gas wells are subject to many ailments, some of which are treatable. One such ailment is a blockage of perforations resulting in dramatic or catastrophic decline in production. Some formations, such as an unconsolidated formation contain fines, such as sand, which flow into the perforation and become trapped, creating a plug or blockage in the perforation. Other examples of blockages, or bridging, are perforation debris, clays, silts, asphaltenes, drilling damage, and foreign or manmade objects. It is therefore desirable to remove these blockages from the perforations.
[0005] One such method is described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,617,997 to Jennings, Jr. which teaches a method to create or enhance fractures in a formation and extending these fractures with foam generated downhole. A foaming agent is mixed with an aqueous fluid and placed into the wellbore fluid, the level of the wellbore fluid being above the perforations and productive interval of the formation. A propellant housed in a canister, which is attached to a retrievable wire line, is placed next to the fractures. The propellant is ignited creating heat, gas and pressure while simultaneously initiating the formation of foam. The foam enters the fractures under such increased pressure for extending the radial fractures. When the pressure decreases and the foam collapses, the decreased viscosity of the wellbore fluid causes any resultant fluid and debris which has accumulated in the fractures to return into the wellbore. It is not disclosed if or how resulting accumulated and recovered debris is removed from the wellbore.
[0006] Another method is taught by Mohaupt in U.S. Pat. No. 6,138,753. Mohaupt teaches a technique for treating hydrocarbon wells, using two separate propellant ignition phases. A gas generator comprising a propellant charge, housed in a carrier having many openings, is lowered into the well in-line with the perforated interval. The gas generator is ignited and produces sufficient energy to breakdown and clean-out all of the perforations and create micro-fractures originating from the perforations. This is followed by igniting a second gas generator to inject a treatment liquid into the formation with energy less than that required to fracture the formation. No removal of resulting debris is contemplated.
[0007] A technique to both remove blockage mechanisms, debris and fines from perforations and to ensure the complete removal of this debris from the wellbore is needed. Although blockage removal from perforations or fractures is a by-product of some fracturing procedures, the method and results vary. Jennings Jr. uses the foam primarily for a different purpose, to extend the fractures and is limited to the amount of foam produced by the foaming agent. Mohaupt breaks down debris and cleans-out perforations but does not remove the debris from the well. Mohaupt also does not use foaming techniques. If blockage debris and fines are not completely removed from the wellbore, the remaining debris can re-block perforations, erode production equipment and seals, or plug the outside or the inside of the production tubing reducing or totally restricting production. Well clean-out procedures would be repeatedly required at a large expense.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] A process is described for formation treatment or stimulation and which accommodates clean-up of debris associated with the stimulation. In one embodiment, a propellant is ignited adjacent openings to the formation and, substantially immediately thereafter, foam is continuously injected adjacent the openings and circulated up through a wellbore to remove debris from the formation and convey the debris therefrom. The tubing string extends sufficiently above the wellbore at surface to enable lowering of the tubing string and foam discharge port to below the openings for enhanced removal of debris.
[0009] In a broad aspect, a process for treating a wellbore having openings in communication with a damaged formation comprises: running in a tubing string into the wellbore to position a propellant carrier adjacent the openings; overbalancing the wellbore to establish hydrostatic pressure on the formation; igniting the propellant so as to produce a pressure event and a volume of gas directed into the formation; injecting low density foam through the tubing string and into the wellbore at a location above the propellant carrier so as to reduce the hydrostatic pressure and produce at least some debris from the formation and into the wellbore; and conveying the debris from the wellbore by circulating the foam out of the wellbore at surface until sufficient debris is removed. Typically thereafter the tubing string is then removed. It is preferable to lower the tubing string during foam circulation so as to re-position the location of foam injection below the openings
[0010] In another broad aspect, novel apparatus for achieving this process comprises: a tubing string in the casing and extending downhole from surface for positioning a propellant in a propellant carrier adjacent the openings and forming an annulus between the tubing string and the casing; means for igniting the propellant; and means, such as a foam discharge port in the tubing string adjacent and above the propellant, for injecting and circulating foam from an injection location adjacent the openings, up the annulus and out of the wellbore. More preferably, the tubing string extends sufficiently above surface to enable lowering the foam discharge port below the openings for enhanced debris recovery.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0011] FIG. 1 a is a simplified cross-section of a wellbore illustrating apparatus run in on a tubing string for placement of propellant carrier adjacent a formation before ignition;
[0012] FIG. 1 b illustrates a partial cross-section of an optional arrangement according to FIG. 1 a without a lubricator;
[0013] FIG. 2 a is a simplified cross-section of a wellbore illustrating actuation of the tubing string for ignition and foam circulation;
[0014] FIG. 2 b illustrates a partial cross-section of an optional arrangement according to FIG. 2 b for actuating ignition and foam circulation using pressure-actuation;
[0015] FIGS. 3 a - 3 h are a series of schematics of a sequence of events according to one embodiment of the invention; and
[0016] FIG. 4 is a flowchart of some steps of an embodiment of the invention according to FIGS. 3 a - 3 h.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0017] With reference to FIG. 1 a , in a preferred embodiment of the invention, it is desirable to dislodge blockage mechanisms or debris from the wellbore area of a formerly productive interval of an underground formation 10 adjacent openings in a casing 12 of a wellbore annulus or wellbore 13 . Herein, openings are referred to as perforations 11 which are to include other alternate openings enabling communication between the wellbore 13 and formation through the casing 12 including screens, and slots for example. Generally, debris is removed by igniting a propellant 16 in the wellbore 13 and then substantially immediately commencing to inject and circulate low density foam to the surface 18 for the removal of resulting debris.
[0018] The formation 10 and wellbore 13 , which is no longer producing desired or even commercial rates, is prepared for a workover treatment using an embodiment of the present invention. A suitable wellhead configuration comprises a spool 15 having a foam and debris outlet 19 providing communication with the wellbore 13 , a blow-out preventor 21 and a pack-off 22 at a wellhead W, and a pup length of tubing 23 with a foam injection inlet 24 .
[0019] In one embodiment, propellant 16 is ignited with the assistance of a lubricator 30 further comprising lubricator tubing 31 , a drop bar 32 and a trigger 33 such as a mechanical release mechanism or valve for temporarily retaining and releasing the drop bar 32 on command. Alternatively, the propellant 16 may be pressure actuated, both embodiments being described in greater detail below.
[0020] With reference also to FIGS. 3 a - 3 h and FIGS. 4 a - 4 c , a candidate well is selected 100 ( FIG. 4 a ) and a workover string is prepared comprising a tubing string 40 fit at its distal end with a propellant carrier 26 having a firing head (not shown) and a foam injection means 28 such as a foam discharge port 29 in the tubing string 40 adjacent to and uphole of the propellant carrier 26 . The tubing string 40 is made up with conventional components to assist in establishing a tubing tally and the like.
[0021] As shown at FIGS. 3 a , 4 a and at 101 , the tubing string 40 is lowered into wellbore 13 such that at 103 the propellant carrier 26 is located across from the existing perforations 11 communicating with the formation 10 to be treated. Of course, safe procedures must be used in a workover including proper tubing string entry techniques. The tubing string 40 is suspended in the wellbore 13 at the packoff 22 , the pup length of tubing 23 is installed, having sufficient length to manipulate the tubing string 40 from above the perforations to below the perforations. A lubricator 30 can be installed. The foam injection means 28 can further comprise a differential fill flow sub (not detailed), employed at the bottom of the tubing string 40 to exclude debris and the like during running in.
[0022] In FIGS. 3 b , 4 a and at 104 , In no particular order a conventional wellbore liquid 43 is rapidly added to the wellbore 13 for increasing a fluid level 20 and resulting hydrostatic head to about maximum, sufficiently above the perforations 11 or productive interval, maximizing the head which tends to place the well in an overbalanced condition. Also the tubing string 40 is filled with liquid, such as produced water, above the differential fill flow sub. At FIGS. 3 c , 4 a , the propellant 16 is ignited and the foam discharge port 29 is opened, as described in process step 105 . The head of liquid in the tubing string 40 assists in directing the resulting high pressure event into the formation 10 rather than permitting the energy to escape uphole along the tubing string.
[0023] As shown in FIG. 1 a , in one embodiment the lubricator 30 temporarily houses the drop bar 32 and is used to cooperate with the firing head to initiate ignition of the propellant 16 . The fill sub remains sealed from the wellbore 13 , excluding liquids therefrom, until actuated by the falling drop bar 32 . As shown in FIG. 2 a , in the context of a lubricator 30 , the trigger 33 is actuated for releasing the drop bar 32 . The drop bar 32 actuates a firing head which ignites the propellant 16 . In FIG. 4 b and at 105 and 106 , should a misfire occur, the drop bar 32 is fished out and re-set to repeat at 104 . As well as igniting the propellant 16 , the drop bar 32 also actuates the fill sub for opening the foam discharge port 29 . In an alternate embodiment, the firing head is pressure actuated. Accordingly, there is no need for a drop bar nor a lubricator. Additionally, the foam injection means 28 comprises the foam discharge port 29 fit with a pressure-actuated plug. In FIG. 2 b , in the context of a pressure-actuated firing head, a pump 44 is employed to pressurize the tubing string 40 to a first pressure for initiating a pressure-actuated firing head. Unless the pressure-actuated plug is already opened due to the propellant ignition, further pumping is applied and pressure increase releases the pressure-actuated plug at the foam discharge port 29 enabling communication with the wellbore 13 .
[0024] In FIGS. 3 c , 4 a , and at 104 , hydrostatic pressure of the liquid 43 in the wellbore 13 as well as that of the liquid in the tubing 40 assists in directing the resulting high pressure event into the formation 10 rather than wasting the energy uphole. Rapidly expanding gas and pressure 45 assists in removing blockages from the formation 10 about the perforations 11 .
[0025] At FIGS. 3 d , 4 b and at 107 and substantially immediately after igniting the propellant 16 , conventional low density foam 46 is injected into the wellbore 13 through the foam discharge port 29 . The circulation of foam 46 is established through the injection inlet 24 at the pup length of tubing 23 at surface and wellbore liquid 43 and foam 46 are recovered from the wellbore 13 through the spool 15 at surface. The foam 46 dramatically lowers the hydrostatic head on the formation 10 stimulating production of formation fluids. The wellbore 13 is now exposed to larger formation pressure and inflow. As a result, debris is produced into the wellbore 13 . Additionally, circulation of the foam 46 and its relatively high viscosity aid in conveying the produced debris up the wellbore 13 to the surface. The foam 46 is circulated and transports wellbore liquid 43 and debris to the surface 18 where it is removed with the foam 46 . Circulation of foam 46 ensures the capture and removal of substantially all produced debris, as the low density foam 46 rises to the surface 18 .
[0026] At FIGS. 3 e , 4 b and at 108 , when circulating foam 46 and for more effective removal of debris, the tubing string 40 is slowly lowered so that foam discharge port 29 is below the perforations 11 . The ability to lower the tubing string 40 and the depth it can be lowered is predetermined by the pup length of tubing 23 above the packoff seal 22 . In FIG. 4 c and at 109 , it can be desirable in some instances to stroke, or lower and raise, the tubing string 40 periodically to prevent lodging of the debris and sand flowing into the wellbore 13 between the tubing string 40 and well casing 12 . This action is recommended to continue until sufficient debris has been successfully removed.
[0027] At FIGS. 3 f , 4 c once sufficient debris has been removed, the formation 10 is sufficiently rejuvenated so as to re-establish useful inflow. At 110 , the tubing string 40 then raised to elevate the propellant carrier 26 above the perforations 11 and, at 111 , one of a variety of techniques can be used to apply sufficient hydrostatic head to kill the well before safely pulling the tubing string 40 from the wellbore 13 at FIGS. 3 g , 4 c . Typically the methodology for killing the well is tailored to the particular well and can include simply diminishing foam circulation or circulating air to allow formation fluid 47 production to fill the annulus 13 and kill the well or more aggressively to load up with a suitable wellbore liquid 43 .
[0028] At FIGS. 3 h , 4 c , and as an objective of rehabilitating the formation 10 , a production string 50 with pump 51 can be run in to re-establish production from the treated well.
[0029] Note that propellant carriers and foam formulations are known and include those set forth in Jennings Jr. U.S. Pat. No. 4,617,997.
[0030] As suggested in FIG. 4 a at 100 , some wells are better candidates than others for this process, and while this process was developed for the criteria described below, is not limited to these applications:
The well would have a shut-in fluid level, or low cumulative production, to indicate some recoverable reserves are still in place; The well would have exhibited a dramatic, or catastrophic, decline in production, indicating a blockage mechanism has occurred and the decline rate is not natural depletion; Offset wells where previous re-perforating, and propellant stimulation operation has provided incremental production, even briefly, where the increased production may sustain due to the increased depth of stimulation from the propellant or removal of the debris by the stable foam operation; Wells with diagnosed shale collapse are excellent candidates due to suspicion of the presence of large particulate debris and suspicions that such deposits are a distance from the wellbore; and This method is further recommended in cases where less aggressive work over techniques have failed, or have failed to sustain increased production.
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A damaged formation is stimulated by igniting a propellant adjacent openings in the wellbore in communication with the damaged formation. Substantially immediately thereafter, low density foam is injected adjacent the openings and circulated to the surface for the removal of debris released from the formation. A tubing string has a foam discharge port at a distal end and a foam injection port at surface. The tubing string extends sufficiently above the wellbore at surface to enable lowering of the tubing string and foam discharge port to below the openings for enhanced removal of debris
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to identifying pharmaceutical medicaments as to identification of the type of medicament and as to quantity occupying a vessel, more particularly by color coding liquid medicaments.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Medicaments may be provided in liquid form or in solid form. When provided in solid form, such as pills, caplets, ampules, tablets, and the like, the medicament may be identified as to its identity and quantity as pills, caplets, and the like are manufactured in standard dosages which may be identified as to quantity and type of the active ingredient. Solid form medicaments therefore present no difficulty to the patient.
[0003] However, the situation is different with medicaments in liquid form. Many liquid medicaments are provided in quantities intended to be dispensed little by little, such as in predetermined doses. The final user must measure out a portion of the liquid supply into a spoon, a syringe, or other delivery apparatus. Medicaments to be taken by spoon are easy to dispense. Usually, it is merely necessary to fill the spoon, and then swallow the contents. In this case, it is merely necessary to be sure that the correct medicament is being taken. Normally, this is not a problem. However, it is possible that a patient must take several different liquid medicaments. If each of these is provided as a clear liquid, it is possible to lose track of which specific medicament is being or has been dispensed.
[0004] A further problem is when a measuring device such as a syringe is to be used for dispensing. Syringes typically have greater capacity than the amount which is to be taken at any one time. The user must fill the syringe to a prescribed level, then take the medicament.
[0005] This may seem simple enough, yet may present difficulties in that it may be difficult to discern when the appropriate amount of a liquid has been loaded into a syringe, especially if a clear liquid is being loaded. This is particularly true if the patient has a problem with vision, even including the usual diminishing of the ability to focus on close objects, which diminishing usually occurs in people over forty years of age. The same problem may occur with medical personnel who may be under time pressure at any given moment.
[0006] An example of both problems is seen with insulin. Diabetic insulin is provided to patients as a clear or colorless liquid. A patient may take insulin without any problems pertaining to identification of the insulin. However, some patients must take insulin of different types. Although these different types may be supplied in vials of different sizes, and may have labels on the vials identifying the different types of insulin, there nonetheless remains a potential for the wrong type of insulin to be taken or for the wrong dosage to be taken, or both.
[0007] Considering the issue of dosage, insulin may be difficult to measure in a syringe simply because insulin is provided as a clear liquid, such that the level within a syringe is slightly difficult to ascertain visually. This may contribute to improper dosage.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] The present invention addresses the above problems by providing visual ways to identify different liquid medicaments such as insulin, and to visually assure that the correct dosage is being dispensed within a syringe.
[0009] One step to provide visual identification is to color code different types of medicaments by adding a coloring agent to the medicament.
[0010] Another way is to modify a syringe to include a temperature sensitive meter which is capable of indicating the level of liquid which fills the syringe.
[0011] It is an object of the invention to render medicaments which are normally supplied as colorless liquids more conspicuous.
[0012] Another object of the invention is to provide a positive way of ascertaining the level of liquid medicaments within a syringe.
[0013] It is an object of the invention to provide improved elements and arrangements thereof by apparatus for the purposes described which is inexpensive, dependable, and fully effective in accomplishing its intended purposes.
[0014] These and other objects of the present invention will become readily apparent upon further review of the following specification and drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0015] Various objects, features, and attendant advantages of the present invention will become more fully appreciated as the same becomes better understood when considered in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, in which like reference characters designate the same or similar parts throughout the several views, and wherein:
[0016] FIG. 1 is a side cross sectional view of a syringe partially loaded with a liquid medicament.
[0017] FIG. 2 is a side cross sectional view of a syringe partially loaded with a different liquid medicament.
[0018] FIG. 3 is a side view of the syringe of FIG. 1 .
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0019] FIG. 1 shows a syringe 100 for injecting liquid medicaments into a person's body, comprising a receptacle 102 having an inlet and outlet orifice 104 which communicates with a hollow needle 106 which is operable for transdermal delivery of liquid medicaments such as a liquid medicament 108 which has been loaded into the receptacle 102 .
[0020] The syringe 100 may include a plunger 110 disposed to slide axially along the receptacle 102 so as to impose pressure on the liquid medicament 108 when manual pressure is imposed on a finger pad 112 connected to the plunger 110 .
[0021] The receptacle 102 may be filled or loaded by withdrawing the plunger 110 therefrom, and employing resultant vacuum to draw the liquid medicament 108 into the receptacle 102 . Alternatively, the receptacle 102 may be filled or loaded by removing the plunger 110 , pouring the liquid medicament 108 into the receptacle 102 , and replacing the plunger 110 .
[0022] The syringe 100 as described thus far may be conventional in structure and function, and need not be set forth in extreme detail.
[0023] The liquid medicament 108 may comprise a first composition of liquid diabetic insulin medicament of a first predetermined type to which has been added a coloring agent of a predetermined first hue. Understanding that there are several different types of diabetic insulin, the first predetermined type is merely one of several conventional different types. The coloring agent renders the conventional diabetic liquid insulin visually conspicuous, so that the type of insulin may be identified by correlation with the hue of the coloring agent. It will also be seen that the level of insulin received within the syringe 100 may be more easily discerned compared to traditional colorless or clear liquid insulin medicaments (not shown).
[0024] FIG. 2 shows a syringe 200 which may be generally similar structurally and functionally to the syringe 100 . The syringe 200 may comprise a receptacle 202 having an inlet and outlet orifice 204 which communicates with a hollow needle 206 which is operable for transdermal delivery of liquid medicaments such as a liquid medicament 208 which has been loaded into the receptacle 202 . The syringe 200 may include a plunger 210 disposed to slide axially along the receptacle 202 so as to impose pressure on the liquid medicament 208 when manual pressure is imposed on a finger pad 212 connected to the plunger 210 .
[0025] The liquid medicament 208 may comprise a second composition of liquid insulin medicament, including a second conventional insulin of a type different from that of the liquid medicament 108 , and a coloring agent of a second hue which renders the second conventional insulin visually conspicuous and different from the first composition of liquid insulin medicament, or liquid medicament 108 . The type of insulin of the second composition of liquid insulin medicament, or liquid medicament 208 , may be identified by comparison with the hue of the coloring agent of the liquid medicament 108 . It will also be seen that the level of the second composition of liquid insulin medicament received within the syringe 200 may be more easily discerned compared to traditional colorless liquid insulin medicaments, as well as being visually distinguishable from the liquid medicament 108 .
[0026] In summary, both the type and the quantity of the liquid medicaments 108 and 208 are readily discernible to ordinary visual inspection due to the two respective coloring agents which have been introduced thereinto.
[0027] FIG. 3 shows another way of determining the level of a liquid medicament, such as the liquid medicaments 108 and 208 , but also conventional uncolored liquid medicaments. A sensor disposed to sense the level of medicaments received within the receptacle 102 and to indicate the sensed level visually to an observer who is observing the syringe 100 is provided. The sensor is capable of sensing temperature of liquid medicaments received within the receptacle 102 , and to indicate the sensed level responsively to sensing the temperature.
[0028] The sensor comprises a strip 114 of temperature sensitive material which changes its outer appearance locally responsively to temperature changes occurring along the receptacle 102 . This type of material may be of known type which is presently used with beverages, for example. The strip 114 may be locally responsive to temperatures, where temperatures of the liquid medicament may be either higher or lower than that of the receptacle 102 . Locally responsiveness of the strip 114 is such that a hue, intensity of hue, or other visually discernible difference occurs in discrete zones where the temperature of the strip 114 is at a particular temperature. This is contrasted for example where the entire strip 114 would display a single color, hue, or other visible effect. For example, a first zone 116 occurs at the lower end (as depicted in FIG. 3 ) of the strip 114 , where the strip 114 is under the influence of the temperature of the liquid medicament contained within the receptacle 102 . A second zone 118 of a color, hue, or other visual effect different from that of the first zone 116 is displayed where the strip 114 is at the same temperature of the receptacle 102 , assuming of course that the receptacle 102 and the liquid medicament loaded thereinto are at different temperatures.
[0029] A line 120 of demarcation is defined at the interface of the zones 116 and 118 . This line of demarcation indicates the level of liquid medicament loaded into the receptacle 102 of the syringe 100 .
[0030] The invention may also be regarded as a method of making a first liquid diabetic insulin medicament readily identifiable by direct observation as to type and quantity. This method may comprise a step of adding a coloring agent to the first liquid diabetic insulin medicament. The method may be expanded to comprise a further step of making a second, different liquid diabetic insulin medicament readily identifiable by direct observation as to type and quantity by adding a coloring agent which is different in hue from that added to the first liquid diabetic insulin medicament.
[0031] The present invention is susceptible to modifications and variations which may be introduced thereto without departing from the inventive concepts. For example, although the invention has been described with respect to a singular strip 114 of temperature sensitive material, it would be possible to provide several complementing strips of temperature sensitive material (not shown).
[0032] While the present invention has been described in connection with what is considered the most practical and preferred embodiment, it is to be understood that the present invention is not to be limited to the disclosed arrangements, but is intended to cover various arrangements which are included within the spirit and scope of the broadest possible interpretation of the appended claims so as to encompass all modifications and equivalent arrangements which are possible.
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Rendering conspicuous liquid medicaments which are conventionally supplied as colorless liquids. A coloring agent may be added to the conventionally colorless liquid. Where different liquid medicaments are supplied, coloring agents of different hues may be added to the respective different liquid medicaments. A syringe for dispensing liquids may be provided with a temperature responsive device which changes in appearance so as to indicate level of liquid medicament loaded thereinto, responsively to temperature of the liquid medicament.
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BACKGROUND AND PRIOR ART STATEMENT
This invention relates to an electronic printer system, and, more particularly, to a printer system having improved multi-job stream printing and finishing capabilities.
Electronic printing systems typically employ a scanner for scanning image-bearing documents and conversion electronics for converting the image to image signals or pixels. The signals are stored and are read out successively to a printer for formation of the images on photoconductive output media such as a photoreceptor. When multiple jobs are to be sequentially printed, a process known as "job streaming" is commonly implemented. Job streaming is the ability of a printer system to complete successive printing jobs with a minimum of delay time between jobs. A control system associated with the image output terminal (IOT) of the machine identifies that multiple jobs have been scheduled, determines their characteristics and determines the necessary delay between jobs.
In other words, assuming a two-job scheduling, the controller will enable job number two to begin printing prior to completion of job number one.
It is common usage to have a quantity of jobs in the job stream which require some kind of finishing activity; e.g. collating, stitching and/or binding. Finishing activities require movement of mechanical components, e.g., movement of collating bins, stapler, heads and binding mechanisms. Jobs in the job stream typically are held, up until the finishing activity of the preceding job has been completed. These finishing delay times detract from the productivity of the printer. It would be desirable if a more efficient job overlap could be enabled to increase job streaming productivity.
In the prior art, U.S. Pat. No. 4,845,527 to Murata et al. discloses an automatic resetting mechanism which determines the operational status of a copying machine based on the elapsed time between successive copy instructions. Timers 1 and 2 are set for different durations of time at the termination of a first copy operation. If a copy instruction for a second copy operation is not issued to the system controller after timer 1 runs out, the controller automatically places the system in a predefined transient condition by setting a first group of copy conditions to a predetermined state. If a copy instruction still has not been issued after timer 2 runs out, the controller automatically resets the system back to start by setting a second group of copy conditions to a predetermined state. See col. 8, lines 35-col. 9, line 6.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,310,235 to Lorenzo et al. discloses a job stream programmer which allows an operator to pre-program a copying machine for automatically processing a plurality of the job production runs in succession. See col. 6, lines 37-57 and FIG. 6.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,989,371 to Valentine discloses a multi-mode copier/duplicator which includes a delay in mode change in response to an operator command in order to avoid any interruptions for a copying process. The delay mode is a change in logic in a cycle-out logic circuit wherein a signal is initiated by the operator to change one mode to another.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,035,072 to Deetz et al discloses a programmable controller to control and duplex mode. The programmable controller consists of a control program comprising a set of program instructions which enables the controller to generate a control signal to begin a process device in a timed manner. In operating the device in response to the instructions, the control program calculates the timing information in order to control the operating components of the machine.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,800,521 to Carter et al discloses a task control manager which controls a machine that executes a plurality of tasks. The method of control of the machine comprises the steps of: (1) involving a task of execution; (2) allocating operating system memory locations; (3) inserting in memory locations which relate to the tasks; (4) determining the processor which the task resides; (5) sending a request to the processor; and (6) initiating said task execution in response to a Directive.
The above identified references are generally illustrative of known prior art techniques for enabling multiple jobs in reprographic environment but utilizing programming logic to provide timing for the various interacting sub-system components. The prior art, however, does not disclose ways for optimizing through put efficiency for those jobs requiring finishing operations to be performed.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore an object of the present invention to optimize multi-job streaming productivity in an electronic printer by minimizing the delay time between jobs scheduled to a common finisher destination.
It is a still further object of the invention to recognize situations wherein a required delay between sequential finishing jobs is of sufficiently long duration, that is more efficient to cycle down the processor during the current job finishing operation to extend the life of system components such as the imaging photoreceptor.
To achieve the foregoing and other objects, a printing apparatus is provided which automatically determines the optimum delay expressed as skip pitches which must be introduced to prevent sheet scheduling from overtaking synchronous finishing operations.
More particularly, the present invention is directed to an electronic printer having a copy set finisher wherein a plurality of consecutively printed sets are provided with a specified finishing activity, a method of optimizing set overlap in said finisher including the steps of: determining the number of finisher pitches required to complete finishing activity on a first (current) set, determining the number of print pitches required to image the second (next) set, subtracting the print pitches from the finisher pitches to obtain a minimum number of finisher skip pitches and delaying arrival of the next set to the finisher by the number of said finisher skip pitches.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a view depicting an electronic printing system incorporating the finisher and controlling software of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a block diagram depicting the major elements of the printing system shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a plan view illustrating the principal mechanical components of the printing system shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a schematic view showing certain construction details of the document scanner for the printing system shown in FIG. 1;
FIGS. 5A, 5B, and 5C comprise a schematic block diagram showing the major parts of the control section for the printing system shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 6 is a block diagram of the Operating System, together with Printed Wiring Boards and shared line connections for the printing system shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 7 is a view depicting an exemplary job programming ticket and job scorecard displayed on the User Interface (UI) touchscreen of the printing system shown in FIG. 1;
FIG. 8 is a view depicting the Job File and Print Queue;
FIG. 9 is a view of the User Interface touchscreen display depicting a queue of typical Job Files for jobs in the system;
FIG. 10 is a view of the User Interface touchscreen display depicting a print queue of typical jobs to be printed.
FIG. 11 is a view of the user interface touch screen display depicting the various finishing options available to an operator.
FIG. 12 is an expanded view of the finishing section of the printer shown in FIG. 3.
FIG. 13 is a flow chart of a job streaming delay algorithm to enable optimum job overlap between finishing operations.
FIG. 14 is a flow chart of an algorithm to recognize finishing operations during which the system processor may be cycled down to extend life of the active components.
FIG. 15 is a flow chart showing scheduler productivity.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, there is shown an exemplary laser-based, printing system 2 for processing printing and finishing jobs in accordance with the teachings of the present invention. Printing system 2 for purposes of explanation is divided into a scanner section 6, controller section 7, and printer section 8. While a specific printing system will be shown and described, the present invention may be used with other types of printing systems such as ink jet, ionographic, full frame flash exposure, etc.
Referring particularly to FIGS. 2-4, scanner section 6 incorporates a transparent platen 20 on which the document 22 to be scanned is located. One or more linear arrays 24 are supported for reciprocating scanning movement below platen 20. Lens 26 and mirrors 27, 28, and 29, cooperate to focus on array 24 a line like segment reflected from platen 20 and the document being scanned thereon. Array 24 provides image signals or pixels representative of the image scanned which after suitable processing by processor 25, are output to controller section 7.
Processor 25 converts the analog image signals output by array 24 to digital signals and processes the image signals as required to enable system 2 to store and handle the image data in the form required to carry out the job programmed. Processor 25 also provides enhancements and changes to the image signals such as filtering, thresholding, screening, cropping, reduction/enlarging, etc. Following any changes and adjustments in the job program, the document must be rescanned.
Documents 22 to be scanned may be located on platen 20 for scanning by automatic document handler (ADF) 35 operable in either a Recirculating Document Handling (RDH) mode or a Semi-Automatic Document Handling (SADH) mode. A manual mode including a Book mode and a Computer Forms Feeder (CFF) mode are also provided, the latter to accommodate documents in the form of computer fanfold. For RDH mode operation, document handler 35 has a document tray 37 in which documents 22 are arranged in stacks or batches. The documents 22 in tray 37 are advanced by vacuum feed belt 40 and document feed rolls 41 and document feed belt 42 onto platen 20 where the document is scanned by array 24. Following scanning, the document is removed from platen 20 by belt 42 and returned to tray 37 by document feed rolls 44.
For operation in the SADH mode, a document entry slot 46 provides access to the document feed belt 42 between tray 37 and platen 20 through which individual documents may be inserted manually for transport to platen 20. Feed rolls 49 behind slot 46 form a nip for engaging and feeding the document to feed belt 42 and onto platen 20. Following scanning, the document is removed from platen 20 and discharged into catch tray 48.
For operation in the CFF mode, computer forms material is fed through slot 46 and advanced by feed rolls 49 to document feed belt 42 which in turn advances a page of the fanfold material into position on platen 20.
Referring to FIGS. 2 and 3, printer section 8 comprises a laser type printer and for purposes of explanation is separated into a Raster Output Scanner (ROS) section 87, Print Module Section 95, Paper Supply section 107, and Finisher 120. ROS 87 has a laser 91, the beam of which is split into two imaging beams 94. Each beam 94 is modulated in accordance with the content of an image signal input by acousto-optic modulator 92 to provide dual imaging beams 94. Beams 94 are scanned across a moving photoreceptor 98 of Print Module 95 by the mirrored facets of a rotating polygon 100 to expose two image lines on photoreceptor 98 with each scan and create the latent electrostatic images represented by the image signal input to modulator 92. Photoreceptor 98 is uniformly charged by corotrons 102 at a charging station preparatory to exposure by imaging beams 94. The latent electrostatic images are developed by developer 104 and transferred at transfer station 106 to a print media 108 delivered by Paper Supply section 107. Media 108, as will appear, may comprise any of a variety of sheet sizes, types, and colors. For transfer, the print media is brought forward in timed registration with the developed image on photoreceptor 98 from either a main paper tray 110 or from auxiliary paper trays 112, or 114. The developed image transferred to the print media 108 is permanently fixed or fused by fuser 116 and the resulting prints discharged to either output trays 118, or to output collating trays 119A, B, C in finisher 120. Finisher 120 includes a stitcher 122 for stitching (stapling) the prints together to form books, a thermal binder 124 for adhesively binding the prints into books and a stacker 125. A finisher of this type is disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,828,645 and 4,782,363 whose contents are hereby incorporated by reference.
Referring to FIGS. 1, 2 and 5, controller section 7 is, for explanation purposes, divided into an image input controller 50, User Interface (UI) 52, system controller 54, main memory 56, image manipulation section 58, and image output controller 60.
The scanned image data input from processor 25 of scanner section 6 to controller section 7 is compressed by image compressor/processor 51 of image input controller 50 on PWM (printed wiring board) 70-3. As the image data passes through compressor/processor 51, it is segmented into slices N scan lines wide, each slice having a slice pointer. The compressed image data together with slice pointers and any related image descriptors providing image specific information (such as height and width of the document in pixels, the compression method used, pointers to the compressed image data, and pointers to the image slice pointers) are placed in an image file. The image files, which represent different print jobs, are temporarily stored in system memory 61 which comprises a Random Access Memory or RAM pending transfer to main memory 56 where the data is held pending use.
As best seen in FIG. 1, UI 52 includes a combined operator controller/CRT display consisting of an interactive touchscreen 62, keyboard 64, and mouse 66. UI 52 interfaces the operator with printing system 2, enabling the operator to program print jobs and other instructions, to obtain system operating information, instructions, programming information, diagnostic information, etc. Items displayed on touchscreen 62 such as files and icons are actuated by either touching the displayed item on screen 62 with a finger or by using mouse 66 to point cursor 67 to the item selected and keying the mouse.
Main memory 56 has plural hard disks 90-1, 90-2, 90-3 for storing machine Operating System software, machine operating data, and the scanned image data currently being processed.
When the compressed image data in the main memory 56 requires further processing, or is required for display on touchscreen 62 of UI 52, or is required by printer section 8, the data is accessed in main memory 56. Where further processing other than that provided by processor 25 is required, the data is transferred to image manipulation section 58 on PWB 70-6 where the additional processing steps such as collation, make ready, decomposition, etc are carried out. Following processing, the data may be returned to main memory 56, sent to UI 52 for display on touchscreen 62, or sent to image output controller 60.
Image data output to image output controller 60 is decompressed and readied for printing by image generating processors 86 of PWBs 70-7, 70-8 (seen in FIG. 5A). Following this, the data is output by dispatch processors 88, 89 on PWB 70-9 to printer section 8. Image data sent to printer section 8 for printing is normally purged from memory 56 to make room for new image data.
Referring particularly to FIGS. 5A-5C, control section 7 includes a plurality of Printed Wiring Boards (PWBs) 70, PWBs 70 being coupled with one another and with System Memory 61 by a pair of memory buses 72, 74. Memory controller 76 couples System Memory 61 with buses 72, 74. PWBs 70 include system processor PWB 70-1 having plural system processors 78; low speed I/O processor PWB 70-2 having UI communication controller 80 for transmitting data to and from UI 52; PWBs 70-3, 70-4, 70-5 having disk drive controller/processors 82 for transmitting data to and from disks 90-1, 90-2, 90-3 respectively of main memory 56 (image compressor/processor 51 for compressing the image data is on PWB 70-3); image manipulation PWB 70-6 with image manipulation processors of image manipulation section 58; image generation processor PWBs 70-7, 70-8 with image generation processors 86 for processing the image data for printing by printer section 8; dispatch processor PWB 70-9 having dispatch processors 88, 89 for controlling transmission of data to and from printer section 8; and boot control-arbitration-scheduler PWB 70-10.
Referring particularly to FIG. 6, system control signals are distributed via a plurality of printed wiring boards (PWBs). These include EDN (electronic data node) core PWB 130, Marking Imaging core PWB 132, Paper Handling core PWB 134, and Finisher Binder core PWB 136 together with various Input/Output (I/O) PWBs 138. A system bus 140 couples the core PWBs 130, 132, 134, 136 with each other and with controller section 7 while local buses 142 serve to couple the I/O PWBs 138 with each other and with their associated core PWB.
On machine power up, the Operating System software is loaded from memory 56 to EDN core PWB 130 and from there to the remaining core PWBs 132, 134, 136 via bus 140, each core PWB 130, 132, 134, 136 having a boot ROM 147 for controlling down-loading of Operating System software to the PWB, fault detection, etc. Boot ROMs 147 also enable transmission of Operating System software and control data to and from PWBs 130, 132, 134, 136 via bus 140 and control data to and from I/O PWBs 138 via local buses 142. Additional ROM, RAM, and NVM memory types are resident at various locations within system 2.
Referring to FIG. 7, jobs are programmed in a Job Program mode in which there is displayed on touchscreen 62 a Job Ticket 150 and a Job Scorecard 152 for the job being programmed. Job Ticket 150 displays various job selections programmed, while Job Scorecard 152 displays the basic instructions to the system for printing the job.
Referring to FIGS. 8 and 9, the image files are arranged in a job file 155, with the print jobs 156 numbered consecutively in the order in which the print jobs are scanned in. Where the operator wishes to see the jobs currently residing in job file 155, as for example, to select jobs to be moved to the print queue for printing, a SYSTEM FILE icon 157 (FIG. 9) on touchscreen 62 is actuated. This displays an image queue 160 of the jobs 156 currently in the job file on screen 62, an example of which is shown in FIG. 9. Each job is identified by a descriptor showing the type of job, job number, number of prints, etc. By using up and down scrolling icons 161, 162, the operator can scroll the list of jobs where the number of jobs in the job file is too large to be simultaneously displayed on touchscreen 62.
Referring also to FIG. 10, to print a job 156, the job is moved into a print queue 165. A PRINTER QUEUE icon 167 on touchscreen 62, when actuated, displays the current print queue with a list of the jobs in the queue on touchscreen 62, an example of which is shown in FIG. 10. Each job in print queue 165 has a job descriptor identifying the job, job number, quantity to be printed, paper color, finishing type, etc. Print queue 165 is ordered by priority and time of arrival of the job in the print queue. Other priority orderings may be envisioned.
Where it is desired to process a job 156 before printing as, for example, to edit a job, the image queue 160 is displayed (if not already displayed on screen 62) and the particular job identified. The parts of the jobs image file required for the processing selected are accessed, the image data decompressed and converted to the resolution required for display on screen 62. When processing is completed, the image data is compressed and returned to main memory 56.
A job 156 in print queue 165 may be removed from queue 165 any time before printing has commenced and returned to the job file 155. In that case, the image file removed loses its position in the print queue.
For printing a job, the image file having compressed image data, image slice pointers, and descriptors of the job is read from disks 90-1, 90-2, 90-3 of main memory 56 into system memory 61. The image data is formatted and processed in blocks called bands. Band descriptors, which provide descriptions of the objects within a page, base addresses for all of the scan lines in the band, the start addresses for each band, and the starting position for each page, are created.
Using the image descriptors, band descriptors, and image slice pointers, packets of information, referred to as image parameter blocks containing all the information needed for the image generation processors 86 (seen in FIG. 5A) to retrieve the image data for processing and printing, are created. Processors 86 include a decoder, depredictor, and image generating logic to in effect decompress the image data and provide the binary image data used by printer section 8 to make prints.
Following printing, the image file for the job is normally purged from memory 56 to make room for new job.
Turning now to FIGS. 11 and 12 for a further consideration of the programming enabling multiple finishing jobs, FIG. 11 shows the touch screen 62 display and FIG. 12 shows further details of the stitcher 122 and binder 124. Referring first to FIG. 11, jobs requiring a finishing activity are programmed in a job program mode in which there is displayed on touch screen 62 a series of icons enabling selection of various finishing options. A binding icon 194-1 is selected for jobs to be bound and 3 stitching options are enabled by icon 194-2 (single stitch), 194-3 (dual stitch) and 194-4 (landscape). These selections enable the particular operation to be accomplished in the finisher section 120. FIG. 12 shows a more detailed view of the finisher section 120. As shown, a pair of set clamps 200, 202 are mounted on a set transport charge 204 and pneumatically driven by a compressor. If a binding operation is selected (194-2), set clamp 200 removes printed sets from bin 119 and delivers to a tilt bed in binder 124 which is adapted to receive a set of copy sheets from clamp 200 and position the set of copy sheets for the binding operation. Thermal binding requires time to melt the binding adhesive and time to permit the bound set (book) to cool prior to further handling. These operations consume between 27 and 125 pitches-typically one pitch for each sheet in the set. Once the binding operation is completed, the bound sheets are raised for pickup by set clamp 202 which delivers them to stacker 125. Further details of the operation of a binder 124 are to found in U.S. Pat. No. 4,828,645 whose contents are hereby incorporated by reference.
If a stitching operation is selected at any of icons 194, set clamp 200 removes the copy sets from bin 119 and deliver them to the stitching apparatus 122. Apparatus 122 includes stitchers 210, 212, which provide either single or dual stitching of the sets. The stitchers are automatically moved to the pre-selected stitch positions by a bidirectional AC motor 214 and accurately positioned via an encoder 216. Motor 214 is located at the rear of the stitch positioning assembly. The motor drives a belt and pulley assembly to move the stitchers to the correct position. Encoder 216 is mounted above the pulley and the resulting pulses generated thereby are used by the control system to determine the amount of movement of the stitchers in order to position the staplers at the selected positions. The stitchers stitch in either of three modes; portrait, landscape, or dual stitch. Stitcher 210 is used to place a stitch in the upper left hand corner of a set of copy sheets having printed text parallel to the short edge. In the landscape mode, stitcher 212 is used to place a stitch in the upper left hand corner of a set of copy sheets with text printed parallel to the long edge. In the dual stitching mode, the stitch are placed in positions dependent upon the size of the copy sheet being run. Each stitch clamps the set of copy sheets in the stitch head, cuts and forms the wire, and drives the stitch through the set of copy sheets. A clincher bends the legs of the driven stitch over against the set of copy sheets to complete the stitch cycle.
Wire feed motors 220 and 222 rotate spools 224 and 226 to advance wire to stitchers 210 and 212, respectively, causing the wire spools 224 and 226 to rotate. The wire feed motors are located beneath each sticher head assembly. Sticker 210 and sticker 212 are substantially identical to one another. Each motor drives a pair of meshed gears. The gears have a groove around the outside circumference and the channel or hole formed by the grooves of the meshed gears drives the wire to the sticher head. Motors 220 and 222 are AC motors. Compressor 240 is driven by an AC motor and provides air pressure for the pneumatically controlled set clamps, set transport carriage and sticher. Further details of the stapler mechanism are found in copending U.S. application Ser. No. 075,706 assigned to the same assignee as the present invention and whose contents are hereby incorporated by reference. Once the stitching operation is completed, clamp 202 transports the stitched sets to stacker 125.
It is understood from the above description that multiple jobs, once programmed, are scanned and printed and finished under the overall control of the machine controller section 7. The printer controller controls all the printer steps and functions as described here including imaging onto the photoreceptor, paper delivery, xerographic functions associated with developing and transferring the developed image onto paper and, if programmed, collation of sets and delivery of collated sets to a binder or stitcher, and finally to the stacking operations. The printer controller, and more particularly the sheet scheduler, initiates a sequencing schedule which is highly efficient in monitoring the status of a series of jobs which are to be printed and finished in a consecutive fashion. The control circuitry associated with the sheet scheduling function is embodied in EDN Core 130 (FIG. 6). The sequencing schedule, utilizing various algorithms embodied in printer software, to optimize particular operations.
The sequencing schedule is predicated upon the fact that there are a maximum number of integral images which can be placed on the photoreceptor in one revolution, or cycle of the photoreceptor. Each integral image is referred to in the art as a pitch. The time interval between common events on adjacent pitches is called a pitch time. Examples of pitch time are e.g., from the start of imaging for a first image to the time of the start of imaging for a second image; or the time interval between lead edge arrival of adjacent sheets in the paper path. The sequencing schedule software can either schedule an event (imaging, paper feed, etc.), or can skip a pitch (skip pitch). The time interval associated, or corresponding to a skip pitch is a skip pitch time; controlling the total amount of skip pitches can be delayed by corresponding amounts of skip pitch time delays. Minimizing the number of print skip pitches is important in improving turnaround time and especially saving the consumables of the machine. One prior art example of optimizing of operation in a sheet scheduling mode is described in copending U.S. Patent Application (USSN 07/590,236). While this application describes one form of skip pitch time optimization, it does not take into account the skip pitch time introduced when a finishing activity is also present in the job program sequence. The optimization of entire system separation requires that the printer controller have information on skip pitches required, both in the imaging of the set sheets in a job, as well as paper path architecture and the type of finishing activity (collated set transport, set binding, stack load/unload).
With the type of multi-job streaming activity described above, some degree of job overlap is necessary in order to maintain productivity. In other words, it is inefficient to await completion of the finishing activity (arrival of bound or stitched sets at the stacker) before beginning the next job. It is also inefficient to insert into the system a fixed worst case delay between jobs. On the other hand, uncontrolled job overlapping in the finisher risks the sets in next job overtaking the sets in the current job or arriving before the hardware (binder or stitchers) has been repositioned for operation on the next set. An optimum job overlap can therefore be defined for purpose of the invention as an overlap which allows the collation of sets for the next job to be performed while the remainder of the current job is completed (finished) and the finisher hardware adjusted for the next job. In order to enable optimum overlap, and according to a first aspect of the present invention, the number of skip pitches and have skip pitch delay between scheduled jobs is minimized.
The goal of minimum skip pitches is achieved by subtracting the pitches in the first set scheduling group of the next job from the sum of the number of pitches required to complete finishing all sets of the current job and readjusting the finisher hardware to accept the requirements of the next job. Readjustment is necessary when the finishing activity is changed from, for example, binding in the current job to stitching in the next job, or vice versa. Readjustment is also necessary when the stitcher positions are changed between jobs.
According to another aspect of the present invention, job overlap from set to set in the same job is also reduced by minimizing the skip pitch time between the finishing activity performed on each set. For example, a single job may call for a plurality of sets to be bound in the finisher; depending upon the delay time associated with the binding operation, some minimum of skip pitch time must be calculated.
The information needed to calculate the minimum skip pitch for either selection is available from system controller 7 and includes: the number of simplex and duplex sheets per set in the job, the grouping (size and sequence) of simplex and duplex sheets for simple/duplex intermixed jobs, the paper path flow, constraints on set scheduling mode selected by the printer and the finisher activity selected. Set scheduling mode constraints may be applied wherein multiple copies of a set or document are to be imaged. The printer can be controlled to consecutively image multiple copies of the set or document or the printer can operate in a multiple imaging mode.
Referring now to FIG. 13, there is shown a flow chart for an optimum scheduled set/job streaming delay algorithm. The computer program for determining the optimum delay for finishing sets is provided in Appendix A. As will be seen, Appendix A sets forth the following logical rules: (1) for determining the minimum delay while finishing sets within a job; (2) for determining minimum delay when changing from one hardware finishing element to another, e.g., from binding one set to stitching the next set, and vice versa; and (3) for determining the delay required to set up the finishing station hardware for the next job. The calculation encompasses the following parameters for the first job: (1) finishing selections (unfinished, bound, stitched), stitch positions (as applicable), number of sheets per set, set scheduling group used for job closeout (single, dual, triple), and stacker unload at job completion (on/off); for the next set (Job #2), finishing selections (unfinished, bound, stitched), stitch positions (as applicable), and copy sensitive job (yes/no). (A copy sensitive job is composed of non-interchangeable, non-uniform sets, each set being unique in some way.)
Referring now to FIG. 13, the job selection entered on touchscreen 62 (FIGS. 7-11) are processed by controller 7 and sent to the printer job bank manager in printer section 8. The job schedule working variables are initialized and imaging is begun on the first set of the first job. If there are additional sets to be printed in the first job, the path follows the left branch and a calculation is made to determine the sum of all the finishing hardware delays (finisher skip pitch times) which will be required to permit the second set to arrive at the finisher coincident with the completion of the finishing activity for the first set. The number of finishing hardware pitch time to complete the finishing activity on the current set is calculated as well as the minimum number of pitch times required to image the next set. When the total delay time is executed, the next job is begun and the flow again proceeds along the left side of the chart. The pitch time calculated for imaging the next set are subtracted from the pitch time required to complete the current set with the difference, if any, representing the finisher skip pitch times. The total number of finisher pitch times skips is modified by subtracting redundant hardware delay skip pitch times. The total number of finishing skip pitches are then executed one unit at a time and the complete delay is enabled. The delay is a function of controlling the imaging operation and the routing of the copy paper along the paper path to the collator. The second set of job #1 has already been scheduled by the job scheduler and has been collated and is ready for the finishing activity. The set skip finishing and delay activity is repeated for each set of the first job. When the first job is completed, the job scheduler checks to see whether or not job streaming conditions exist (is there at least a second job to be run?). If no other jobs are to be run, the system is cycled down. If there is another job, the path follows the right branch and the delay which may be required when changing from one hardware finishing element to another (selection change skip pitch times) is calculated and redundant hardware delays are eliminated. For this case, the number of pitches required to image the first set of the next job is subtracted from the sum of the number of pitches required by the finisher to complete the current job and to adjust the finisher hardware for the first set of the next job. The difference, if any, represents the selection change skip pitches required. The remaining number of selection skip pitches are executed one skip pitch time at a time; when the total delay time is executed, the next job is begun and the flow again proceeds along the left side of the flow chart.
It is apparent from the above description that optimum efficiency is realized even in the case where a single, multi-set job is run (following left branch only of FIG. 13).
According to another aspect of the present invention, there may exist certain job streaming conditions wherein a current job requires finishing activities of a duration which apparently exceeds the time required to cycle down and cycle up the processor. When the cumulative number of finishing induced skip pitch times exceeds the cycle down/cycle up time by a predetermined threshold, it is possible to minimize wear on the xerographic and paper path module by cycling down the process. For example, when the current job is a bound job with large set size (number of sheets per set) and the next job is any small set sized job. In this case, the finisher operation would have a cumulative delay due to set transportation, set binding and stacker unload, and would require up require up to 250 skip pitch times (109 seconds) to complete binding for the current job. Since cycling down and cycling up time is only 30 seconds, cycle down/cycle up operation would be implemented to extend the life of all components which would otherwise continue to be used in the cycling delay mode; e.g., continual charge exposure-recharge of the photoreceptor. A flow chart to implement a cycle up/cycle down operation is shown in FIG. 14. The two values which must be determined and stored in system memory are T Fin and T Threshold . T Fin is defined as the time required to complete finishing for the current job (job #1) and to adjust the finisher hardware to a position to receive the next job (job #2). T Threshold is the nominal time required to cycle down and cycle up the printer. As shown in to FIG. 14, the calculations for determining the delay between jobs begin when the scheduling sequence for job #1 has been completed. This occurs when the images of the document to be printed and bound have been compressed and stored in memory discs and the software that controls the marking engine and paper handling module has been loaded with sheet routing and finishing information for all remaining sheets in job #1. If another job is not scheduled (no job #2), the processor can be cycled down immediately. If there is a job #2, the next logical decision is whether job #2 has finishing activities. If the job is simply to print copies which are fed to output trays without collating, the scheduling for job #2 can be immediately initiated. If job #2 requires a finishing activity, the next logical operation is to determine whether there is already a finishing job in progress in the finisher (e.g., does job #1 require finishing activity). If job #1 does not have a finishing activity, again job #2 scheduling can be immediately implemented. If there is a finishing activity, then T Fin is computed and compared to a predetermined threshold value. If T Threshold is greater than T Fin , the time duration is not long enough to justify cycling down, so operation proceeds by allowing T Fin to elapse and then initiating scheduling for job #2. If T Threshold is less than T Fin , appropriate signals are sent to the printer sections, cycling down the processor for a time period (T Fin -T Threshold ) before cycling up and beginning job #2 scheduling.
It is apparent that the determinant delay is also a function of the extent of job #2. The greatest efficiency is realized with the combination of large set size for job #1 and a small set size for job #2.
The above description of improved productivity made possible by implementation of the algorithm associated with FIG. 13 concentrated on determining the optimum number of slip pitch times to allow the finishing hardware to finish sheets or sets; e.g., stitching, binding, etc. There is an additional source of delay which is introduced by the job scheduler itself. As defined above, the function of the job scheduler is to sequence the processing of images onto the copy medium and to insert delays to permit the mechanical hardware to perform the finishing operation. However, for jobs containing duplex or a random intermix of simplex and duplex sheets, it has not been possible for a scheduler to have all the necessary information before a job is begun to determine how long it will take to schedule the sheets containing the duplex intermixed sheets. In a job streaming mode, the finisher must also known the information which will permit the finishing activity to complete the previous job before the new job is implemented. According to another aspect of the present invention, the scheduler is programmed to insert minimum delay time by calculating the total scheduling time S time , which is defined as the total time it takes for imaging and/or hardware delays associated with scheduling one sheet jobs or multiple sheets making up the set. The hardware delay in scheduling may include delays such as inverter skips and/or delays to allow for imaging side one of a duplex sheet and time for the page imaged on side one in the paper path to reach the unimaged back side, S time is calculated by solving the following equations:
S.sub.time =K(S+D.sub.s1 +D.sub.s2)+D.sub.oshts +l+H.sub.d (1)
Where:
S time : =time to make a one sheet job or multiple sheet job making up a set.
K: =imaging mode factor to account for single, dual or triple flash modes.
S: =simplex sheets in set.
D s1 : =Side one of duplex sheets in set.
D s2 : =Side two of duplex sheets in set.
D oshts : =pitches in odd multiple duplex sheets: =duplex Path Loop Size - ((K x duplexSheetslnSet)÷duplex Path Loop Size)MOD
l: =skip pitch per duplex-to-simplex inverter skips.
H d : =Other IOT unique hardware that consumes real scheduling time.
Equation (1) can be expanded to determine the scheduling time for multiple jobs as a function of S time as follows:
S.sub.total =S.sub.time1 +S.sub.time2 +S.sub.time3 +S.sub.time n +K.sub.ns (2)
Where:
S total : =total scheduling time for given jobs
S time n : =the nth scheduling time for a given job
K ns : =other system related scheduling time overhead.
Referring now to FIG. 15, a scheduler productivity flow chart is shown. The plate mode type (simplex, duplex, number of each simplex and duplex sheet in copy and in any random order) is scanned in before the job is scheduled. With this information provided to the scheduler, all documents of the job are scanned and S time is computed using equations (1) and (2). This scheduler then has all the necessary information to set and schedule the job or jobs. The flow path is along the route shown, which is the same of that of FIG. 13 with the scheduler executing the required delays for all of the imaging and hardware systems.
CONCLUSION
A variety of scheduling procedures are provided by the present invention, which improves the efficiency of an electronic printing system having the capability of providing a finishing operation to a set or sets of collated printed output sheets. The delays associated with the movement of various finishing hardware components are calculated and analyzed by the job scheduler and system controller to obtain an optimum number of skip pitch times from set to set or job to job which will permit the job streaming to proceed with the least overall delay. Special circumstances which include the juxtaposition of a job having a very large finishing activity followed by a job with a smaller activity is analyzed to determine whether a total delay between job is sufficiently large to warrant a cycle down process to be initiated. Complex plate mode inputs which include duplex or a random intermix of simplex and duplex documents are also analyzed and equations are derived to provide the job schedule with sufficient information to calculate both the hardware skip pitch times as well as the skip pitches necessitated by the particular plate mode of operation.
While the invention has been described with reference to the structure disclosed, it would be appreciated that numerous changes and modifications are likely to occur to those skilled in the art. As one example, the printer may be adapted to operate in a multi-set scheduling mode wherein two or more sets forming a set scheduling group are printed concurrently. The scheduler software is then adapted to determine the number of finisher pitches required to complete finishing activity on a first set scheduling group and a number of print pitches required to print the second set scheduling group. All such modifications and changes are intended to be encompassed by following claims. ##SPC1##
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Productivity in electronic printer incorporating finishing activities and operating in a job streaming mode are enhanced by utilizing software to calculate and predict the minimum delay corresponding to minimum skip pitches) in successive jobs requiring finishing activities such as binding and stapling. Printing and collating of sets of original scanned documents are controlled so that collated sets are successively presented by the printer to the finisher nearly coincident with conclusion of the finishing activity being accomplished for a current job. Additional software innovations allow job scheduling for jobs involving complex pitch time delays created by scanning simplex and duplex documents returned in random order. For this case optimum delay time is the cumulative finishing hardware delays as well as imaging/paper path delays. Still another feature is a predictive algorithym which is used to increase reliability of printer components by cycling down the printer between jobs in situations where the finishing activity for a current job requires an extraordinarily long time to complete compared with the cycle down/cycle up time of the printer.
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This application is a continuation, of copending application Ser. No. 610,752, filed on Sept. 5, 1975 and now abandoned.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a printer which has a traveling print head.
The present invention relates more particularly to a carriage position control system in a printer having a traveling print head or a carriage such as an ink jet system printer or a thermal printer.
The present invention will be described in conjunction with an ink jet system printer.
In general, in an ink jet system printer, a carriage is driven to travel in a reciprocating mode with respect to a recording paper to perform a desired printing. When the ink jet system printer is used as an input device or an intermittent mode printer, the carriage must intermittently travel in response to an input signal from a suitable input unit such as a keyboard. The intermittent travel is achieved by provision of a servomotor for driving the carriage to travel at a predetermined length of distance in response to the input signal. In this intermittent mode, the carriage must be held stationary at a predetermined position and driven to travel at a predetermined length of distance in response to the input signal and thereafter held stationary at a next predetermined position.
The position of the carriage can be detected with the use of a disc having slits mounted on the shaft of the servomotor. When the carriage is controlled to stop at a predetermined position with the use of an optical system including the slit disc, the standstill position may unavoidably vary. This variation is caused by the variation of characteristics of electronic elements used in the optical system dependent upon the temperature or caused by the variation of the rotation angle of the servomotor till a print termination signal is generated.
The variation of the standstill position of the carriage may preclude a clean printing.
OBJECTS AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, an object of the present invention is to stabilize the printing position in a printer having a traveling print head.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a carriage position control circuit in a printer having a carriage on which a print head is mounted.
Still another object of the present invention is to provide a servomotor control circuit in a printer wherein a print head is driven to travel by a servomotor.
Yet another object of the present invention is to provide a detection means suitable for detecting a rotation angle of a servomotor which drives a carriage in a printer.
Other objects and further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. It should be understood, however, that the detailed description and specific examples, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, are given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art from this detailed description.
To achieve the above objectives, pursuant to one embodiment of the present invention, a detection means comprising a slit disc is mounted on a shaft of the servomotor in order to generate an analog signal in response to a rotation angle of a servomotor which drives a carriage in a printer. The servomotor is driven to travel forward upon receipt of a print command from an input means and to stop upon receiving a print termination signal from said detection means.
The carriage is held stationary at a predetermined position with the use of the anologue signal from the detection means. When the detection means comprises a light-emitting element and a light-receiving element, it is preferable to provide a compensation means to compensate the variation of the voltage level of the analog signal, such variation being mainly caused by the variation of the characteristics of the light-emitting element.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The present invention will become more fully understood from the detailed description given hereinbelow and the accompanying drawings which are given by way of illustration only, and thus are not limitative of the present invention and wherein,
FIG. 1 is a schematic block diagram of a carriage drive system in a printer of the present invention including a servomotor drive circuit, a rotatable slit disc, and a temperature compensation circuit;
FIG. 2 is a plan view of the rotatable slit disc of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a waveform of an anologue signal generated with the use of a signal associated with the rotatable slit disc of FIG. 1;
FIG. 4 is a circuit diagram of the servomotor drive circuit of FIG. 1;
FIG. 5 is a circuit diagram of the temperature compensation circuit of FIG. 1; and
FIG. 6 is a block diagram for the purpose of explanation of an operation mode of the temperature compensation circuit of FIG. 5.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring now to FIG. 1, there is illustrated a schematic construction of a carriage drive system of the present invention, a key input signal from a keyboard 10 is introduced into a video generator 12 and a servomotor drive circuit 14 as an intermittent forward signal FWD upon depression any one of keys provided on the keyboard 10. The video generator 10 can be of a conventional construction and provides a print information signal in a suitable format to a carriage 16 in response to a key input signal.
The servomotor drive circuit 14 drives a servomotor 18 to rotate via an amplifier 20 upon receiving the intermittent forward signal FWD from the keyboard 10. When a carriage drive signal CP from the amplifier 20 bears a positive voltage level, the servomotor 18 rotates in a direction to force the carriage 16 to travel forward, whereas the servomotor 18 rotates in a direction to force the carriage 16 to travel backward when the carriage drive signal CP bears a negative voltage level.
A pulley 22 and a slit disc 24 are mounted on a shaft 26 of the servomotor 18 in a fashion to rotate in unison with the revolution of the servomotor 18. The pulley 22 is communicated with the carriage 16 through a wire 28 in order to drive the carriage 16 in response to the revolution of the servomotor 18.
The slit disc 24 has quadrangular slits 240 circularly aligned with a predetermined spacing as shown in FIG. 2. A light-emitting diode 30 and a light-receiving element 32 are mounted on a holder 34 made of resin in a fashion that the optical axis from the light-emitting diode 30 to the light-receiving element 32 passes through the quadrangular slits 240 provided on the slit disc 24. A fixed slit plate 36 has a same size as that of the slit disc 24 and has quadrangular slits of the same shape as that of the slits on the slit disc 24 at a position corresponding to the quadrangular slits 240 on the slit disc 24.
The above-mentioned optical system provides a position indication signal S as shown in FIG. 3 in response to the revolution of the slit disc 24 mounted on the shaft 26 of the servomotor 18. The position indication signal S, which indicates the rotation angle of the servomotor 18 or the location of the carriage 16, is fed back to the servomotor drive circuit 14 via the output of an amplifier 38.
The position indication signal S has a positive voltage potential when the optical axis of said optical system passes through the quadrangular slits 240 provided on the slit disc 24, whereas the signal S bears a negative voltage level when the optical axis passes through the slit disc 24 outside of the quadrangular slits 240. In FIG. 3, points A, B and C represent the points at which the carriage 16 must be held stationary in an intermittent printing mode. The points A, B and C correspond to the points where the quadrangular slits on the slit disc 24 and the fixed slit plate 36 overlap with each other by a half size of the respective quadrangular slits.
The detailed construction and the operation mode of the carriage drive system of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 4 through 6.
SERVOMOTOR DRIVE CIRCUIT 14 (FIG. 4)
Now assume that the carriage 16 is held stationary at a position corresponding to the point A. When the key on the keyboard 10 is depressed, the intermittent forward signal FWD is introduced into a flip-flop FF 1 to invert the flip-flop FF 1 , which comprises two NAND gates. An output signal of the flip-flop FF 1 is introduced into an input terminal of a differential amplifier 140 via a resistor R 1 , and into a transistor Tr 1 via a resistor R 2 and a Zener diode D 1 . The inverted output, for example, 5 V from the flip-flop FF 1 turns ON the transistor Tr 1 and hence turns OFF an anologue switch 142. The analogue switch 142 controls the introduction of the position indication signal S into the differential amplifier 140 in a fashion to preclude the introduction thereof when the analogue switch 142 is OFF. The differential amplifier 140 receives a signal of a certain positive level, for example, 5 V and generates the carriage drive signal CP to drive the carriage 16 forward.
When the carriage 16 reaches a point corresponding to the point B in FIG. 3, the position indication signal S bears a zero voltage level and, therefore, a differential amplifier 144 operates to trigger a one-shot multivibrator 146 to generate a print termination signal and invert the flip-flop FF 1 . Upon this inversion the carriage drive signal CP bears a zero voltage level and the anologue switch 142 becomes ON. At this time the position indication signal S (approximate 0 V) is introduced into the differential amplifier 140 and, therefore, the carriage 16 is held stationary at the position exactly corresponding to the point B in FIG. 3.
When the carriage 16 is stopped at a point corresponding to a point B'" in FIG. 3, that is, the carriage 16 passes over a desired position corresponding to the point B, the position indication signal S from the optical system bears a negative voltage level. Therefore, the servomotor 18 is driven to rotate backward through the differential amplifier 140 and the carriage 16 reaches the desired position corresponding to the point B.
When the carriage 16 is stopped at a position corresponding to a point B" in FIG. 3, that is, the carriage 16 is stopped before it reaches a desired position, the position indication signal S from the optical system is of a positive voltage level and, therefore, the servomotor 18 is driven to rotate forward through the differential amplifier 140. In this way the carriage 16 is held stationary at the preselected position corresponding to the point B in FIG. 3.
In the foregoing embodiment the print termination signal is generated at a time when the position indication signal S bears a zero voltage level and, therefore, the carriage 16 tends to pass over the desired position. It will be effective to provide an additional detection system in the video generator 12 for generating the print termination signal to reset the flip-flop FF 1 .
The efficiency of the light-emitting diode 30 and the light-receiving element 32 may vary depending upon an ambient condition, for example, the ambient temperature of the printer. When the efficiency deteriorates, the position indication signal S becomes a signal of which a waveform is shown by dotted lines in FIG. 3. The carriage 16 may be driven to stop at positions corresponding to points A', B' and C' in FIG. 3. This will cause a variation of the printing position. To eliminate the above-mentioned variation, an additional of light-emitting diode 40 and light-receiving element 42 is mounted on the holder 34 for the temperature compensation. The light-emitting diode 40 and the light-receiving element 42 are provided at a position where the optical axis thereof is disturbed by neither the slit disc 24 nor the fixed slit plate 36. That is, the light beam emitted from the light-emitting diode 40 is always received by the light-receiving element 42.
TEMPERATURE COMPENSATION CIRCUIT 44 (FIG. 5)
An output current flow of the light-receiving element 32 is amplified by a differential amplifier 380 to provide the position indication signal S. The light-emitting diode 40, which is provided for the purpose of the temperature compensation, is connected with the light-emitting diode 30 and a current controlling transistor 440 in a series fashion. The light-receiving element 42, which is provided for the purpose of the temperature compensation, is connected with a resistor R 3 in a series fashion and an output signal thereof is introduced into one input terminal of a differential amplifier 442. An output signal of the differential amplifier 442 is conducted to the base electrode of the current controlling transistor 440, thereby controlling the current controlling transistor 440 in accordance with the output signal of the light-receiving element 42.
The temperature compensation circuit 44 functions to equalize an output current I 1 of the light-receiving element 42 with a preselected reference current I s . The differential amplifier 442 detects the variation of the output current I 1 of the light-receiving element 42 and the output signal of the differential amplifier 442 controls the current controlling transistor 440 to control the current flow through the light-emitting diodes 30 and 40. The input terminal (negative side) of the differential amplifier 442 is connected with the emitter of the current controlling transistor 440 via a parallel connection comprising a resistor R 4 and a capacitor C 1 to enhance the stability of the temperature compensation circuit 44.
When the efficiency of the light-emitting diodes 30 and 40 and the light-receiving elements 32 and 42 deteriorates, the output current I 1 of the light-receiving element 42 decreases. The current reduction renders the output voltage level of the differential amplifier 442 high and, therefore, the current flow through the current controlling transistor 440 increases. This results in that the current flow through the light-emitting diode 40 increases and hence the light intensity emitted from the light-emitting diode 40 increases. Therefore, the output current I 1 of the light-receiving element 42 increases to reach the reference current I s . The compensation circuit becomes stable when the output current I 1 of the light-receiving element 42 is identical with the reference current I s .
The variation of the holding position of the carriage 16 caused by the temperature variation can be compensated when the light-emitting diode 30 and the light-receiving element 32 for generating the position indication signal S are made of the elements of the same characteristics as the light-emitting diode 40 and the light-receiving element 42.
The theoretical operation mode of the temperature compensation circuit 44 will be appreciated by the following description when considered in conjunction with FIG. 6.
The output current I 1 of the light-receiving element 42 can be expressed as follows:
I.sub.1 =(I.sub.1 -I.sub.s)C·D·A·B (1)
Where A, B, C and D are transfer functions expressed as follows: ##EQU1##
The equation (1) can be expressed as follows: ##EQU2##
It will be clear from equation (2) that the output current I 1 of the light-receiving element 42 is identical with the reference current I s without regard to the temperature variation when the gain of C and D is selected considerably high with respect to the variation of A and B depending upon the temperature variation.
The invention being thus described, it will be obvious that the same way be varied in many ways. Such variations are not to be regarded as a departure from the spirit and scope of the invention, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the following claims.
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A detection means is provided for generating an analog signal in response to a rotation angle of a servomotor which drives a carriage in a printer. A servomotor drive circuit is responsive to a print command from an input means and the analog signal from the detection means, whereby the carriage is driven to travel forward upon receipt of the print command and to stop upon receipt of a print termination signal. The carriage is then held stationary at a predetermined position suitable for the next character to be printed as determined by the rotation angle of the servomotor which is fed back to the servomotor drive circuit.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for the treatment of gaseous effluents containing volatile organic compounds (VOCs). More specifically, the method involves loading the VOCs in an aqueous liquid stream by wet-scrubbing and subjecting the VOC-loaded liquid stream to an anaerobic biomethanation step which provides a methane-rich and combustible gaseous output and a purified liquid stream suitable for recycling. The present invention also relates to an apparatus for carrying-out the method of the invention.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are commonly found as solvents and quick-drying agents in printing inks. Such inks are commonly used by the flexographic printing industry. During flexography printing, liquid inks are deposited on plastic and aluminum films and it is during the drying of those inks that VOCs are vaporized as by-products into ambient air. VOCs represent a significant source of air pollution which may lead to serious health risks for those exposed to the pollutants. Reported VOC-related health problems include respiratory ailments and even lung cancer, mental disorders as well as a variety of skin disorders. In the flexographic printing industry, by-product VOCs consist mainly of mixtures of alcohols such as ethanol, methanol, n-propanol and iso-propanol and may also comprise ethyl acetate. When released into the atmosphere, VOCs are sometimes degraded by ultraviolet rays and transformed into ozone, a toxic component or urban smog. VOCs are also generated by a variety of other industrial processes.
Several different technologies have been used to control VOC emissions. The solutions currently used in North America consist of three main strategies: recovery of the solvents by condensation or adsorption on activated carbon; destruction by thermal or catalytic incineration; or replacement of the VOC solvent-based inks with water-based inks. These techniques have met with some success but have inherent high operating costs and in the case of water-based inks have the important drawback of requiring longer ink drying times.
It has also been suggested to treat gaseous VOCs by biofiltration through a fixed bed containing bacteriological or mycological cultures on mixtures of mosses, branches and/or compost. The terms "biofiltration" or "bioreactor" used herein refer to a process or equipment in which chemical transformations are carried out by living microorganisms. However, in the case of gas phase biofiltration, design and operation parameters are still unmastered because of the inherent instability and fragility of the biofiltration beds.
Liquid phase bioreactors are also known for the treatment of liquid effluents containing organic matter, such as in the pulp and paper industry or the cheese making industry. The design of such bioreactors was stimulated by pollution regulations imposed by governmental authorities. Examples of such bioreactors can be found to be described in U.S. Pat. 4,654,308 and 4,931,401 both to Safi et al., the specifications of which are incorporated herein by reference and in U.S. Pats. 4,869,819 to Theile et al., 4,351,729 to Witt, and 4,936,996 to Messing. Furthermore, considerable effort has been put into developing new strains of microorganisms capable of degrading various organic compounds including highly toxic chlorinated hydrocarbons. Recent efforts are exemplified in U.S. Pats. 5,316,940, to Georgiou et al. and 5,143,835 to Nakatsugawa et al.
With most bioreactors, it is commercially and environmentally desirable to degrade the organic compounds into methane such degradation being commonly referred to as "methanogenesis". This produces a methane-rich and combustible gaseous effluent which can cleanly burn to provide process heat or otherwise used to improve process economics.
Hence, there is a need for a commercially and technically efficient method and apparatus for treating gaseous effluents containing VOCs to obtain a purified gaseous effluent and to concurrently generate methane-rich combustible gas by biological conversion. It is an object of the present invention to meet this need.
Other objects and further scope of applicability of the present invention will become apparent from the detailed description given hereinafter. It should be understood, however, that this detailed description, while indicating preferred embodiments of the invention, is given by way of illustration only, since various changes and modifications within the spirit and scope of the invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The foregoing objects and additional objects are achieved by the present invention which in one main aspect provides a method for the biodegradation treatment of a gaseous medium polluted with volatile organic solvents to produce a purified gaseous medium and a separate methane-rich and combustible gas, the novel and inventive method comprising the steps of:
(a) wet-scrubbing the gaseous medium with a liquid stream in a countercurrent wet scrubber to produce a purified gaseous medium and a separate liquid stream loaded with the volatile organic solvents;
(b) flowing said liquid stream loaded with the volatile organic solvents to an anaerobic bioreactors consisting of a sealed vessel containing a biomass having methanogenic bacteria adapted to transform the volatile organic solvents into a methane-rich and combustible gas and a separate liquid stream output substantially free of the volatile organic solvents;
(c) recovering the methane-rich and combustible gas by collecting said gas from said anaerobic bioreactor.
In a related aspect, the present invention provides a novel and inventive apparatus for accomplishing the method of the present invention. Hence, there is provided an apparatus for the biodegradation treatment of a gaseous medium polluted with volatile organic solvents and the production of a purified gaseous medium and a separate methane-rich and combustible gas, the apparatus comprising:
(a) a countercurrent wet scrubber unit for counter currently receiving the polluted gaseous medium and a liquid stream so as to produce a purified gaseous medium and a separate liquid stream loaded with the volatile organic solvents, the wet scrubber unit consisting of at least one closed vessel;
(b) an anaerobic bioreactor for receiving the liquid stream loaded with the volatile organic solvents, the anaerobic bioreactor consisting of a sealed vessel containing a biomass having methanogenic bacteria adapted to transform the volatile organic solvents into the methane-rich and combustible gas and a separate liquid stream output substantially free of the volatile organic solvents, the bioreactor being provided with an output stream for the liquid stream output and an output valve for the methane-rich and combustible gas; and
(c) fluid transportation lines connecting the wet scrubber and the anaerobic bioreactor for flowing said liquid stream loaded with said volatile organic compounds from the wet scrubber to the anaerobic bioreactor.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a schematic view of the preferred apparatus for a continuous process in accordance with the method of the present invention.
FIG. 2 is a schematic elevational and sectional view of a bioreactor as a component of the apparatus of the present invention.
FIG. 3 is a schematic elevational and sectional view of an optional embodiment of the bioreactor of FIG. 2.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Process description
Referring to FIG. 1, the process apparatus mainly comprises a water scrubber 10, a buffer tank 12, and a multi plate anaerobic bioreactor 14. The process apparatus is characteristically operated as a closed loop system. However, to avoid accumulation of mineral residues, a purge line 16 is provided. Periodic and minor purges are compensated by the addition of fresh water by line 18.
Scrubber
Air emissions loaded with volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are channeled to a conventional scrubber unit 10 wherein the VOCs are transferred from the air (gas phase) by counter currently contacting a water stream (liquid phase). The clean air can be safely discharged to the atmosphere after removal of the VOCs.
It is of course to be understood that the solvents must be water soluble for the phase transfer to take place in a water scrubber. However, to facilitate the entry of the VOCs into solution, it is contemplated that solubility enhancers may be used. For example, surfactants can be added to the water in the scrubber to enhance the solubility of certain organic compounds. It is also conceivable that non-aqueous liquid solutions be used. However, the non-aqueous solutions would have to be compatible with the biomethanation microorganisms found in the bioreactor 14.
In a preferred embodiment, the scrubber 10 is composed of three vertical cylinders 10, 10'(not shown) and 10"(not shown), serially disposed. Other types of scrubbers and scrubber arrangements can be used but this type has been shown to give the best results to date. Packing is preferably not used, in order to avoid clogging caused by biomass particles recycled from the bioreactor 14. If required, additional scrubbing cylinder sections can be added, to enhance the solvent removal efficiency. In operation, the air enters the bottom of the scrubber 10 and exits at the top. It then enters a second scrubber 10'(not shown) at the top and exits at the bottom for subsequent entry into the bottom of the last cylinder 10"(not shown) from which it exits at the top. Meanwhile follows a countercurrent flow starting at the top of the third cylinder 10"(not shown). The water level is maintained by a liquid level controller(not shown) connected to scrubber 10.
Water loss due to evaporation or purge is automatically compensated by fresh water addition through fresh water line 18. A centrifuge pump 20 is used to transport the water in each section of the scrubber. Sprinklers (not shown), inside scrubbers 10, 10' and 10" are used to spray the water thereby ensuring good contact between the water and the VOC containing air. It is noted that the sprinkler nozzles must be large enough to avoid clogging with the biomass particles that may be circulating in the apparatus of the present invention but also small enough to pulverize the water into small droplets into the VOC containing air. The number and placement of sprinklers will be readily determined by one knowledgeable in the design and operation of wet scrubbers. The main goal is of course to maximize the gas to liquid contact to promote solubilization of the VOCs in the water. In a preferred embodiment, the sprinklers are installed at spaced intervals to spray vertically and counter currently to the air flow.
Buffer tank
An agitated and closed buffer tank 12 is connected to said fluid transportation lines between said wet scrubber 10 and said anaerobic bioreactor 14 to allow a blending of said liquid stream loaded with the volatile organic solvents to provide a blended output stream thereby avoiding sharp peaks or drops in concentration of volatile organic solvents flowed to said anaerobic bioreactor.
A tank liquid level controller (not shown) is provided for controlling the amount of liquid in tank 12 and for controlling the flow out of tank 12 and to the anaerobic bioreactor 14. In a preferred embodiment and at steady state, the liquid volume of the buffer tank 12 is the same as liquid volume of bioreactor 14.
Meanwhile, tank 12 is also provided with a temperature controller (not shown) for measuring and controlling the temperature of said liquid stream and a pH controller (not shown) for measuring and controlling the pH of said liquid stream. Hence, the aqueous stream loaded with solubilized VOCs exiting scrubber unit 10 is directed to the buffer tank 12 through line 22. In a preferred embodiment, the water enters the buffer tank 12 by gravity.
Although significant levels of oxygen are solubilized in the water during the scrubbing process, they are quickly depleted by facultative bacteria present in tank 12.
Various nutrients and trace heavy metals can be added to tank 12 to optimize the growth of the acidogenic and acetogenic bacteria. These bacteria partially convert the solubilized VOCs to organic acids including acetic, proprionic and butyric acids. Typically, 60% of the total VOCs are converted to organic acids. Characteristically, nutrients are added as a concentrate. The amount of nutrients to be added to tank 12 is based on the organic load entering buffer tank 12 and the amount of purge from the system (i.e. the nutrients which are purged must be replaced). Among the various possible nutrients, dried yeast may be added to provide vitamins to the anaerobic bacteria in bioreactor 14.
The temperature in buffer tank 12 is monitored and maintained by any suitable, commercially available controller (not shown). In a preferred embodiment, the controller is of the type having a thermostat which controls a source of hot water which is regulated in temperature and flow rate to enter a heat exchanger(not shown) which is in the form of a stainless steel spiral. It has been observed that generally, the optimal temperature of buffer tank 12 is between 35 and 40° C., however, a temperature of 30° C. has been found to be sufficient to provide proper operation of bioreactor 14.
The pH level in buffer tank 12 is maintained by any suitable commercially available pH controller. In a preferred embodiment, a pH controller is provided with a dosage pump adapted to add the appropriate amounts of acid or base to maintain the pH at a given level in tank 12. Although any acid can be used, acetic acid has been found to give good results since it will not accumulate in the closed system. Caustic soda (50% NaOH) or other suitable base is added when the pH is too low. Calcium hydroxide can also be added daily to maintain proper alkalinity. Other compounds such as sodium bicarbonate can be used for the same purpose. It has been observed that the optimal pH is in the range of 5.5 to 6.5, with the preferred pH being 6.0. A mechanical agitator 24 is used to maintain continuous mixing and a mono pump 26 is used to feed the aqueous solution through line 28 connecting the bottom of buffer tank 12 and bioreactor 14.
It is apparent that a small portion of the VOCs in the aqueous solution of buffer tank 12 tend to evaporate back into the gaseous phase above the liquid level in tank 12. To recuperate these VOCs, the solvents are firstly captured due to the enclosed nature of the tank 12 and channeled via return tubing 29 to scrubber unit 10 which operates under a negative pressure. The carbon dioxide generated microbially from buffer tank 12 is also channeled back to scrubber unit 10 via the same return tubing.
Anaerobic treatment
The aqueous solution from buffer tank 12 is pumped by mono pump 26 through line 28 and into bioreactor 14 wherein it undergoes methanogenesis anaerobic treatment by being contacted with a biomass of methanogenic microorganisms. Hence, the VOCs and their organic acids intermediates are transformed into combustible biogas (methane and carbon dioxide) by the methanogenic bacteria residing in bioreactor 14. The biogas bubbles out of the aqueous stream which is thereby purified and suitable for reuse in scrubber unit 10. Consequently, the effluent aqueous stream exiting the bioreactor 14 through line 30 is recycled to the scrubber unit 10. As previously mentioned, a purge is available on line 30 to allow the removal from the effluent of bioreactor 14 to avoid accumulation of inert substances in the system such as the products of bacterial lysis, unused yeast extracts, etc. A minor purge allows to minimize the use of fresh water and nutrient addition. The purge is usually in the range of 5 to 30% vol of the entire aqueous flow through the system, with 10% vol being preferred. In most circumstances, the purge will contain innocuous traces of VOCs and can be Safely discharged without further treatment.
Although any suitable anaerobic bioreactor can be used the best results have been obtained using a multi plate bioreactor substantially as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,931,401, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference. A preferred embodiment of the bioreactor 14 will now be briefly described.
Referring to FIG. 2, there is shown schematically a bioreactor 14 having an inlet line 28 allowing the aqueous stream to be treated. The bioreactor comprises a container 32 having an intermediate horizontal plate 34 having a central aperture 36. A bed 38 of microorganisms is supported on plate 34.
Plate 34 divides the container 32 in an upper compartment 40 and a lower compartment 42. In upper compartment 40, a first outlet 44 is provided for discharging treated aqueous stream while a second outlet 46 is used for discharging the volatile biogas which is formed by the reaction of the aqueous stream with the microorganisms.
The microorganisms preferably consist of granular methanogenic bacteria capable of converting VOCs and their volatile organic acids to biogas containing combustible methane. The granular nature of the bacteria enables the bacteria to remain in the bioreactor 14. This consortium of bacteria having been acclimatized to the solvent substrates. The levels of biomass in each section are monitored to ensure the stability of the system.
A mushroom shaped blockage element, generally identified as 48, is provided over aperture 36 and comprises a tubular portion 50 extending upwardly from aperture 36 and a cap portion 52 extending over the tubular portion 50 and supported thereon by means of three arms 54.
The container 32 will also preferably comprise a second bed of microorganisms resting on the bottom 56 of container 32.
In operation, the bioreactor 14 receives an aqueous stream to be treated via inlet line 28 and reacts with the microorganisms resting on the bottom 56 of container 32. Continuous flow of pumped liquid in container 32 causes the aqueous stream and the biogas to pass through aperture 36 to the upper compartment 40 where the aqueous stream again reacts with the second bed 38 of microorganisms.
The blockage element 48 acts as a "check valve" to prevent backflow of aqueous stream and microorganisms from the upper compartment 40 to the lower compartment 42. The space situated under cap 52 fills with biogas which eventually bubbles to exhaust line 56. Meanwhile, the purified aqueous stream is recycled to the scrubber unit 10 through line 30.
In a preferred embodiment, more than one biogas exhaust line is provided. The biogas exhaust line are provided with a level indicator and a valve for releasing the biogas. The gas flow rate is monitored by a gas meter and the gas has been shown to be composed of at least 75% methane as shown by gas chromatography, the remainder being carbon dioxide. No traces of solvents have been found indicating conversion to methane without solvent evaporation. The produced gas could be subsequently used to replace natural gas in the plant.
Also in a preferred embodiment, the pH in the bioreactor 14 is maintained between 6.5 and 7.5, with 7.0 being preferred.
It will be understood by those skilled in the art that many bioreactor design changes could be made without departing from the present invention. For example, as shown in FIG. 3, a multilevel bioreactor 58 could readily be used to improve conversion efficiencies at higher VOC loading rates.
The clean aqueous effluent leaving the reactor is approximately at 35° C. As mentioned previously, a small purge is removed before the bulk of the clean aqueous effluent is recycled back to the scrubber unit 10. The system thus operates as a closed loop.
The invention will now be further described by way of example provided for illustrative purposes.
EXAMPLE 1
A pilot system including a water scrubber, 900 L buffer tank and 900 L bioreactor (as described herein) were used to treat a portion of the air emissions from a flexographic plant, the emissions containing VOCs. The VOCs are generated during the drying of the inks used for printing aluminum and plastics films. The air removed from the presses thus contains high concentrations of VOCs. A portion of this air flow was diverted to the scrubber (253 m 3 /h). The composition of VOCs treated was methanol (4%), ethanol (42%), iso-propanol (2%) and n-propanol (52%). The water flow through the system was 75 L/h. A liquid purge of 10% from the system was used. The operational conditions and bioreactor performance are shown in the Table II. Analysis by the chemical oxygen demand (COD) was used as a guide to reactor performance. The composition of the biogas produced from the bioreactor was 79.2% methane, 17.6% carbon dioxide and 3.2% water with no solvents detected. The results for the individual solvents for the scrubber and bioreactor performance are shown in Tables III and IV. The solvent concentrations in the air and water were monitored by a gas chromatograph. The overall performance of the system is indicated in Table V by a mass balance on the overall process. The inlet air emissions are the source of solvents for treatment whereas the air outlet and the water purge from the reactor make up the two sources of untreated solvent discharge.
TABLE I______________________________________AVERAGE DAILY OPERATIONAL CONDITIONS AND RESULTS______________________________________Bioreactor retention time (h) 12Bioreactor Feed Rate (L/day) 1800Purge from the reactor 10(% of feed rate)Gas flow produced by the 3046bioreactor (L/j)Neutralizing agents | Ca(OH).sub.2 (powder)(g/day) 248.0 | NaOH 50% (L/day) 50.0 | Acetic acid 99% (L/day) 450.0 |Additives | Heavy metals and nutrients | as per Table II | Dried yeast (g/day) 22.0 |Feed to reactor Temperature (°C.) 38.3 | pH 6.0 | total COD (mg/L) 5469.0 | soluble COD (mg/L) 4707.0 |Exit from reactor | Temperature (°C.) 35.5 | pH 6.8 | total COD (mg/L) 1206.0 | soluble COD (mg/L) 572.0 |COD yield | Total 78.0 | Soluble 88.0Gas factor (m.sup.3 /kg COD converted) 0.43Organic load (kg COD/m.sup.3 -day) 9.4______________________________________
TABLE II______________________________________NUTRIENTS ADDED TO THE BUFFER TANK______________________________________ Quantity addedElement Nutrient (g/kg DCO)______________________________________N (NH.sub.2).sub.2 CO 5.65P (NH.sub.4).sub.2 HPO.sub.4 1.50______________________________________Metals Salts (mg/kg DCO)______________________________________Al Al.sub.2 (SO.sub.4).sub.3 1.9Ca CaCl.sub.2 --6-H.sub.2 O 693.8Co CoCl.sub.2 4.02Cu CuCl.sub.2 0.6Fe FeCl.sub.3 --6H.sub.2 O 482.1Mg MgSO.sub.4 --7H.sub.2 O 2563.5Mn MnSO.sub.4 --H.sub.2 O 3.1Mo (NH.sub.4).sub.6 Mo.sub.7 O.sub.24 -4H.sub.2 O 0.2Ni NiCl.sub.2 --6H.sub.2 O 2.0Zn ZnCl.sub.2 6.3______________________________________
TABLE III______________________________________AVERAGE SOLVENT CONCENTRATION IN THE FEEDAND EFFLUENT OF THE SCRUBBER AND REMOVALEFFICIENCIES FEED EFFLUENT REMOVAL RATESOLVENTS (MG/M.sup.3) (MG/M.sup.3) (% WEIGHT)______________________________________Methanol 57.0 0.0 100.0Ethanol 597.0 34.0 94.0Iso-Propanol 34.0 4.0 88.0Propanol 746.0 69.0 91.0Total: 1,434.0 107.0 92.5______________________________________
TABLE IV______________________________________AVERAGE SOLVENT CONCENTRATION IN THE INFLUENTAND EFFLUENT OF THE REACTOR AND REMOVALEFFICIENCIES REMOVAL FEED EFFLUENT EFFICIENCYSOLVENTS (MG/M.sup.3) (MG/M.sup.3) (% WEIGHT)______________________________________Methanol 44.0 0.0 100.0Ethanol 400.0 7.0 98.0Iso-Propanol 44.0 4.0 97.0Propanol 303.0 3.0 99.0Total: 791.0 14.0 99.0______________________________________
TABLE V______________________________________OVERALL SOLVENT REMOVAL EFFICIENCIES OF THECOMPLETE AIR TREATMENT PROCESS AIR + LIQUID REMOVAL AIR INLET EFFLUENTS EFFICIENCYSOLVENTS (G/H) (G/H) (% WEIGHT)______________________________________Methanol 14.4 0.0 100.0Ethanol 151.0 9.1 94.0Iso-Propanol 8.6 1.3 85.0Propanol 188.7 17.7 90.6Total: 362.7 28.1 92.3______________________________________ The air flow rate in the scrubber was 253 m.sup.3 /h The liquid flow in the system was 75 L/h.
Although the invention has been described above with respect with one specific form, it will be evident to a person skilled in the art that it may be modified and refined in various ways. It is therefore wished to have it understood that the present invention should not be limited in scope, except by the terms of the following claims.
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An improved method and apparatus for treating a gaseous medium polluted with volatile organic solvents to produce a purified gaseous medium and a separate methane-rich and combustible gas. The method involves wet-scrubbing the gaseous medium with a liquid stream in a countercurrent wet scrubber to produce a purified gaseous medium and a separate liquid stream loaded with the volatile organic solvents; channelling the liquid stream loaded with the volatile organic solvents to an anaerobic bioreactor consisting of a sealed vessel containing a biomass having methanogenic bacteria adapted to transform the volatile organic solvents into a methane-rich and combustible gas and a separate liquid stream output substantially free of the volatile organic solvents; recovering the methanerich and combustible gas by collecting the gas from the anaerobic bioreactor.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention is principally concerned with a process for direct preparation of enantiomers of a substituted fluorenyloxyacetic acid.
Certain fluorenyloxyacetic acids useful for treating brain edema are disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,316,043. These acetic acids have a chiral center and exist as racemic mixtures, racemates and individual isomers.
A process has been discovered for directly preparing individual isomers of a fluorenyloxyacetic acid.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A process for preparing an isomer of a substituted fluorenyloxyacetic acid.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
An embodiment of the present invention is a process for preparing the (+) isomer of a compound having the formula: ##STR1## which comprises: a. treating a compound of the formula: ##STR2## wherein X is Cl or Br and R is C 1 -C 6 -alkyl in a basic medium to obtain: ##STR3## b. treating III with C 3 H 7 --X in the presence of a chiral catalyst to obtain: ##STR4## rich in the (-) isomer. c. crystallizing IV to obtain pure (-) isomer, i.e., (-) isomer substantially or completely free of (+) isomer,
d. treating the IV isomer from (c) with NaNO 2 in an aprotic solvent or LiCl in N-methylpyrrolidinone to obtain: ##STR5## e. alkylating V to obtain: ##STR6## f. treating VI with H 2 SO 4 /CH 2 Cl 2 to obtain: ##STR7## and go treating VII with a base to obtain I.
The compound VI is useful for treating brain edema as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,316,043.
Any suitable chiral catalyst may be used such as N-aryl cinchoninium halide wherein aryl is substituted or unsubstituted phenyl or pheny-C 1 -C 4 -alkyl, wherein substituents (1 or 2) are selected from CF 3 , halo, C 1 -C 3 alkyl, OCH 3 , CN, and the like. Preferred catalysts are 3,4-dichlorobenzyl cinchoninium chloride and p-trifluoromethyl benzyl cinchoninium bromide. Using these type catalysts, formula IV compound containing the (-) isomer predominantly is obtained; the ratio of (-):(+) isomer will range from 75:25 to 80:20 or higher.
Step (a) involves alkenylation of the racemic formula II substituted indanone with a formula IIa haloalkene in a basic medium. The basic medium is generally an aqueous strong base, e.g. KOH, NaOH, etc. A nonaqueous solvent is also required. This solvent may be any suitable hydrocarbon such as benzene, toluene, an alkane, mixtures thereof and the like. The step (a) reaction is conveniently carried out at atmospheric pressure and at temperatures ranging from about 0° C. to about 30° C., and preferably at room temperature.
The formula III product from step (a) is obtained as a racemic mixture.
Compound III is then alkylated in step (b) in the presence of the aforesaid chiral catalyst to obtain compound IV rich in the (-) isomer.
The IV compound is obtained a mixture rich in the (-) isomer. This mixture is subjected to crystallization from a suitable hydrocarbon solvent such as hexane-and substantially pure (-) isomer of IV is obtained.
The ether group OR in IV is then cleaved to obtain V having the --OH group using conventional procedures, e.g. by treatment with NaNO 2 in an aprotic solvent or with LiCl in N-methylpyrrolidinone (NMP).
Compound V is alkylated using conventional reagents illustrated by β-haloacetic acid ester/KI/Na 2 CO 3 . The alkylated derivative VI is then treated with H 2 SO 4 /CH 2 Cl 2 to produce the formula VII dione.
The formula VII dione as then treated with a strong base such as NaOH, KOH, LiOH, Na 2 CO 3 and the like to obtain the formula I product.
The following example illustrates the process of the present invention. All temperatures are in °C. unless otherwise indicated.
EXAMPLE 1
Step A. Preparation of 6,7-dichloro-2-(3-chloro-2-butenyl)-2,3-dihydro-5-methoxy-1-inden-1-one 1b
1b was prepared from indanone 1 following Negishi's method [J. Org. Chem. 1983, 48, 2427-2430]. ##STR8## Indanone 1: 2.1951 g (9.5026 mm) KN(SiMe 3 ) 2 : 16.9 ml of 0.6M solution (10.16 mm)
1,3-dichloro-2-butene: 1.2751 g (10.2 mm)
Pd(φ 3 P) 4 : 1 g (0.87 mm)
Et 3 B: 10.2 ml of 1M solution (10.2 mm)
The indanone 1 was added to 10 ml dry THF in a 100 ml 3-neck flask equipped with N 2 -inlet and magnetic stirring. To this suspension was slowly added the KN(SiMe 3 ) 2 solution in toluene (about 20 minutes) at -78° [dry ice-acetone cooling]. Solution occurred; it was stirred at -78° for 30 minutes. After 30 minutes triethylborane solution in THF was slowly added (about 10 minutes) to this mixture at -78°. The solution was warmed up to 0°. A clear solution thus formed was added to a mixture of 1,3-dichloro-2-butene and Pd(φ 3 P) 4 in 20 ml THF kept at 0° under N 2 . The mixture was stirred for 12 hours at room temperature and was treated with 50 ml, 2N HCl. The organic layer was separated and the aqueous layer was extracted with 3×20 ml CH 2 Cl.sub. 2. The combined organic layer was washed with 1N NaHCO 3 solution and dried over MgSO 4 (6 g). After removal of the solvent under vacuum, off white colored solid crystals were obtained. These solid-crystals were washed with 10 ml hexane, filtered and dried to yield 2.73 g of 1b (90%). This was used in the next reaction without further purification.
Step B: Preparation of 2b ##STR9## Indanone (1b): 0.3352 g (1.049 mm) Toluene: 18 ml
50% NaOH: 3 ml
1-Bromopropane: 5.85 ml
pCF 3 benzylcinchoninium bromide (catalyst): 0.05 g (0.09 mm)
A 100 ml 3-neck flask fitted with magnetic stirring and N 2 -inlet was charged with indanone 1b (0.3352 g), toluene (18 ml), 1-bromopropane (5.85 ml) and catalyst (φCF 3 BCNB) (0.05 g). To this suspension at room temperature was added slowly 3 ml 50% NaOH via syringe (about 1 minute) under stirring. The mixture was stirred at room temperature for 24 hours. Disappearance of starting material observed by TLC. The mixture was then transferred in a separatory funnel with 30 ml isopropyl acetate and 20 ml water. Aqueous layer was discarded. The organic layer was washed with 2×20 ml 4N HCl and 1×20 ml 1N NaHCO 3 solution. The organic layer was dried over MgSO 4 (1 g) and solvent removed under vacuum to produce a yellow oil [0.379 g (99% yield)]. NMR, CDCl 3 , tris [(3-heptafluoropropyl)hydroxymethylene)-d-camphorato]Eeuropium III analysis of this product (2 b) showed it to be 80:20 (-):(+) enantiomeric ratio mixture.
Conversion of 2b to Formula I via steps (c), (d), (e), (f), and (g) is carried out as described in pending U.S. application Ser. No. 656,577 filed Oct. 1, 1984 (incorporated herein by reference).
Claims to the invention follow.
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A process for direct preparation of an enantiomer of a substituted fluorenyloxyacetic acid is disclosed. The acetic acid derivative is useful for treating brain edema.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] The present invention relates generally to drilling a subterranean borehole and, more specifically, to protecting gage trimmers located adjacent to the gage of a drill bit by way of protective structures. The method and apparatus of the present invention may effect such protection for gage trimmers during drilling and/or during rotation within a casing, i.e., when changing a drilling fluid.
[0003] 2. State of the Art
[0004] Fixed cutter rotary drill bits for drilling oil, gas, and geothermal wells, and other similar uses typically comprise a solid metal or composite matrix metal body having a lower cutting face region and an upper shank region for connection to the bottom hole assembly of a drill string formed of conventional jointed tubular members, which are then rotated as a single unit by a rotary table, top drive, drilling rig, or downhole motor, alone or in combination with one another. Alternatively, rotary drill bits may be attached to a bottomhole assembly including a downhole motor assembly which is in turn connected to essentially continuous tubing, also referred to as coiled, or reeled, tubing wherein the downhole motor assembly rotates the drill bit. Typically, the bit body has one or more internal passages for introducing drilling fluid, or mud, to the cutting face of the drill bit to cool cutters provided on the face of the drill bit and to facilitate formation chip and formation fines removal. The sides of the drill bit typically include a plurality of radially extending blades that have an outermost surface of a substantially constant diameter and generally parallel to the central longitudinal axis of the drill bit, commonly known as gage pads. The gage pads generally contact the wall of the bore hole being drilled in order to support and provide guidance of the drill bit as it advances along a desired cutting path, or trajectory.
[0005] As known within the art, blades provided on a given drill bit may be selected to be provided with outwardly extending, replaceable cutting elements installed on the gage pad allowing the cutting elements to engage the formation being drilled and to assist in providing gage-cutting, or side-cutting, action therealong. Replaceable cutters may also be placed adjacent to the gage area of the drill bit. One type of cutting element provided on or adjacent to gage pads in the past, referred to as inserts, compacts, and cutters, has been known and used for a relatively long time on the lower cutting face for providing the primary cutting action of the bit. These cutting elements are typically manufactured by forming a superabrasive layer, or table, upon a sintered tungsten carbide substrate. As an example, a polycrystalline diamond table, or cutting face, is sintered onto the sintered tungsten carbide substrate under high pressure and temperature, typically about 1450° to about 1600° Celsius and about 50 to about 70 kilo bar pressure to form a polycrystalline diamond compact (PDC) cutting element or PDC cutter. During this process, a metal sintering aid or catalyst such as cobalt may be premixed with the powdered diamond or swept from the substrate into the diamond to form a bonding matrix at the interface between the diamond and substrate.
[0006] The above-described PDC cutting elements, or cutters, when installed on or adjacent to gage pads instead of on the lower portion of the face of the drill bit, are generally referred to as “gage trimmers” as such a cutting element cuts the outermost gage dimension, or diameter, for the particular drill bit in which the cutters are installed. That is, the cutters, or more particularly the cutting surfaces thereof, being positioned at the furthermost radial distance from the longitudinal centerline of the drill bit, i.e., the outer periphery of the drill bit, will define the final diameter of the borehole being formed as a result of the drill bit engaging, cutting, and displacing the subterranean formation material in the forming of a well bore.
[0007] One particular situation that may damage gage trimmers is rotating the drill bit within a casing while a mud mixture or formulation is changed. For instance, mud formulation may be changed when moving from one type of subterranean formation to another in that oil-based mud formulations are typically preferred to water-based mud formulations when drilling shale. In the case of using downhole motors, the bit may necessarily rotate while the mud is changed because the flow of drilling fluid causes the downhole motor to rotate. Changing a drilling fluid (mud), as used herein, includes the addition of any additive or modifying a mud characteristic including: mud weight, pH, chemical composition, physical composition or viscosity.
[0008] Another condition where gage trimmers may be damaged may exist when a drill bit is “whirling.” Bit whirl is a complicated motion that includes many types of bit movement patterns or modes of motion wherein the bit typically does not rotate about its intended axis of rotation and may not remain centered within the borehole. Bit whirl may typically occur at relatively low weight-on-bit (WOB) coupled with relatively high rotational speed while drilling a borehole. Under either aforesaid conditions the gage trimmers may contact the side of the borehole or casing and be damaged. Therefore, there exists a need to protect gage trimmers under such conditions.
[0009] Prior art uses of tungsten carbide protective structures include various configurations on fixed cutter reamers and tricone bits. On tricone bits, ovoid sintered carbide protective structures have been used on the heel row of the cones. On fixed cutter reamers, ovoid sintered carbide protective structures have been used as described in U.S. Pat. No. 6,397,958, assigned assignee of the present invention, as being placed on the radially outer surface of a blade and facing generally radially outwardly, for example, on a rotationally trailing blade and/or on a rational leading blade, thus being circumferentially offset from a given blade, to provide an additional pass-through point to accommodate erratic rotational motion of the tool in the casing during drill out. Ovoid sintered tungsten carbide compacts may also be used sacrificially when drilling out the casing by being overexposed while drilling the casing.
[0010] U.S. Pat. No. 6,349,780 to Beuershausen, assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses a drill bit configured with gage pads of differing aggressiveness. In addition, Beuershausen also discloses that a drill bit may include gage-cutting elements of more than two levels or degrees of aggressivity.
[0011] U.S. Pat. No. 5,979,576 to Hansen et al., assigned to the assignee of the present invention, discloses that flank cutters with a depth of cut that is less than the “active cutting area” may be employed to reduce wear in the bearing zone of an antiwhirl bit. The flank cutters do not normally contact the borehole, except under certain drilling conditions such as reaming or high rates of penetration wherein whirl tendencies are not as pronounced. Hansen also teaches that natural diamond or diamond-impregnated studs may be placed in front of or behind the flank cutters to control the cutting forces generated adjacent the bearing zone.
[0012] U.S. Pat. No. 4,991,670 to Fuller et al. describes a plurality of protuberances impregnated with super hard particles that are positioned in a trailing relationship to a plurality of cutters.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0013] The present invention comprises a drilling tool having at least one gage trimmer and at least one protective structure placed proximate to a leading edge and a trailing edge of the at least one gage trimmer. More specifically, at least one protective structure is placed proximate to the leading and trailing edges of at least one gage trimmer so as to protrude or extend from the gage profile to an extent substantially equal to the exposure of the at least one gage trimmer in order to protect the at least one gage trimmer. In such a configuration, a protective structure proximate to the leading and trailing edges of a gage trimmer will contact the formation generally when the gage trimmer comes into contact with the formation along the wall of the formation. Particularly, when the gage of the bit encounters impact with the borehole or casing, the protective structure(s) engage the formation material, thus preventing damage to the gage trimmer and extending bit life. In addition, a protective structure may be configured with a contact area for contacting a borehole or casing that may be larger than the surface of the gage trimmer that may contact a borehole or casing. Further, if the drill bit is rotated within a casing or borehole without drilling, the protective structure(s) substantially limit the ability of the gage trimmer to engage or become damaged by contact with the inner diameter of the casing or borehole.
[0014] Protective structures are less wear resistant than a superabrasive material layer of the gage trimmer. Thus, the protective structures do not greatly impede the cutting function of the gage trimmer during drilling, as the protective structures relatively quickly wear down, leaving the gage trimmers exposed for cutting. However, during unstable motion of the drill bit, i.e., whirling or when the drill bit is rotated inside the casing, the gage trimmers may experience impact loading. Protective structures according to the present invention may impede such impact loading from damaging the gage trimmers.
[0015] In general, to effect placement of protective structures proximate to the leading and trailing edges of a gage trimmer, gage trimmers will be located accordingly on a corresponding blade to allow for placement of protective structures. Several different gage trimmer and protective structure placement configurations are contemplated, one being separate protective structures that are located respectively proximate to the leading edge and trailing edge of a gage trimmer. Another configuration comprises a protective structure that is proximate to the leading edges of more than one gage trimmer, while a second protective structure is placed proximate to the trailing edges of more than one gage trimmer. Another configuration includes a protective structure designed and placed so that it is proximate to the leading edge of one or more gage trimmers, while also being proximate to the trailing edge of one or more other gage trimmers. Further, it is contemplated that one protective structure may be located proximate to both the leading and trailing edges of at least one gage trimmer; one configuration example being a doughnut-shaped structure that is placed surrounding or substantially surrounding a gage trimmer. A further example is a generally C-shaped structure proximate to the periphery of a gage trimmer.
[0016] Although the protective structures may have domed or ovoidal top surfaces, many alternative configurations are contemplated by the present invention. For instance, a protective structure may comprise generally or partially planar or flat, cylindrical, conical, spherical, rectangular, triangular, or arcuate shapes, and/or be otherwise geometrically configured and suitably located to provide protection to a gage trimmer. The protective structure of the present invention may comprise a sintered tungsten carbide compact, as known in the art. However, the present invention is not limited only to sintered tungsten carbide and may comprise other metals, sintered metals, alloys, or ceramics.
[0017] In addition, positioning of a gage trimmer and a protective structure proximate to the leading and trailing edges of the gage trimmer may be tailored to the operating conditions of the drill bit. For instance, the helical path of a gage trimmer depends on the ROP and the rotational speed of the drill bit. Therefore, it may be desired to tailor the position of the protective structure to a predicted helix angle associated with a given ROP and bit rotational speed, or relatively tight ranges of both or either. Alternatively, it may be desired to provide a protective structure arrangement that is tailored to a range of helix angles associated with widely varying ROPs and bit rotational speeds. Further, the same or additional protective structures may be aligned for separate or differing operating conditions, such as drilling, tripping, and/or rotation within a casing when changing a drilling fluid, drilling a casing shoe and/or float equipment (which includes float shoes and float collars), or other motion that may be encountered by the drill bit.
[0018] As noted hereinabove, protective structures of the present invention may be sized and positioned to have substantially the same exposure as their respective gage trimmers. This may be advantageous because the protective structure(s) thereby prevent impact loading because the protective structure(s) make contact with the borehole or other surface at substantially the same exposure as the gage trimmer. Upon wearing, the protective structure(s) may maintain substantially the same exposure as the gage trimmer, or may have only slightly less than the exposure of the gage trimmer. Stated another way, although the protective structure(s) have much less wear resistance than the superabrasive layer of the gage trimmer and therefore do not substantially impede the gage trimmer from engaging the formation, the protective structure wear may be determined, to a large extent, by the wear of the gage trimmer because if the protective structure is less exposed than the gage trimmer, the gage trimmer will prevent further wear of the protective structure as it will be cutting a diameter greater than the exposure of the protective structure. As the gage trimmer wears at a slow rate, the protective structure(s) may be exposed to the formation and may be worn to substantially the same or a slightly lesser exposure. Thus, upon installation and subsequent grinding (if required), the gage trimmer and its associated protective structure(s) may be substantially equally exposed and may remain substantially equally exposed or slightly less exposed during continued use. Additionally, gage trimmers and associated protective structure(s) may be replaced and ground (if necessary) to a common exposure.
[0019] Other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art through consideration of the ensuing description, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS
[0020] In the drawings, which illustrate what is currently considered to be the best mode for carrying out the invention:
[0021] [0021]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an exemplary drill bit having protective structures proximate to the leading and trailing edges of a gage trimmer;
[0022] [0022]FIG. 2 is a bottom view of the face of an exemplary drill bit such as depicted in FIG. 1;
[0023] [0023]FIG. 3A is side view of a blade section having leading and trailing superabrasive structures as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2;
[0024] [0024]FIG. 3B is a side view of the blade section of FIG. 3A, illustrating the path of a point on the drill bit under different operating conditions;
[0025] FIGS. 4 A- 4 C are perspective views of several different protective structure embodiments of the present invention;
[0026] [0026]FIG. 5A is a side view of a blade section of the present invention having a single leading protective structure and single trailing protective structure proximate to multiple gage trimmers;
[0027] [0027]FIG. 5B is a side view of a blade section of the present invention having a single leading protective structure and single trailing protective structure proximate to multiple gage trimmers;
[0028] [0028]FIG. 6A is a side view of a blade section of the present invention having one arrangement of leading and trailing protective structures proximate to a gage trimmer that is tailored to a range of operating parameters;
[0029] [0029]FIG. 6B is a side view of a blade section of the present invention having one arrangement of leading and trailing protective structures proximate to a gage trimmer that is tailored to a range of operating parameters;
[0030] [0030]FIG. 7A is a side view of a blade section of the present invention having leading and trailing protective structures wherein at least one protective structure is positioned as both a leading protective structure to a gage trimmer and a trailing protective structure to another gage trimmer;
[0031] [0031]FIG. 7B is a side view of a blade section of the present invention having staggered gage trimmers with leading and trailing protective structures wherein at least one protective structure is proximate to a side of a gage trimmer and wherein at least one protective structure is positioned as both a leading protective structure to a gage trimmer and a trailing protective structure to another gage trimmer;
[0032] [0032]FIG. 8 is a side view of a blade section of the present invention having staggered gage trimmers with leading and trailing protective structures wherein at least one protective structure is proximate to a side of a gage trimmer;
[0033] [0033]FIG. 9 is a side view of a blade section of the present invention having multiple leading protective structures and multiple trailing protective structures in a group of gage trimmers;
[0034] [0034]FIG. 10 is a side view of a blade section of the present invention having a protective structure comprising bit body material and having imbedded sintered tungsten carbide material that substantially surrounds two gage trimmers; and
[0035] [0035]FIGS. 11A and 11B are side views of a blade section of the present invention having protective structures that completely surround their associated gage trimmers circularly and ovally, respectively.
[0036] [0036]FIGS. 12A and 12B are perspective views of different embodiments of tricone drill bits with protective structures according to the present invention disposed thereon.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0037] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2 of the drawings, a rotary drag bit 10 of the present invention is illustrated. Rotary drag bit 10 includes a body 12 having a face 14 radially extending outward from the centerline or longitudinal axis 16 of the bit body 12 . Six blades comprising primary blades 20 , 24 , and 28 as well as secondary blades 18 , 22 , and 26 respectively extend over and above face 14 and radially outwardly therebeyond, defining six longitudinally extending junk slots 30 , 32 , 34 , 36 , 38 , and 40 therebetween. The terms “primary” and “secondary” are employed with regard to the relative volumes of rock cut by the cutter groups of the various blades. A plurality of superabrasive cutters 50 , preferably PDCs, may be mounted to each blade 18 through 28 with their cutting faces 52 facing generally in the direction of bit rotation. Wear knots 70 follow many of the cutters shown, positioned distal to the cutting face 52 of each respective cutter 50 . In addition, secondary cutters 80 , comprising sintered carbide compacts having superabrasive tables oriented generally perpendicular to the faces of cutters 50 , follow between cutters 50 along the inner radius of the primary blades 20 , 24 , and 28 and may provide more stability as well as limit the depth of cut, especially during directional drilling. The secondary cutters 80 may also be configured with relatively large chamfers on the edge of the diamond table and extending into the sintered carbide substrate as known in the art. Each group of cutters 50 , respectively mounted to blades 18 through 28 , generates cuttings of formation material in front of that cutter group as the rotary drag bit 10 is rotated by a drill string and weight is applied to the rotary drag bit 10 through the drill string. The drill string may be attached to the bit body 12 by way of threaded shank 11 , as known in the art. Also, a plurality of nozzles 60 is shown on bit body face 14 . During drilling, drilling fluid flow from the nozzles 60 carries formation cuttings generated by each group of cutters 50 into junk slots 30 through 40 and, ultimately, into the well bore annulus above rotary drag bit 10 between the drill string and the well bore sidewall.
[0038] Gage trimmers 92 are shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, on each blade 18 through 28 (on blades 18 , 20 , and 22 only in FIG. 1), and may be generally positioned radially outward from the cutters 50 , adjacent the outer diameter of the rotary drill bit 10 during operation. Gage trimmers 92 as depicted comprise superabrasive cutters and a radially outermost, longitudinally extending cutting edge thereof, may be ground to conform to the design diameter or “gage” to be drilled by the rotary drill bit 10 . In addition, leading and trailing protective structures 90 and 94 may also be ground to substantially the same exposure as associated gage trimmers 92 . As depicted in FIGS. 1 and 2, gage trimmers 92 on blade 20 may be configured generally centrally on blade 20 with respect to the circumferential extent thereof, with leading protective structures 90 proximate to the leading edges of gage trimmers 92 and trailing protective structures 94 proximate the trailing edges of gage trimmers 92 . Leading protective structures 90 and trailing protective structures 94 may be configured to have substantially the same exposure as their associated gage trimmer 92 or associated gage trimmers 92 . Therefore, as different gage trimmers may exhibit differing exposures, their associated leading and trailing protective structures may be tailored to attain substantially equal exposure to the associated gage trimmer exposure.
[0039] Protective structures such as 90 and 94 may comprise sintered tungsten carbide inserts as known in the art. Protective structures may be brazed or infiltrated into a so-called matrix bit, the bit being comprised of particulate tungsten carbide and a metal infiltrant, such as a copper-based alloy. In the case of a steel body drill bit, protective structures may be affixed to the bit body by pressing the protective structures into appropriately dimensioned apertures, or brazed therein. The present invention is not limited to any one attachment technique. Tungsten carbide inserts serving as protective structures provide increased protection for gage trimmers from impact loading, but wear at a much higher rate than the superabrasive table of the gage trimmer. Therefore, during drilling operations, the protective structures generally do not prevent the gage trimmer from engaging the formation, due to the former's relatively higher wear rate.
[0040] Turning to FIG. 3A, a truncated blade section 15 is shown having leading edge protective structures 90 ′ and 90 ″ associated with gage trimmers 92 ′ and 92 ″, respectively. Similarly, trailing edge protective structures 94 ′ and 94 ″ may be also associated with gage trimmers 92 ′ and 92 ″, respectively. Although gage trimmers are depicted in FIG. 3A as being substantially captured by the body of the bit, FIG. 3A is merely illustrative of the exposure of gage trimmers 92 ′ and 92 ″ with respect to the surface of the bit. Protective structures 90 ′ and 90 ″ may be exposed at substantially the same exposure as gage trimmers 92 ′ and 92 ″, respectively. Conventionally, gage trimmers may be brazed into corresponding cutter pockets (not shown) as known in the art. Cutters 50 are also shown having associated cutting faces 52 ′ and 52 ″ and wear knots 70 ′ and 70 ″, respectively.
[0041] [0041]FIG. 3B shows the path of a point on a rotary drill bit in terms of translating the rotation of the rotary drill bit into horizontal distance and plotting vertical displacement on the vertical axis. Stated another way, the rotation of the rotary drill bit is shown as a horizontal distance, and the vertical displacement of the rotary drill bit is shown as a vertical distance. In this way, the angle along which the cutters travel may be viewed graphically, and is simply a function of the rotational speed of the cutter as well as the vertical speed of the cutter. Horizontal path 19 illustrates the direction that point 13 may travel if the gage section were rotating but not moving vertically. Likewise, points on the bit may be displaced along congruent parallel paths with respect to horizontal path 19 . Under conditions where the blade section 15 rotates and vertically advances into the formation (vertically advancing into the formation meaning in the direction of reference arrow 23 ), point 13 may follow path 17 . Path 17 may vary according to rotational speed and vertical velocity. When blade section 15 is rotating very quickly and moving very slowly, vertically advancing into the formation, path 17 will be very close to path 19 . If, however, blade section 15 is rotating slowly and moving vertically quickly, path 17 may be rotated about point 13 toward the formation. In contrast, path 21 shows rotation of blade section 15 as well as vertical displacement away from the formation, such as when the rotary drill bit is removed from the hole during rotation to back ream the hole.
[0042] Paths 17 , 19 , and 21 illustrate the angle that the cutters will move along under different drilling conditions. Accordingly, it may be advantageous to tailor protective structures in relation to predicted motion of the gage trimmers experienced during operation of the rotary drill bit. Protective structures may be substantially aligned to a horizontal path as shown by path 19 if impact loading is expected when the bit is not moving vertically, but simply rotating within the borehole or casing, as commonly occurs when drilling fluids are changed during drilling operations. Likewise, if impact loading is anticipated during drilling conditions (drilling or tripping), the protective structures may be positioned substantially in relation to a predicted motion to better shield the gage trimmer. Of course, protective structures may be designed and positioned in accordance with any anticipated motion, or a range of motions. Extrapolating the protective structure to protect from any cutter motion yields a protective structure that surrounds the gage trimmer.
[0043] [0043]FIG. 4A illustrates an embodiment of a protective structure 250 of the present invention where the top surface 252 is generally ovoidal, but may be hemispherical or otherwise arcuate in shape. Longitudinal section 254 may be generally installed into a pocket on the bit body, either by a press fit or by way of brazing. Similarly, FIG. 4B illustrates another embodiment for a protective structure 250 wherein the top surface 252 forms two separate ovoidal, hemispherical, or otherwise arcuate protrusions. Such an embodiment may be useful in protecting two gage trimmers where the gage trimmer and protrusion placement are appropriate. Moving to FIG. 4C, protective structure 250 includes top surface 252 , having a generally arcuate form with a relatively low curvature. However, top surface 252 may be tailored according to the shape of the formation that it engages. For instance, top surface 252 may be shaped so that at least a portion thereof conforms to the gage diameter. In addition, recesses 253 and 255 may be configured, positioned, and sized to provide a selected area of cut for a gage trimmer, so that a gage trimmer may be exposed to a selected area of the formation that is substantially unaffected by a protective structure.
[0044] [0044]FIG. 5A shows a blade section 110 of the present invention configured with cutters 150 , 152 , and 154 as well as associated wear knots 170 , 172 , and 174 , respectively. Blade section 110 may be configured wherein protective structure 300 is proximate to the leading edges of both gage trimmer 180 and gage trimmer 182 . Similarly, protective structure 302 may be proximate to the trailing edges of both gage trimmers 180 and 182 . Protective structure 300 is shown as having an elliptical cross section, but may comprise any number of geometries. In addition, the top surface of the protective structure may comprise various topographies as well. For instance, the top surface of protective structure 300 may be contoured in any number of ways as shown in FIGS. 4 A- 4 C. In any event, the top surface of a protective structure that may be proximate to a gage trimmer may be substantially exposed equally to its associated gage trimmer. However, as shown in FIGS. 4 A- 4 C, the top surface of a protective structure may vary and thereby accommodate differing gage trimmer exposures that may be proximate in different areas along the protective structure. Further, the protective structure or structures may be ground to substantially the same exposure as a proximate gage trimmer.
[0045] [0045]FIG. 5B shows blade section 112 , wherein protective structure 304 is proximate to the leading edges of both gage trimmers 180 and 182 . Also, protective structure 306 is proximate to the trailing edges of both gage trimmers 180 and 182 . Additionally, protective structures 304 and 306 may be generally rectangular in shape and may be positioned at an angle with respect to the longitudinal axis of the drill bit (not shown). The position of protective structures may be tailored to provide preferential protection from an anticipated source of impact or from an anticipated direction of impact, as discussed above and shown in FIG. 3B. Protective structures 304 and 306 may be generally aligned to an angle that may be produced by removing the rotary drill bit from the hole while rotating the rotary drill bit, as illustrated by path 21 in FIG. 3B.
[0046] [0046]FIG. 6A shows blade section 118 of the present invention configured with gage trimmers 196 and 198 as well as protective structures 320 , 322 , 324 , 326 , 328 , and 330 . Depending on the helical angle that the gage trimmer follows, protective structure 320 may function as a protective structure proximate to the leading edge of either gage trimmer 196 or gage trimmer 198 . Similarly, protective structure 330 may function as a protective structure proximate to the trailing edge of either gage trimmer 196 or gage trimmer 198 . Protective structures 320 , 322 , and 324 are shifted vertically toward cutter 154 , while protective structures 326 , 328 , and 330 are shifted vertically away from cutter 154 . Such a configuration may provide protection from anticipated impact loading during drilling conditions. Specifically, protective structures 320 , 322 , and 324 may serve as leading edge protective structures for helical paths experienced during active drilling, while protective structures 326 , 328 , and 330 may serve as trailing protective structures. During rotation only, protective structures 320 and 326 serve as leading and trailing protective structures to gage trimmer 196 , respectively. Correspondingly, protective structures 322 and 330 serve as leading and trailing protective structures to gage trimmer 198 , respectively. Thus, FIG. 6A illustrates a protective structure configuration wherein multiple leading and trailing edge protective structures may serve differing gage trimmers under various operating conditions.
[0047] Moving to FIG. 6B, blade section 118 of the present invention is configured with gage trimmers 196 and 198 as well as protective structures 320 , 322 , 324 , 326 , 328 , and 330 . Protective structures 320 , 322 , and 324 are shifted vertically away from cutter 154 , while protective structures 326 , 328 , and 330 are shifted vertically toward cutter 154 . Such a configuration may provide protection from anticipated impact loading during tripping conditions. Specifically, protective structures 320 , 322 , and 324 may serve as leading edge protective structures for helical paths experienced during active drilling, while protective structures 326 , 328 , and 330 may serve as trailing protective structures. During rotation without longitudinal displacement of the rotary drill bit, protective structures 324 and 330 serve as leading and trailing protective structures to gage trimmer 196 , respectively. Correspondingly, protective structures 320 and 328 serve as leading and trailing protective structures to gage trimmer 198 , respectively.
[0048] [0048]FIG. 7A illustrates a blade section 114 having multiple gage trimmers 184 , 186 , 188 , and 190 arranged in generally longitudinal columns delineated by protective structures 308 , 310 , and 312 . Protective structure 308 is positioned proximate to the leading edges of gage trimmers 184 and 188 , while protective structure 312 is proximate to the trailing edges of gage trimmers 186 and 190 . In this embodiment, protective structure 310 is proximate to the trailing edges of gage trimmers 184 and 188 and also proximate to the leading edges of gage trimmers 186 and 190 . Thus, gage trimmers in this design are not substantially centered on blade section 114 in this embodiment. Generally, gage trimmers may be configured in any manner that the available space allows, and may be staggered or otherwise positioned.
[0049] [0049]FIG. 7B shows a blade section 116 configured with a protective structure of the present invention wherein protective structure 316 serves as a protective structure proximate to the leading edge of gage trimmer 194 as well as a trailing protective structure proximate to the trailing edge of gage trimmer 192 . Protective structure 314 is proximate to the leading edge of gage trimmer 192 and protective structure 318 is proximate to the trailing edge of gage trimmer 194 . In addition, protective structure 316 provides protection to the side of gage trimmer 192 toward cutter 154 as well as the side of gage trimmer 194 away from cutter 154 . Thus, in this configuration, gage trimmers 192 and 194 are protected by protective structures on substantially three sides. Other configurations contemplated by the present invention include toroidally shaped sections positioned about a gage trimmer, or S-shaped protective structures that weave around one or more gage trimmers. Many alternative designs to protect gage trimmers in multiple directions are possible.
[0050] For instance, FIG. 8 shows an embodiment of blade section 120 wherein protective structures shield the gage trimmer(s) from more than two directions. Protective structures 332 , 334 , 336 , and 338 may be positioned so that gage trimmers 200 and 202 may be protected on substantially three sides. Considering gage trimmer 200 , protective structure 332 is proximate to the leading edge, protective structure 336 is proximate to the trailing edge, and protective structure 334 is proximate to the side of gage trimmer 200 . Similarly, viewing gage trimmer 202 , protective structure 334 is proximate to the leading edge, protective structure 338 is proximate to the trailing edge, and protective structure 336 is proximate to the side of gage trimmer 202 .
[0051] Turning to FIG. 9, blade section 122 is shown with a multiple protective structure embodiment comprising ten protective structures positioned proximate to three gage trimmers 204 , 206 , and 208 . Protective structures 344 , 340 , 346 , 342 , and 348 may serve as leading edge gage trimmer protectors, while protective structures 350 , 356 , 352 , 358 , and 354 may serve as trailing edge gage trimmer protectors. It may be advantageous to stagger multiple protective structures proximate to the leading edge of multiple gage trimmers in that redundancy and overlapping protection regions may provide enhanced protection for the gage trimmers. Staggered columns of protective structures may be desirable if sufficient space is available on the blade.
[0052] As a further embodiment, FIG. 10 shows a blade section 124 wherein protective structures 360 , 362 , 364 , and 366 are positioned at least partially within bit body element 160 . Bit body element 160 is similar to wear knots 70 , as shown in FIG. 1, or wear knots 170 and 172 , as shown in FIGS. 5 A- 10 . However, in addition to providing a wear knot associated with cutter 154 , bit body element 160 also at least partially supports protective elements 360 , 362 , 364 , and 366 . Bit body element 160 may substantially be exposed equally to protective elements 360 , 362 , 364 , and 366 ; thus, the bit body element 160 may be flush with the protective structures 360 , 362 , 364 , and 366 . Alternatively, bit body element 160 may provide support to protective structures 360 , 362 , 364 , and 366 at less exposure than the gage trimmers 210 and 212 . Since a portion of the bit body element 160 may function as a wear knot associated with cutter 154 , and may be proximate to the leading and trailing edges of gage trimmers 210 and 212 , the topography of bit body element 160 may vary to accommodate the potentially differing desired exposures over the area of bit body element 160 . Further, bit body element 160 may be also proximate to the side of gage trimmer 210 nearest cutter 154 as well as proximate to the side of gage trimmer 212 farthest from cutter 154 , and therefore may be used to further protect the gage trimmers 210 and 212 on their respective sides. Multiple bit body elements may be employed and may be formed as small support structures for each protective structure, or for particular support structures. In addition, bit body elements may be freestanding, similar to wear knots 170 and 172 .
[0053] As mentioned hereinabove, a protective structure that protects from any helical path may be a desirable configuration for protection of a gage trimmer. FIGS. 11A and 11B show two embodiments of protective structures that surround gage trimmers. More specifically, referring to FIG. 11A, blade section 126 includes gage trimmer 214 which is surrounded by a hollow cylindrical protective structure 370 while gage trimmer 216 is surrounded by a hollow cylindrical protective structure 368 . Clearly, each protective structure 368 and 370 may be proximate to the leading and trailing edges of its respective gage trimmers, 216 and 214 . Similarly, in FIG. 11B, blade section 128 includes hollow elliptical protective structures 372 and 374 surrounding gage trimmers 214 and 216 , respectively. It should be noted, however, that the protective structures need not completely surround the gage trimmers. Other protective structure embodiments that substantially surround or partially surround the gage trimmer may be employed. Also, the protective structure may be comprised of disparate pins, columns, or otherwise separate elements if desirable.
[0054] As an additional embodiment, the present invention may be installed upon a tricone drill bit as known in the art. Referring to FIG. 12A, an earth-boring bit 311 has a threaded pin section 313 on its upper end for securing the bit to a string of drill pipe. A plurality of earth-disintegrating cutters 315 , usually three, are rotatably mounted on bearing shafts (not shown) carried by legs 333 depending from the bit body. At least one nozzle 317 is provided to discharge drilling fluid pumped from the drill string to the bottom of the borehole. A lubricant pressure compensator system 319 is provided for each cutter to reduce a pressure differential between the borehole fluid and the lubricant in the bearings of the cutters 315 .
[0055] Each cutter 315 is generally conical and has nose area 321 at the apex of the cone, and a gage surface 323 at the base of the cone. The gage surface 323 is frusto-conical and is adapted to contact the sidewall of the borehole as the cutter 315 rotates about the borehole bottom. Each cutter 315 has a plurality of wear-resistant inserts 325 secured by interference fit into mating sockets drilled in the supporting surface of the cutter 315 . These wear-resistant inserts 325 may be constructed of a hard, fracture-tough material such as cemented tungsten carbide. Inserts 325 generally are located in rows extending circumferentially about the generally conical surface of the cutters 315 . Certain of the rows are arranged to intermesh with other rows on other cutters 315 . One or two of the cutters may have staggered rows consisting of a first row of 325 a of inserts and a second row of 325 b of inserts. A first or heel row 327 is a circumferential row that is closest to the edge of the gage surface 323 . A row of gage trimmers 331 may be secured to the gage surface 323 of the cutter 315 as disclosed by U.S. Pat. No. 5,467,836, assigned to the assignee of the present invention and incorporated herein in its entirety by reference thereto.
[0056] Further, leading protective structures 390 proximate to the rotationally leading edges of gage trimmers 392 and trailing protective structures 394 proximate the rotationally trailing edges of gage trimmers 392 may be carried by legs 333 . Gage trimmers 392 may provide increased gage holding capability in addition to the rows of gage trimmers 331 . Thus, protective structures may be configured to protect gage trimmers carried by bit bodies of many types.
[0057] Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 12B, protective structures 396 may be installed on the gage surface 323 , interspersed between gage trimmers 331 . Such a configuration may prevent or limit gage inserts 323 from contacting a borehole or casing. In addition, such a configuration may allow for an increased number of protective structures 396 to be carried by a bit body, since the gage surface 323 may provide an increased area for placing protective structures 396 . As protective structures 396 may be interspersed between gage trimmers 331 , one protective structure 396 may be proximate to the rotationally leading edge of one gage trimmer 331 while being proximate the rotationally trailing edge of another gage trimmer 331 . Of course, other embodiments are contemplated by the present invention, one being a repeating pattern of one gage trimmer 331 separated by two protective structures 396 from another gage trimmer 331 .
[0058] Although the foregoing description contains many specifics, these should not be construed as limiting the scope of the present invention, but merely as providing illustrations of some exemplary embodiments. Similarly, other embodiments of the invention may be devised which do not depart from the spirit or scope of the present invention. Features from different embodiments may be employed in combination. The scope of the invention is, therefore, indicated and limited only by the appended claims and their legal equivalents, rather than by the foregoing description. All additions, deletions, and modifications to the invention, as disclosed herein, which fall within the meaning and scope of the claims are to be embraced thereby.
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A rotary drill bit for drilling subterranean formations configured with at least one protective structure proximate to the rotationally leading and trailing edges of a gage trimmer, wherein the at least one protective structure is positioned at substantially the same exposure as its associated gage trimmer. Particularly, the apparatus of the present invention may provide protection for gage trimmers during drilling, tripping, and/or rotation within a casing; i.e., when changing a drilling fluid. Protective structures may be configured and located according to anticipated drilling conditions including helix angles. In addition, a protective structure may be proximate to more than one gage trimmer while having a substantially equal exposure to each associated gage trimmer. Methods of use and a method of rotary bit design are also disclosed.
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RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application is a Continuation of Ser. No. 07/559,500 filed Jul. 25, 1990, now abandoned; which is a Continuation of Ser. No. 06/795,540 filed Nov. 6, 1985, now abandoned.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of Invention
The invention relates to fluorescent lighting fixtures, particularly of a kind wherein the light output level is regulated such as to remain substantially constant in spite of changes in supply voltage magnitude and/or lamp efficacy.
2. Prior Art and General Background
It is well known that significant improvements in overall cost-effectivity can result from appropriately controlling the level of light output from lighting fixtures used for general lighting of offices and the like.
Fluorescent lamp ballasting systems adapted to permit control of light output level on a systems basis presently do exist--as for instance in accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 4,207,498 to Spira et al. However, there are significant complexities associated with practical applications of such light level control systems; and, in spite of the very significant improvements potentially available in cost-effectivity, such light control systems have not gained wide acceptance.
Much of the value available from a light control system may be attained by control of each individual lighting fixture. That way, for instance, light output from each fixture could be kept constant irrespective of any variations in the magnitude of the power line voltage and/or regardless of changes in luminous efficacy of the fluorescent lamp(s) used in the fixture.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
One object of the present invention is that of providing an improved method of controlling the light output from a fluorescent lighting fixture.
A second object is that of providing means whereby the light output of a fluorescent lighting fixture may effectively and automatically be maintained constant at a desired level.
A third object is that of providing a cost-effective way of controllably regulating the output of a fluorescent lighting fixture in such manner as to maintain a substantially constant light output irrespective of any variations in the magnitude of the power line voltage and/or regardless of any changes in the luminous efficacy of the fluorescent lamp(s) used therein.
These as well as other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description and claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION
In its preferred embodiment, the present invention constitutes a power-line-operated fluorescent lighting fixture comprising a fluorescent lamp means powered by an inverter-type ballast.
The ballast comprises a self-oscillating inverter whose frequency of oscillation can be influenced by receipt of a control signal at a pair of ballast control terminals connected in circuit with the inverter's positive feedback circuit.
Within the lighting fixture, an optical sensor is so positioned and constituted as to sense the light level within the fixture and to provide a control signal commensurate with that light level. This control signal is then applied to the ballast control terminals in such manner as to regulate the inverter frequency as a function of the light level, thereby correspondingly to regulate the magnitude of the current fed to the fluorescent lamp means.
By providing a threshold means in combination with high gain in the control loop, the fixture light level may be accurately maintained at any desired value substantially regardless of any changes in magnitude of power line voltage and/or in the luminous efficacy of the lamp means.
The inverter's positive feedback is attained by way of saturable current transformer means, and control of inverter frequency is attained by providing more or less heat to the saturable magnetic material of the current transformer means, thereby correspondingly to decrease or increase the saturation limits of this magnetic material; which, in turn, correspondingly increases or decreases the frequency of inverter oscillation.
The inverter provides its high frequency output to an L-C series-combination and the fluorescent lamp means is connected in parallel circuit with the capacitor of this L-C combination.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 diagrammatically illustrates a power-line-operated self-oscillating inverter-type ballast with saturable transformer means in its positive feedback path and with electrical input means for affecting control of the inversion frequency.
FIG. 2 illustrates the effect of temperature on the saturation characteristics of the magnetic material used in the saturable transformer means.
FIG. 3 shows the inverter-type ballast of FIG. 1 combined with optical sensor means and control feedback means operable to keep constant the light output from a fluorescent lamp.
FIG. 4 provides an overall illustration of the preferred embodiment of the invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
In FIG. 1, a source S of 120 Volt/60 Hz voltage is applied to a full-wave bridge rectifier BR, the unidirectional voltage output of which is applied directly between a B+ bus and a B- bus, with the positive voltage being connected to the B+ bus.
Between the B+ bus and the B- bus are connected a series-combination of two transistors Q1 and Q2 as well as a series-combination of two energy-storing capacitors C1 and C2.
The secondary winding CT1s of positive feedback current transformer CT1 is connected directly between the base and the emitter of transistor Q1; and the secondary winding CT2s of positive feedback current transformer CT2 is connected directly between the base and the emitter of transistor Q2.
The collector of transistor Q1 is connected directly with the B+ bus; the emitter of transistor Q2 is connected directly with the B- bus; and the emitter of transistor Q1 is connected directly with the collector of transistor Q2, thereby forming junction QJ
One terminal of capacitor C1 is connected directly with the B+ bus, while the other terminal of capacitor C1 is connected with a junction CJ. One terminal of capacitor C2 is connected directly with the B- bus, while the other terminal of capacitor C2 is connected directly with junction CJ.
An inductor L and a capacitor C are connected in series with one another and with the primary windings CT1p and CT2p of transformers CT1 and CT2
The series-connected primary windings CT1p and CT2p are connected directly between junction QJ and a point X. Inductor L is connected with one of its terminals to point X and with the other of its terminals to one of the terminals of capacitor C. The other terminal of capacitor C is connected directly with junction CJ.
A fluorescent lamp FL is connected, by way of lamp sockets S1 and S2, in parallel circuit across capacitor C.
Respectively, the two current transformers CT1 and CT2 are thermally connected with heating resistors R1 and R2; which two resistors are parallel-connected across control input terminals CIT.
Values and designations of the various parts of the circuit of FIG. 1 are listed as follows:
Output of Source S: 120 Volt/60 Hz;
Bridge rectifier BR: a bridge of four 1N4004's;
Capacitors C1 & C2: 100 uF/100 Volt Electrolytics;
Transistors Q1 & Q2: Motorola MJE13002's;
Capacitor C: 15 nF/1000 Volt(High-Q);
Inductor L: 130 turns of three twisted strands of #30 wire On a 3019P-L00-3C8 Ferroxcube Ferrite Pot Core with a 120 mil air gap;
Transformers CT1 & CT2: Wound on Ferroxcube Toroids 213T050 of 3E2A Ferrite Material with three turns of #26 wire for the primary windings and ten turns of #30 wire for the secondary windings;
Fluorescent Lamp FL: Sylvania Octron F032/31K;
Resistors R1 & R2: 0.2 kOhm/1 Watt Wirewound's.
The frequency of inverter oscillation associated with the component values identified above--with no power supplied to resistors R1 and R2--is approximately 33 kHz.
FIG. 2 shows the relationship between temperature and saturation flux density of the Ferroxcube 3E2A ferrite material used in feedback current transformers CT1 and CT2.
FIG. 3 shows the inverter-type ballast circuit of FIG. 1 arranged such as to provide for automatic control of light output from the fluorescent lamp.
A transformer T is connected with its primary winding across capacitor C; its secondary winding is connected with the AC input terminals of a full-wave rectifier FWR. The positive and negative terminals of the DC output of this rectifier are respectively marked T+ and T-.
A transistor Qa is connected with its collector to the T+ terminal by way of the CIT terminals; and it is connected with its emitter to the T- terminal.
A light sensor LS is connected between the T+ terminal and the cathode of a first Zener diode Z1.
The anode of Zener diode Z1 is connected with the base of transistor Qa. An adjustable resistor Ra is connected between the cathode of the Zener diode and the T- terminal.
A second Zener diode Z2 is connected with its cathode to the collector of transistor Qa; and a warning means WM is connected between the anode of Z2 and the T- terminal.
FIG. 4 provides an overall view of the preferred embodiment of the invention, showing the use of a ballast B, as made in accordance with the preferred embodiment of FIG. 2, in a lighting fixture LF, which is shown in quasi-cross-section.
The light sensor LS, which is shown as being placed just above the fluorescent lamp FL, is plug-in connected with the ballast B by way of a light-weight connect cord CC. The adjustable resistor Ra is indicated as being accessible from the side of the ballast; and warning means WM is indicated as being mounted on the side of the lighting fixture and plugged into the ballast in manner similar to that of the light sensor.
DESCRIPTION OF OPERATION
The operation of the circuit FIG. 1 may be explained as follows.
In FIG. 1, the source S represents an ordinary electric utility power line, the voltage from which is applied directly to the bridge rectifier identified as BR. This bridge rectifier is of conventional construction and provides for the rectified line voltage to be applied to the inverter circuit by way of the B+ bus and the B- bus.
The two energy-storing capacitors C1 and C2 are connected directly across the output of the Bridge rectifier BR and serve to filter the rectified line voltage, thereby providing for the voltage between the B+ bus and the B- bus to be substantially constant. Junction CJ between the two capacitors serves to provide a power supply center tap.
The inverter circuit of FIG. 1, which represents a so-called half-bridge inverter, operates in a manner that is analogous with circuits previously described in published literature, as for instance in U.S. Pat. No. 4,184,128 to Nilssen entitled High Efficiency Push-Pull Inverters.
The inverter circuit is shown without any means for initiating inverter oscillation. However, once B+ power is applied, oscillation can be initiated simply by momentarily connecting a 50 nF capacitor between the B+ bus and the base of transistor Q2.
Or, as is used in many other inverter circuits, an automatic triggering arrangement consisting of a resistor, capacitor, and a Diac may be used.
At a temperature of 25 Degree Centigrade, the output of the half-bridge inverter is a substantially squarewave 33 kHz AC voltage. This squarewave voltage is provided between point X and junction CJ. Across this squarewave voltage output is connected a resonant or near-resonant L-C series circuit--with the fluorescent lamp being connected in parallel with the tank-capacitor thereof.
The resonant or near-resonant action of the L-C series circuit provides for appropriate lamp starting and operating voltages, as well as for proper lamp current limiting; which is to say that it provides for appropriate lamp ballasting.
(Resonant or near-resonant ballasting has been described in previous publications, as for instance in U.S. Pat. No. 3,710,177 entitled Fluorescent Lamp Circuit Driven Initially at Lower Voltage and Higher Frequency.)
The inverter frequency may be controlled by controlling the temperature of the magnetic cores of the feedback current transformers, as can best be under,stood by recognizing that--in the inverter circuit of FIG. 1--the ON-time of a given transistor is a direct function of the saturation flux density of the magnetic core in the saturable feedback transformer associated with that transistor. Thus, other things being equal and in view of the relationship illustrated by FIG. 2, the inversion frequency is a substantially proportional function of the temperature of the ferrite cores used in CT1 and CT2.
However, it should also be understood that the transistor ON-time is a substantially inverse proportional function of the magnitude of the voltage presented to the secondary windings of the saturable feedback current transformers by the base-emitter junctions of the two transistors. That is, other things being equal, the inversion frequency is substantially a proportional function of the magnitude of this junction voltage; which is to say, since the magnitude of this junction voltage decreases in approximate proportion to temperature, that the inversion frequency decreases with increasing temperature on the transistors.
When combining the two effects outlined above, and by matching the effects on the inversion frequency due to the temperature effects of ferrite material with those of the counter-working temperature effects of the transistors' base-emitter junction, it is possible substantially to cancel any change in inversion frequency that otherwise might result from temperature changes occuring in a normally operating inverter circuit.
However, aside from any normally occuring changes in the inversion frequency, it is possible in a cost-effective and practical manner to cause substantial additional changes in the inversion frequency. Such changes can controllably be accomplished by way of providing a controllable flow of additional heat to the ferrite cores of the saturable feedback transformers; which is exactly what is accomplished by the two resistors identified as R1 and R2; which two resistors are coupled to the ferrite cores in close thermal relationship.
A given flow of power to the two resistors causes a corresponding proportional temperature rise of the ferrite material. Thus, the inversion frequency will increase from its base value in approximate proportion to the power input to the resistors.
In the circuit of FIG. 1, the purpose of frequency control is that of effecting control of the power output, which is accomplished by way placing a frequency dependent or reactive element in circuit with the load. That way, as the frequency is varied, the flow of power to the load is varied in some corresponding manner.
For extra effective control, this reactive element can be a tuned circuit--as indeed is used in the arrangement of FIG. 1--in which case the degree of power flow control for a given degree of frequency control is enhanced by the frequency selective characteristics of the tuned circuit.
In the particular case of FIG. 1, with no power being provided to resistors R1 and R2, the power supplied to the fluorescent lamp load is approximately 30 Watt. With a power flow of about 1 Watt provided to resistors R1 and R2, the power supplied to the fluorescent lamp load is only about 4 Watt.
Thus, by controlling the amount of power being provided to control input terminals CIT, the light output of fluorescent lamp FL may be controlled over a wide range.
However, it should be realized that by controlling the light output of fluorescent lamp FL by way of controlling the temperature of the ferrite material in the feedback current transformers, as herein described, the response time can not be instantaneous.
While such delayed response may be annoying in conventional light dimming applications, it is of little significance in several important applications.
In particular, with reference to FIG. 3, the relatively long response time does not constitute a significant detriment in connection with controlling the light output against such effects as: i) changes in the magnitude of the voltage applied to the inverter from source S, ii) variations in the efficacy of the fluorescent lamp, whether these variations be due to lamp manufacturing differences or lamp aging, iii) variations in the ambient temperature to which the fluorescent lamp is subjected, and iv) variations in the ambient temperature to which the ballast itself is subjected
More particularly, the ballast circuit of FIG. 3 illustrates how the circuit of FIG. 1 is used to provide for automatic control of the light output of the fluorescent lamp.
The light output level is sensed by light sensor LS, which is of such nature that its effective resistance decreases as the light flux received by it increases. Consequently, the voltage developing across adjustable resistor Ra increases with decreasing light output Depending upon the chosen setting of Ra, with increasing light output, there comes a point at which the magnitude of the voltage across Ra gets to be so high as to cause current to flow through Zener diode Z1 and into the base of transistor Qa; which then causes power to be provided to resistors R1 and R2. In turn, the power provided to these resistors will cause heating of the ferrite cores of feedback transformers CT1 and CT2, thereby reducing the amount of power supplied by the ballast to the fluorescent lamp.
As an overall result, the light output from the lamp will be kept substantially constant at a level determined principally by the threshold provided in the control feedback loop; which threshold is determined by the sum of the voltage drop across the Z1 Zener diode and that of the base-emitter junction of transistor Qa
Thus, with adequate gain in the total feedback loop (which principally consists of elements LS, Ra, Z1, Qa, R1, R2, CT1, CT2 and the Thermal Coupling Means), the light output will be maintained at a substantially constant level characterized by the point at which the magnitude of the voltage across Ra reaches this threshold--that is, reaches a threshold high enough to cause current to flow through the Z1 zener diode and into the base of transistor Qa.
If the light output level were to fall below this threshold, current would cease flowing through transistor Qa, and power flow to the ferrite cores will be choked off; thereby causing the cores to cool down and, as a result, more power to be provided to the lamp.
Whenever the light output is inadequate to cause the magnitude of the voltage across Ra to reach the threshold, base current ceases to be provided to Qa, and the magnitude of the voltage across Qa will reach its maximum level; which maximum level is principally determined by the magnitude of the voltage between the T- and the T+ terminals. In turn, this magnitude is determined by the voltage developing across the fluorescent lamp in combination with the voltage transformation ratio of transformer T.
The parameters of Zener diode Z2 and warning means WM are so chosen that power will be provided to warning means WM whenever the magnitude of the voltage across Qa reaches its maximum level; which means that a warning will be provided whenever the light output from fluorescent lamp FL fails to reach a certain level.
Although different types of devices may be used as warning means WM, it is herein anticipated that the warning means be a simple liquid crystal device parallel-loaded with a leakage resistor.
Or, the warning means could simply be a light-emitting diode, in which case the Zener diode may be substituted with a resistor.
FIG. 4 shows a fluorescent lighting fixture wherein a ballast B, made in accordance with the ballast circuit of FIG. 3, is positioned and connected with the fixture's fluorescent lamp(s) in a substantially ordinary manner.
A calibrated means for adjusting the magnitude of resistor Ra is accessible from the outside of the ballast.
Light sensor LS and warning means WM are each provided as an entity at one end of a light weight electrical cord; which cord has a plug at its other end. This plug is adapted to be plugged into a receptacle in the ballast itself, thereby to be properly connected in circuit with the feedback loop.
The complete feedback loop is electrically isolated from the power line and the main ballast circuit; which therefore readily permits both LS and WM, as well as their receptacles, cords and plugs, to be made and installed in accordance with the specifications for Class-2 or Class-3 electrical circuits, as defined by the National Electrical Code.
Like LS and WM, Ra could just as well have been provided as a plug-in entity at the end of a light weight cord; and, like Ra, both LS and WM could just as Well have been provided as rigidly integral parts of the ballast itself.
Light sensor LS is positioned in such a way as to be exposed to the ambient light within the fixture; warning means WM is placed in a location whereby it is readily visible from some suitable place external of the fixture; and ballast B is placed in such manner as to provide for Ra to be reasonably accessible for adjustment.
The main purpose of warning means WM is that of providing a visually discernable signal to the effect that it is time to change the lamp(s) in the fixture.
The main purpose of adjustable resistor Ra is that of permitting adjustment of the level of light to be provided from the fixture.
Additional Comments
a) When a fluorescent lamp is initially provided with power, its light output will be substantially lower than it will be once the lamp has warmed up to proper operating temperature. Under most normal circumstances, the ballasting system of FIG. 3 provides compensation for this effect, in that the lamp will automatically be provided with substantially more power as long as the light output is not up to the desired level--even if the reason relates to the fact that the lamp has not reached proper operating temperature yet.
During this initial warm-up period, the warning means may indicate a need to replace the lamp. However, the warning signal should be disregarded, or at least interpreted with special care, during this initial lamp warm-up period.
b) In order for the feedback Control loop to be considered as a Class-2 electrical circuit, it is convenient to limit the magnitude of the DC voltage provided between terminals T- and T+ to about 30 Volt. Also, the magnitude of the maximum current available therefrom should be limited to 8 Amp.
c) To provide for even more accuracy in the control feedback function, the magnitude of the voltage provided between the B- and the B+ terminals could be regulated with a separate Zener diode. However, for most applications, the degree of voltage regulation provided by the fluorescent lamp should be adequate.
d) The light sensing means (LS) in the lighting fixture of FIG. 4 may be located, positioned and/or constituted so as to respond to light brightness at a place other than inside the fixture--such as for instance to the light brightness present at a point somewhere below the fixture--thereby accomplishing regulation of light output from tills particular fixture so as to tend to maintain constant the brightness at this other place.
e) In a complete lighting system, it is anticipated that each individual lighting fixture be output-regulated in the manner described in connection with FIG. 4. Thus, the light output from each individual lighting fixture would be regulated substantially in complete independence from the light output of other lighting fixtures.
f) It is believed that the present invention and its several attendant advantages and features will be understood from the preceeding description. However, without departing from the spirit of the invention, changes may be made in its form and in the construction and interrelationships of its component parts, the form herein presented merely representing the presently preferred embodiment.
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A lighting fixture is powered from an ordinary power line and has an inverter-type ballast for powering a fluorescent lamp. This ballast comprises an inverter means whose frequency of oscillation can be influenced by receipt of a control signal at a pair of control terminals. An optical sensor is located within the fixture in such manner as to intercept part of the light emitted by the fluorescent lamp. This sensor provides a control signal proportional to the amount of light emitted by the lamp, and this control signal is applied to the ballast control terminals in such manner as to regulate the inverter frequency as a function of the light level, thereby correspondingly to regulate the magnitude of the current fed to the fluorescent lamp. By providing a threshold means in combination with high gain in the control loop, the fixture light level may be accurately maintained at any desired value substantially regardless of any changes in magnitude of power line voltage and/or in lamp efficacy. When lamp efficacy falls below some minimum level, a warning signal is provided.
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This application claims the benefit of the Korean Patent Application No. 10-2006-0003932, filed on Jan. 13, 2006, which is hereby incorporated in its entirety by reference as if fully set forth herein.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a laundry machine such as a washing machine or a clothes dryer, and more particularly, to a laundry machine having a wireless communicating controller therein. Although the present invention is suitable for a wide scope of applications, it is particularly suitable for configuring a controller with a main control unit and an input or display unit separated from the main control unit and performing wireless data communications between the main control unit and the input unit or the display unit.
2. Discussion of the Related Art
Generally, a washing machine is a mechanical device that performs a washing cycle, a rinsing cycle, a dewatering cycle, and the like by rotating a drum or pulsator via a driving force of a motor. After laundry and water have been put into a drum, they are agitated to perform washing using the frictions between the laundry, water and drum.
Washing machines can be classified into a pulsator type washing machine, an agitator type washing machine, a drum type washing machine, and the like.
The drum type washing machine is a device that performs washing using a friction between a washing drum and laundry while a detergent, water and laundry are put into the washing drum. In this case, the washing drum is rotated by receiving a driving force of a driving part. Hence, the drum type washing machine is advantageous in causing less damage on the laundry, preventing the ravel of the laundry, and bringing washing effects of beating and rubbing.
FIG. 1 is a perspective diagram of a drum type washing machine according to a related art.
Referring to FIG. 1 , a controller 3 is provided to an upper part of a front side of a body of a drum type washing machine. In this case, the controller 3 includes function input keys for user's washing controls and a display unit displaying a remaining time and the like.
A plurality of buttons 31 , a display window 32 , an LED window 33 and a rotary knob 50 are provided to the controller 3 . Each of the buttons 31 and the rotary knob 50 are input tools to operate the washing machine. A user manipulates the buttons 31 and the knob 50 to input a specific washing course and time and the like in selecting a washing time, a washing type, a dewatering type, a drying type, etc.
The LED window 33 informs a user of various kinds of washing information such as a washing progress status, a remaining time and the like via flickering. And, the display window 32 informs a user of various kinds of washing information such as a washing progress status, a remaining time and the like via characters and symbols.
If a user selects the washing type or the like via the rotary knob 50 and/or the buttons 31 , a main control unit of the controller 3 controls washing associated information to be displayed on the LED window 33 or the display window 32 and controls the washing machine to be operated according to the inputted information.
Meanwhile, a clothes dryer is a mechanical device that automatically dries wet clothes after completion of washing. And, like the drum type washing machine shown in FIG. 1 , a clothes dryer according to a related art is provided with a controller including an input means, a display means, a main control unit and the like.
Since the controller is provided to an upper part of a body of the related art washing machine or clothes dryer, if the washing machine or clothes dryer is installed at a high level far from a position where a user stands, the user has difficulty in accessing the controller. Hence, the user is inconvenient in using the controller. And, there is another inconvenience for a user to view a display unit by raising his head to observe a corresponding state displayed on the display unit.
In case that the washing machine and the clothes dryer are arranged parallel to each other at a relatively lower place, the user will not have trouble using the controllers which are located to the upper part of the machines. However, if one of the washing machine and the clothes dryer is placed at a high place, for example on top of the other, the user is expected to have trouble using the controller of the one which is placed at a high place.
Besides, in the controller of the related art washing machine or clothes dryer, data communications between the main control unit and input unit or the display unit are carried out by wire communication. In the related art, communication lines are mandatory for the wire communication. And, the wire communication also makes the arrangement of the communication lines so complicated that the main control unit, the input unit, and the display unit are preferred to be put near one another.
With the wire communication, 29 electric wires are generally necessarily used for making electrical connections among them. It is very time-consuming to put the number of wires in electrical connection to the units.
After completion of connecting the electric wires to assemble the controller, it is very inconvenient to treat the controller, since the units of the controller need to be moved together. Sometimes, it is necessary to remove from the machine one unit of the controller. In this case, the wires cause inconvenience, too. In particular, in case that one unit of the controller needs to be moved, the inconvenience becomes worse. Moreover, if the input unit or the display unit moves to be placed in another position, the wire communication system is inappropriate.
Besides, since the washing machine or the clothes dryer is in a close relation to water, the electric wires within the machines should be treated to prevent short circuit by water.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a laundry machine having a wireless communicating controller therein that substantially obviates one or more problems due to limitations and disadvantages of the related art.
An object of the present invention is to provide a laundry machine having a wireless communicating controller therein, by which electric wires used for a controller in the washing machine are reduced and by which it is easy to separate and move an input unit or a display unit from a main control unit.
Another object of the present invention is to provide a washing machine having a wireless communicating controller therein, by which a mounting position of an input unit or a display unit can be easily changed.
Additional advantages, objects, and features of the invention will be set forth in part in the description which follows and in part will become apparent to those having ordinary skill in the art upon examination of the following or may be learned from practice of the invention. The objectives and other advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by the structure particularly pointed out in the written description and claims hereof as well as the appended drawings.
To achieve these objects and other advantages and in accordance with the purpose of the invention, as embodied and broadly described herein, a laundry machine according to the present invention includes a main control unit controlling an operation of the laundry machine and a user-interface unit having an input unit or a display unit. The input unit receives from a user an input of a command for an operation and the display unit displays information associated with the operation. The user-interface unit can be detached from the machine easily disconnected electrically from the main control unit. The user-interface unit wirelessly communicates data with the main control.
In a washing machine as an example for the laundry machine, a drum accommodating a laundry therein, a motor rotating the drum, a water supply valve adjusting a water supply of water, a drain pump for a water drain and the like are provided within a washing machine body. And, a controller includes a main control unit controlling the motor, the water supply valve, the drain pump and the like according to an installed washing course, an input unit receiving a user's selection of a washing course, and a display unit displaying information associated with the operation of the laundry machine to the user.
Preferably, the user-interface unit includes both of the input unit and the display unit.
More preferably, the display unit and the input unit are built in one body.
In this case, ‘the display unit and the input unit are built in one body’ means that the display unit and the input unit can be moved in one body but does not always mean that the display unit and the input unit are unified into one on a PCB or the like in detail configurations.
For instance, the display unit and the input unit are provided to a panel such as a housing that accommodates the respective detailed elements, thereby moving together.
Preferably, if possible, detailed elements of the display unit and the input unit are built in one body. For instance, PCBs of the display unit and the input unit are unified into one PCB.
If one element of the input unit is a touchscreen type via an LCD window, the LCD window can be used for displaying as well. So, the display unit and the input unit can be unified into one body.
The machine body can be provided with an upper attachment structure provided to an upper part of the body and a lower attachment structure under the upper part of the body to enable the user-interface unit to be selectively and detachably attached to a first or second position.
If an external input unit is provided and available at a place easily accessible, a user is able to conveniently manipulate the laundry machine by using the external input unit even without using the input unit mounted to the body. In this case, the user-interface unit can have the display unit only.
Preferably, when the user-interface unit is attached to one of the attachment structures, a cover panel is attached to the other. To attach the cover panel, the upper or lower attachment structure can be used or other attachment structure, such as a screw locking hole and the like, provided for only the cover panel can be used. What should be noted here is that the cover panel is attached to the other side where the user-interface unit is not attached. And, this does not mean that the upper or lower attachment structure is naturally used for the attachment of the cover panel.
In the present invention, the attachment structures can have any type and any shape, if they can function as needed. The attachment structures are not restricted to a specific shape. And, a related art attachment structure can be used intact. Unless deviating from the objects of the present invention, any kind of attachment structure can be employed as the attachment structure of the present invention. It is preferred to use specific attachment structures which can make the attachment of the user-interface unit easily attached and detached.
Alternatively, without providing the attachment structures to the body, magnets can be provided to the user-interface unit so that the unit can be attached to the body by the magnetic forces. Even in this case, it is more preferable that the body has attachment structures so as to provide at least places for housing the user-interface unit.
In the present invention, the body has a relative meaning to the controller. It indicates a part that performs original functions of the machine by being controlled by the controller. For instance, the washing machine body can include a drum accommodating laundry therein and a driving unit (e.g., motor, etc.) driving the drum, wherein the driving unit is controlled by the controller. Besides, a dryer body can include a drum accommodating laundry to be dried therein and a driving unit driving the drum.
In the laundry machine according to the present invention, the main control unit and the user-interface unit exchange data with each other by wireless communication. For this, communication means are provided to the main control unit and the user-interface unit.
The user-interface unit is provided with a microcomputer controlling input means such as buttons and the like or display means such as an LCD window and the like.
The microcomputer provided to the user-interface unit exchanges data with another microcomputer provided to the main control unit by wireless communications.
In case of the input unit, if a user inputs a command, the command is inputted to the microcomputer of the user-interface unit. The microcomputer then transmits the command to the microcomputer of the main control unit by wireless communications. If so, the main control unit controls the elements of the laundry machine according to the received command to perform a job.
In case of the display unit, the microcomputer of the main control unit transmits data to the microcomputer of the user-interface unit by wireless communications. If so, the microcomputer of the user-interface unit controls the display means according to the transmitted information to display prescribed information externally.
The wireless communications can be implemented in various ways. For instance, there are infrared communications used for a television remote controller or the like, radio frequency communications, blue-tooth, etc.
First of all, IrDA (Infrared Data Association) for the infrared communications was established in 1993 as an organization supported by industries to prepare international standards for hardware and software used for infrared communication link. In the infrared communications as a special type of wireless transmissions, a light beam focused within infrared frequency spectrum measured in tera- or trillion-hertz is modulated into information to be sent to a receiver within a relatively short distance. And, the infrared irradiation is carried out the same technique as used in controlling TV with a remote controller.
Infrared data communications play an important role in wireless data communications nowadays according to the popularization of laptops, PDAs, digital cameras, mobile phones, radio pagers, etc.
In the infrared communications, there should be transceivers provided to both sides, respectively. And, special microchips are provided for the function. In addition, special software is necessary for one or more devices to synchronize the communications. For example, there is a special support for IR in MS Window 95 operating system. In IrDA-1.1 standard, a length of the transmittable longest data is 2.048 bytes and a maximum data rate is 4 Mbps.
IR is usable for mutual connections in an approximately long distance and has mutual connection possibility within LAN. A maximum valid distance is about 1.5 mile and a maximum designed bandwidth is 16 Mbps. IR is carried by transmitting visible rays. So, IR is very sensitive to such an atmospheric condition as mist and the like.
Meanwhile, a terminology, radio frequency (RF), indicates an alternate current having a characteristic that an electromagnetic field suitable for radio broadcasting or communications is generated if an input entering an antenna is a current. Theses frequencies ranges between 9 kHz (lowest frequency assigned to radio communications: belonging to audible range) and several-thousand GHz to cover important parts of electromagnetic irradiation spectrum.
If a radio frequency current is supplied to an antenna, an electromagnetic field propagating through a space is generated. The magnetic field is called a radio frequency magnetic field or a radio wave. Every radio frequency magnetic field has a wavelength inverse-proportional to a frequency. If a frequency and a wavelength are set to ‘f’ and ‘s’, respectively, it results in s=300/f. A radio frequency signal is inverse-proportion to a quantity corresponding to an electromagnetic wavelength. A free space wavelength at 9 kHz is about 33 km. An electromagnetic wavelength at the highest radio frequency is about 1 mm. As a frequency increases over a radio frequency spectrum, electromagnetic energy becomes infrared rays, visible rays, ultraviolet rays, gamma rays, etc.
Most of the radio equipments use radio frequency magnetic fields. Cordless phones, mobile phones, radio or TV broadcasting stations, satellite communication systems, interactive radiotelegraphs and the like work within the radio frequency spectrum. Some of the radio equipments work in IR or visible ray frequency having an electromagnetic wavelength shorter than that of a radio frequency magnetic field. For example, there are TV remote controllers, wireless keyboards, wireless mouse, wireless headphone sets, etc.
The radio frequency spectrum is divided into several kinds of bands. Except a lowest frequency band, each zone means a frequency ascent according to an order of size (power of 10). Eight bands within a radio frequency band are described in the following table, which shows a frequency and a range of bandwidth. SHF and EHT bands are often called a ultra high frequency spectrum.
Bluetooth is the specification of computer and communication industries, which facilitates mobile phones, computers, PDAs and the like to be connected to phones and computers of home or office that uses wireless LAN. Bluetooth is the name of the legendary Danish King. Bluetooth was developed by the consortium of five companies, Intel, IBM, Nokia, Ericsson and the like. To use this technique, each device needs a cheap transceiver chip.
Each device is equipped with a microchip transceiver capable of transmission/reception at 2.45 GHz that is a globally available frequency band (yet, some countries may use different frequency bands). Audio channels can be used as many as three except data channel. Each device has a unique 48-bit address from IEEE 802 standard. Point-to-point access or point-to-multipoint access is possible. And, a maximum communication available range is 10 m. And, a data rate is 1 Mbps (maximum 2 Mbps by the second generation technique). A frequency hop design enables communication in an area experiencing massive electromagnetic hindrance. And, loaded encryption and verification functions are provided.
Meanwhile, a dual laundry machine according to the present invention includes a pair of laundry machines arranged parallel with or vertical to each other. At least one of a pair of the laundry machines includes a main control unit controlling an operation of the laundry machine and a user-interface unit having an input unit receiving an input of a command for an operation from a user or a display unit displaying information associated with the operation. The user-interface unit can be detached from the machine easily disconnected electrically from the main control unit. The user-interface unit wirelessly communicates data with the main control.
In the laundry machine, the number of electric wires used for the controller is minimized. The main control unit and the user-interface unit are separated from each other to enable free movements. Since the user-interface unit can be easily disconnected from the main control unit and detached from the machine body, maintenance for the user-interface unit can be carried out easily.
In addition, due to the wireless communication, the place exchange of the user-interface unit between the first position and the second position can be achieved easily.
The selectively place exchangeable user-interface unit provides many effects as follows.
Wherever, even at a high place, the laundry machine is placed, it can be conveniently used. So, less limitation is put on the place where the machine is located than the conventional laundry machine.
In the dual laundry machine including a dryer and a washing machine, a user can arrange the dryer and the washing machine not only parallel but also vertically. The arrangement diversity brings affirmative effects and enables less limitation to be put on an installation place and space.
Meanwhile, the laundry machine according to the present invention can be more usefully used by a launderette that commercially uses many dryers and washing machines. For instance, if a user-interface unit of one of a plurality of dryers is out of order, a user-interface unit of another dryer is disassembled to be assembled to the out-of-order dryer for a temporary solution. If a body of one dryer is out of order and if a user-interface unit of another dryer is out of order, the user-interface unit of the latter dryer can be replaced by a user-interface unit of the former dryer to complete one dryer that works normally.
It is to be understood that both the foregoing general description and the following detailed description of the present invention are exemplary and explanatory and are intended to provide further explanation of the invention as claimed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The accompanying drawings, which are included to provide a further understanding of the invention and are incorporated in and constitute a part of this application, illustrate embodiment(s) of the invention and together with the description serve to explain the principle of the invention. In the drawings:
FIG. 1 is a perspective diagram of a drum type washing machine according to a related art;
FIG. 2 is a perspective diagram of a dryer according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective diagram of a user-interface unit assembled to a body in the dryer shown in FIG. 2 ;
FIG. 4 is a perspective diagram of the dryer shown in FIG. 2 to show enlarged cross-sections of a user-interface unit attached to a body;
FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective diagram of the dryer shown in FIG. 2 to show a cover panel assembled to a body;
FIG. 6 is a block diagram of a main control unit, an input unit and a display unit to explain wireless communications therebetween;
FIG. 7 is a perspective diagram of a dual laundry machine according to one embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 8 is a perspective diagram of a dual laundry machine according to another embodiment of the present invention, which shows a dryer is installed on a washing machine.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the present invention, examples of which are illustrated in the accompanying drawings. Wherever possible, the same reference numbers will be used throughout the drawings to refer to the same or like parts.
FIG. 2 is a perspective diagram of a dryer according to a preferred embodiment of the present invention.
Referring to FIG. 2 , a user-interface unit 110 of a controller is provided to an upper part of a dryer body 100 and a cover panel 120 is provided to a lower part of the dryer body 100 .
The user-interface unit 110 and the cover panel 120 are detachably provided to the body 100 and can be easily detached from the body 100 . And, installed positions of the user-interface unit 110 and the cover panel 120 can be mutually switched. In more detail, the user-interface unit 110 is detached from the body 100 and then provided to the lower part of the body 100 where the cover panel 120 was provided. And, the cover panel 120 is attached to the upper part of the body 100 where the user-interface unit 110 was attached.
FIG. 3 is an exploded perspective diagram of a user-interface unit assembled to a body in the dryer shown in FIG. 2 .
Referring to FIG. 3 , the user-interface unit 110 will be attached to the upper part of the body 100 .
First of all, in the present embodiment, a main control unit 130 of a controller is provided within the body 100 . And, the user-interface unit 110 includes an input unit and display unit built in one body.
The user-interface unit 110 , as shown in FIG. 3 , is provided with various buttons and a knob as an input unit to input drying conditions for the laundry drying and the like. And, the user-interface unit 110 is also provided with an LCD window or an LED as a display unit to display a signal received from the main control unit 130 .
The various buttons, knob, LCD, LED and the like are provided to a the user-interface unit PCB (not shown in the drawing). And, the user-interface unit PCB is fixed to a user-interface unit panel 113 . In this case, the user-interface unit PCB is configured with an input unit PCB for the input unit only and a display unit PCB separated from the input unit PCB for the display unit only. Preferably, the input unit PCB and the display unit PCB are unified into one PCB to be built in one body.
A screw locking hole 115 and a projection 177 for a locking are provided to both sides of the user-interface unit panel 113 to be attached to upper attachment structures 103 and 104 and lower attachment structures 143 and 144 , respectively.
The upper attachment structures 103 and 104 provided to the body 100 include the screw locking hole 103 provided to one side of an upper frame 102 of the body 100 and the slot 104 locked to the projection 117 provided to the user-interface unit panel 113 .
FIG. 4 is a perspective diagram of the dryer shown in FIG. 2 to show enlarged cross-sections of a user-interface unit attached to a body.
How to attach the user-interface unit 110 to the body 100 is explained with reference to FIG. 4 and FIG. 3 as follows.
First of all, the upper frame 102 is assembled to a front cabinet 101 of the body 100 . While the state of the body 100 is maintained, the user-interface unit 110 is misaligned in a slightly right direction with the upper frame 102 and then slides to move in a right direction. If so, the projection 117 provided to the user-interface unit panel 113 is fitted into the slot 104 provided to the upper frame 102 to be locked thereto. In this case, one side of the projection 117 , as shown in FIG. 4 , is configured to be bent and the slot 104 is bent to correspond to the configuration of the projection 117 . So, once the projection 117 and the slot 104 are locked together, the user-interface unit 110 is prevented from being separated from the body 100 in a front direction.
After completion of this assembly, screws are fitted into the screw locking hole 103 provided to the upper frame 102 and the screw locking hole 115 provided to the user-interface unit panel 113 , respectively. Hence, the attachment of the user-interface unit 110 is secured.
While the user-interface unit 110 is attached to the upper part of the body 100 , a deco-plate can be further provided for an exterior.
FIG. 5 is an exploded perspective diagram of the dryer shown in FIG. 2 to show the cover panel 120 assembled to a lower part of the body 100 .
Referring to FIG. 5 , like the user-interface unit panel 113 , a screw locking hole 121 and a projection (not shown in the drawing) are preferably provided to the cover panel 120 . Alternatively, it is a matter of course that the attachment structure of the cover panel 120 can be configured different from that of the user-interface unit panel 113 .
A lower frame is provided to the lower part of the body 100 to correspond to the upper frame 102 . Like the upper frame 102 , the lower fame is provided with a slot 144 and a screw locking hole 143 .
How to assemble the cover panel 120 to the lower frame is the same as assembling the user-interface unit 110 , and more particularly, the user-interface unit panel 113 to the upper frame 102 , which is omitted in the following description.
Communications between the user-interface unit 110 and the main control unit 130 mounted in the body 100 are explained with reference to FIG. 6 as follows.
First of all, if a user inputs commands using input keys of the input unit 170 , the input unit 170 transmits the inputted commands to the main control unit 130 via a transmitter.
The main control unit 170 controls a dryer operation according to the commands sent from the input unit 170 and then transfers associated information to the display unit 180 via a transmitter.
The display unit 180 receives the information transmitted by the main control unit 130 and then displays the associated information according to the received information.
The main control unit 130 generally includes a microcomputer and a memory. The main control unit 130 controls a motor to drive a drum, a heater to heat air to be supplied within the drum, a blower to blow the air heated by the heater into the drum, thereby enabling the dryer to perform a drying course.
Meanwhile, the embodiment shown in the drawing is just exemplary and can be modified in various ways that can be easily implemented by those skilled in the art.
For instance, unlike the embodiment described above, the input unit and the display unit can be separately configured from each other so that the attaching positions of the respective units can be switched independently.
A dual laundry machine according to the present invention is shown in FIG. 7 or FIG. 8 .
FIG. 7 shows that a dryer 150 is provided next to a washing machine 160 in parallel. FIG. 8 shows that the dryer 150 shown in FIG. 2 is placed on the washing machine 160 .
The dryer 150 shown in FIG. 7 or FIG. 8 corresponds to the former dryer shown in FIG. 2 and the washing machine corresponds to the related art washing machine. So, detailed explanations of the dryer 150 and the washing machine 160 are omitted in the following description.
Referring to FIG. 7 , in case that the dryer 150 and the washing machine 160 are arranged parallel with each other, the user-interface unit 110 of the dryer 150 is assembled to the upper part of the body 100 .
Referring to FIG. 8 , if the dryer 150 is placed on the washing machine 160 , the user-interface unit 110 is assembled to the lower part of the body 100 .
Hence, a user is facilitated to perform a manipulation of the user-interface unit 100 if the dryer 150 is arranged next to the washing machine 160 in parallel or even if the dryer 150 is placed on the washing machine 160 .
It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the spirit or scope of the inventions. Thus, it is intended that the present invention covers the modifications and variations of this invention provided they come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
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A washing machine having a wireless communicating controller therein is disclosed, by which electric wires used for a controller in the washing machine are reduced and by which a main control unit is separated from an input unit or a display unit to secure a free movement and by which an installation position of an input unit or a display unit can be easily changed.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims priority from U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/221,844 titled “Magnetic Shield For A Solenoid Operated Locking Device”, which was filed on Sep. 22, 2015 and which is incorporated fully herein by reference.
TECHNICAL FIELD
The present invention relates to a solenoid operated locking device utilizing a solenoid driven locking pin such as a gun lock, and more particularly, relates to a shield of magnetically conductive material placed or arranged proximate a gunlock or other solenoid operated locking device, for preventing the unauthorized opening of the locking device using a magnet to activate the solenoid driven locking pin.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
Certain enforcement, corrections, military, and civilian applications often require that firearms must be secured in a non-enclosed manner, ready to be rapidly unlocked, released from the locking mechanism and used.
There is an abundance of different types of firearms that one could potentially secure in a gunlock. All of these firearms differ in size, brand, structural and functional design, etc. In addition to the diversity of different firearms that must be compatible with these weapon gunlocks, creating a system for securing modern firearms is made harder by a flood of tactical accessories that are available. There are a wide variety of optics, lights, lasers, grips, stocks, and other tactical accessories that can be purchased and equipped on modern weapons. This abundance of different tactical accessories often makes securing the weapons outfitted difficult so that specialized gunlocks are required for each variation of weapon and/or accessories.
“Clamshell” style gunlocks are commonly used in various situations to secure these types of weapons. Examples of prior art clamshell locks include the Tufloc® brand small shotgun lock manufactured by Esmet Inc. of Canton Ohio and the SC-1 manufactured by Santa Cruz Gunlocks LLC of Webster, N.H., both of which are incorporated herein by reference. These clamshell gunlocks are typically made of aluminum or similar non-magnetically conductive material.
Tools, particularly expensive tools, are also often secured when not in use by some form of solenoid activated locking device.
Many if not most of such prior art clamshell gunlocks, as well as several other types of gunlocks and/or other solenoid activated locking devices, have an electronic unlocking mechanism which utilizes a solenoid to activate (i.e retract) a spring loaded pin placed in a portion of the gun lock. The pin is spring loaded and normally in the extended or locked position. When locked, the pin engages an opening in the gunlock or other locking device. Activating the solenoid causes the pin to be retracted, allowing the gunlock or other locking device to open. Unfortunately, the use of a solenoid activated lock has deficiencies as well. Specifically, when a magnet, such as a rare earth magnet or electromagnet for example, of a sufficient size/strength is placed proximate the gunlock in the area of the solenoid, the magnetic force from the magnet will activate the solenoid, retracting the pin and causing the gunlock to be able to be opened. This action allows for unauthorized access to the weapon thought to be safely locked and stored in the gunlock.
Accordingly, what is needed is a magnetic shield for all such prior art solenoid activated locking devices, which prevents or minimizes the ability for the lock device solenoid to be activated by an unauthorized individual utilizing a magnet or other solenoid activating device.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is therefore a feature and object of the present invention to overcome various shortcomings and drawbacks associated with the prior art. An advantageous feature of the gunlock device of the present invention is to provide a locking device for securing an object such as a weapon or tool against theft while maintaining the flexibility to grant rapid, easy access.
The magnet shield device of the present invention facilitates securely holding a given firearm, tool or other object and also prevents unauthorized access to a firearm or tool, while still maintaining the firearm or tool in a rapidly accessible and deployable state.
An object of the magnetic shield for a solenoid activated locking device according to the present invention is to secure weapons, tools and other objects against theft despite inappropriate and unauthorized electromagnetic force applied to the lock utilizing a solenoid lock release by, for example, a magnet, by dispersing the magnetic field of the magnet before the magnetic field can activate the solenoid causing the locking pin that keeps the lock secured (locked) to be retracted. Such dispersion of any magnetic field being applied minimizes any opportunity for the solenoid activated lock pin to be retracted and minimizes the possibility of unauthorized opening of the lock. Additionally, the present invention gives users the ability to uniformly address a security deficit of a diverse range of different firearm gunlocks or other solenoid activated locking devices with a device that can be mechanically attached to their preferred gunlock or other locking device. Thus, the present invention facilitates enabling greater security of a wide variety of locks which lock and operate electromechanically by means of a solenoid activated locking pin or other mechanism.
The invention features, in one embodiment, a locking device for securing an object within the locking device. The locking device comprises a first portion and a second portion. At least one of the first portion and the second portion are configured, in one mode, for movement with respect to the other of the first and second portions and in another mode for being held in a fixed and locked position vis-à-vis each other.
At least one of the first portion and the second portions including an electro-mechanical locking mechanism that includes a solenoid and spring loaded pin. The spring loaded pin is operable between a first position and a second position. In a first position, the spring loaded pin is configured for preventing the first portion and the second portion from moving with respect to the other of the first portion and the second portion while in a second position, the spring loaded pin is configured for allowing the first portion and the second portion to move with respect to the other of the first portion and the second portion.
A magnetically conducive shield is disposed proximate the electro-mechanical device including the solenoid, and configured for shielding external magnetic fields from activating the solenoid and spring loaded pin to move into the second position.
The locking device may be a gunlock for securing a weapon and the magnetically conductive shield may be disposed along an external portion of at least one of the first portion and the second portion. The externally disposed magnetically conductive shield may be added to the locking device after construction and manufacturing of the locking device and/or added to the locking device during construction and manufacturing of the locking device.
The magnetically conductive shield may be disposed in an internal portion of at least one of the first portion and the second portion.
In another embodiment, the invention features a clamshell style gunlock having a magnetic shield. The clamshell style gunlock having a magnetic shield comprises a first portion and a body portion. The first portion may include a first hinge component while a body portion includes a second hinge component configured for cooperatively engaging with the first hinge component of the first portion, for allowing at least the first portion to move pivotably with respect to the body portion.
At least one of the first portion and the body portion includes a locking mechanism. The locking mechanism may include a spring loaded pin mechanism configured, in a first position, for preventing the first portion or the body portion from moving pivotably with respect to the other of the first portion and the body portion.
An electro-mechanical device is configured for operatively causing the spring loaded pin mechanism to move from the first position to a second position, wherein the second position allows one of the first portion or the body portion to move pivotably with respect to the other of the first portion and the body portion. A magnetically conducive shield is disposed proximate the electro-mechanical device, and is configured for shielding an externally provided magnetic field from acting on and activating the electro-mechanical device.
In one embodiment, the magnetically conductive shield may be disposed along an external portion of at least one of the first portion and the body portion and may be added to the gunlock after construction and manufacturing of the gunlock or in another embodiment, may be added to the gunlock during construction and manufacturing of the gunlock.
The gunlock may further include a solenoid disposed in the body portion, and a locking pin, coupled to the solenoid. The locking pin is configured in a first extended position for aligning with a counterpart recess within the first portion when the first portion is in a closed position abutting the body portion. The solenoid is configured to operate in an energized state and a non-energized state, and wherein in an energized state, the solenoid is configured to retract the locking pin out of the recess within the first portion.
In another embodiment, the magnetically conductive shield is disposed in an internal portion of at least one of the first portion and the body portion.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
These and other features and advantages of the present invention will be better understood by reading the following detailed description, taken together with the drawings of one embodiment of the invention wherein:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a prior art clamshell gunlock in a closed position;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view illustrating a prior art clamshell gunlock in an open position;
FIG. 3 is a cross-sectional view of the prior art clamshell gunlock of FIG. 1 illustrating the solenoid and locking pin in the extended and locked position;
FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view of the prior art clamshell gunlock of FIG. 1 illustrating the solenoid and locking pin in a retracted and unlocked position caused by an external magnetic field from, for example, a magnet;
FIG. 5 is an end perspective view of a clamshell gunlock with an add-on magnetic shield according to a first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 6 is a back side perspective view of the clamshell gunlock of FIG. 5 utilizing the add-on magnetic shield extending along an exterior length of a rear and bottom portion of the gunlock according to another embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 7 is a perspective view of a clamshell gunlock utilizing the magnetic shield of the invention in a gunlock recess sized and located to accommodate the magnetic shield;
FIG. 8A is a cross-sectional view similar to the view of FIG. 3 illustrating an internal magnetically conductive shield plate shielding the solenoid coil from magnetic fields; and
FIG. 8B is a bottom exploded bottom view of the gunlock of FIG. 8A illustrating the installation and location of an inner magnetically conductive shield plate serving as a magnetic shield in accordance with the teachings of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The following detailed description is provided relative to an exemplary embodiment of the present invention having a magnetic gunlock shield which seeks to overcome various disadvantages in the prior art. Although the present invention will be explained in the context of a clamshell gunlock, the exemplary embodiment is not exclusive nor exhaustive of all possible embodiments and uses for the present invention. Specifically, the magnetic lock shield of the present invention provides a satisfactory solution for clamshell gunlocks for those persons who wish to secure their firearm in the above described ‘ready’ state without sacrificing a quality of safety against unauthorized electromagnetic opening as well as other gunlocks and other solenoid operated locking devices.
Three exemplary embodiments of the invention are described herein with reference to FIGS. 5-8 in which in a first embodiment shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 , the magnetic shield 70 is added-on to an existing clam shell lock exterior region at least along the bottom and/or side portions; while in another embodiment shown in FIG. 7 , the shield 70 a is embedded or “built-in” within at least a portion of the sidewall 80 and/or the bottom portion 82 of the clamshell gunlock and thus, may not be externally visible.
These embodiments are illustrated and incorporated in connection with, for exemplary purposes only, a clamshell style gunlock device 2 having a hingeable top portion 4 and a bottom portion/casting 6 which are maintained in a closed position vis-à-vis one another when in a locked position. In the exemplary embodiment, the top portion 4 and body portion 6 interlock in an overlapping fashion along the front edge 11 of the gunlock 2 which provides a strong mechanical connection between the two components of the gunlock.
The basic components, construction and operation of the exemplary clamshell style gunlock are well known in the industry and are incorporated herein by reference.
The top portion 4 and bottom portion 6 engage at two points: along hinge 32 and along a front edge 11 . The top portion 4 rotates about the hinge 32 such that the gunlock device 2 opens and closes in a clamshell fashion. When open, as illustrated, for example in FIGS. 2 and 4 , the top portion 4 pivots or rotates about axis 51 . When closed, as illustrated, for example in FIGS. 1, 3, 5, 6, 7 and 8 , the top portion 4 and body portion 6 engage at two points, providing a strong mechanical connection between the two components 4 , 6 of the gunlock device 2 . That is, in this embodiment illustrating a clamshell style gunlock, the solid physical connection along the front edge 11 and the pivot or hinge 32 between the body portion 6 and top portion 4 are sufficiently strong enough to ensure that the gunlock can retain the firearm securely.
The clamshell gunlock 2 is held in a closed position by the clamshell gunlock's electro-mechanical locking mechanism 14 including an electronically operated solenoid 60 , FIG. 6 , which includes a spring 63 loaded magnetically conductive latch or pin 62 , disposed in a normally extended position (as shown in FIG. 3 ), that engages with an opening 64 in the top portion 4 (see FIGS. 3 and 8A )
Before operation, the gunlock 2 is securely mounted to an appropriate surface to prevent unauthorized removal of the firearm (not shown) to be secured in the gunlock 2 through and by means of the body portion 6 . Such a surface might be any structurally secure surface where the firearm, tool or other object is to be secured, such as a police vehicle partition wall, trunk, dash of a vehicle, and the like. A number of mounting points (not shown) in the body portion 6 and appropriate mounting hardware (also not shown) mount the body portion 6
In an exemplary embodiment, the clamshell gunlock's electro-mechanical locking mechanism 14 will automatically engage after a solid and precise connection has been made by the top portion 4 with the body portion 6 . In this embodiment, during operation the top portion 4 pivots at the hinge 32 towards the body portion 6 . The protrusion along the lip 11 of the top portion 4 engages a corresponding channel of the body portion 6 when the gunlock is in operation in a closed position. The spring loaded pin or latch 62 pushes upwardly into the opening 64 in the top portion 4 , securing the gunlock in a locked position.
In this embodiment, operating the locking mechanism 14 by electrically energizing the solenoid 60 to retract the solenoid locking pin 62 from engagement with the opening 64 in the top portion 4 quickly releases the connection between the body portion 6 and top portion 4 so that the top portion 4 may be pivoted upwardly apart from the body portion 6 (see FIGS. 2 and 4 for example) when access to the firearm locked in the gunlock 2 is desired. The locking mechanism 14 may be activated via a mechanical key override or electronically via a switch which energizes the solenoid 60 .
An electro-mechanical lock system 14 is used in multiple gunlock and/or other locking systems as it enables the use of various recognition systems for the activation, opening and control of the device by an authorized person. Examples of such systems which could be used include, but are not limited to: concealed pushbutton switches, time delays, computer operated solutions, biometric scanning technologies, RFID readers, facial or voice recognition systems, and various other solutions for controlling electro mechanic devices.
As previously mentioned, an unexpected and unintended security weakness of these electro-mechanical lock systems was recently discovered. Specifically, if a strong enough magnet (a magnet, such as a rare earth magnet, or any other similarly designed magnetic field generator, such as a sufficiently strong electro-magnet, is passed underneath or adjacent that portion of a gunlock 2 utilizing an electro-mechanical lock system 14 , the material of the gunlock (typically aluminum or an iron ore composite) does not prevent transmission of the magnetic force of the magnet or other magnetic field generator to the solenoid (see FIG. 4 ). Instead, the magnetic force generated by the magnetic field acts directly upon the solenoid 60 , causing the solenoid to energize and retract the locking pin 62 from an engaging orifice 64 in an opposite component of the gunlock. Thus, the application of an external magnetic force proximate the solenoid activated gunlock enables unauthorized access to the ‘securely’ held firearm in the gunlock 2 . A magnet's strength is typically measured as its Gauss strength and thus based upon what magnet strength is needed to “activate” the solenoid would define the amount of magnetic field the present invention is shielding against.
Therefore, a feature of the present invention provides advantages over the prior art solenoid operated gunlocks or other solenoid operated locking devices of any type or shape in the form of a shield against unwanted electromagnetic tampering. That is, by providing a magnetically conductive shield 70 , FIGS. 5-8 , such that the shield envelopes or shields all or a sufficient portion of the electro-mechanical locking mechanism 14 of the gunlock or other solenoid operated locking device, the shield 70 dissipates any magnetic forces generated by a magnet or other magnetic field generator and thus prevents any unauthorized electromagnetic activation of the solenoid and electro-mechanical locking mechanism 14 .
FIGS. 5 and 6 are perspective front and rear right side views illustrating an embodiment of a shield of the invention externally “retrofitted” to an existing gunlock by attaching the magnetic shield 70 along an exterior rear/bottom portion of a clamshell gunlock. The shield preferably extends along a rear and bottom region of the body portion 6 so as to substantially “shield” at least a bottom and/or rear portion of the internal solenoid 14 from external unauthorized magnetic interference. In this embodiment, the shield 70 may extend along only a portion of a length of the gunlock along the rear and/or bottom edge of the rear portion of the gunlock although this is not a limitation of the invention. The shield 70 should be sized (length, width and thickness) and arranged so as to sufficiently shield the internal solenoid from the effects of an external magnetic field causing it to activate in an unauthorized manner. The shield may be attached in any manner known in the art including utilizing screws, nuts and bolts, glue, welding or any other attachment means and her mechanism.
Moreover, an additional advantage of the present embodiment is the ability to incorporate this shield with multiple types of gunlocks and provide a mechanical fix to an inherent electromagnetic weakness. By providing an L-shaped or other shaped metal plate having a width of between approximately 3″ to 3.5″, a length of between approximately 3″ to 5″, and a thickness of between approximately 0.1″ to 0.2″, this embodiment of the invention is of sufficient size to provide a magnetic shield for many different models of gunlocks against a wide variety of magnets and electro-magnets. Those skilled in the art will know and understand that the length, width and thickness of the magnetic shield will be determined by the type of gunlock and the position or location of the solenoid within the gunlock.
The shield can be produced from any magnetically conductive material that is capable of sufficiently dispersing any magnetic forces from the magnetic field of the magnet or other magnetic field producing device away from the solenoid. Materials such as ceramic, aluminum, or glass are not sufficiently conductive and thus are insufficient to prevent any magnetic force from activating the solenoid.
In accordance with a second embodiment of the magnetic shield for a gunlock or other locking device according to the invention, a shield 70 a , FIG. 7 may be “embedded” into an exterior portion of the gunlock 2 . As shown, the shield 70 a is embedded in the bottom and side regions of the body 6 so as to substantially enclose at least a portion of the bottom and rear portions of the internal solenoid from external unauthorized magnetic forces which would serve to activate the solenoid. In this embodiment, the shield 70 a extends along a length of the gunlock along the rear bottom edge of the rear portion of the gunlock a sufficient amount so as to shield the solenoid from external magnetic fields although the shield 70 a may only have to extend along one or the other of the side or bottom region of the body portion 6 .
Another embodiment of the magnetic shield of the invention is shown in FIGS. 8A and 8B and illustrates an embodiment wherein the magnetic shield 70 b is located internally to the gunlock and is designed and shaped to fit within the cavity 78 housing the solenoid 60 and to sufficiently shield the solenoid from unauthorized external magnetic fields.
Accordingly, the present invention provides a magnetic shield for a solenoid activated locking device, such as a gunlock, that serves to disburse or dissipate any external magnetic fields or magnetic forces presented by a magnetic force generating device away from the solenoid to prevent unintended and unintentional activation of the solenoid by unauthorized individuals and wherein such action might allow the gunlock to be opened and unauthorized access to the gun, tool or other object stored therein.
Although the present invention has been explained with regards to a clamshell gunlock, this is not a limitation of the present invention as the magnetic shield of the invention may be utilized in and with any type of gunlock or other locking device which utilizes an appropriately energized electromechanical device such as a solenoid to provide access to the locking device or gunlock without departing from the spirit and scope of the present invention.
Modifications and substitutions by one of ordinary skill in the art are considered to be within the scope of the present invention, which is not to be limited except by the allowed claims and their legal equivalents.
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A magnetic shield for a locking device such as a gunlock having a first portion and a second portion configured for controlled movement with respect to the other portion and for being held in a fixed and locked position vis-à-vis each other. At least one of the first and second portions includes an electromechanical locking mechanism including a solenoid and solenoid activated spring loaded pin configured, in a first position, for preventing the first and second portions from moving with respect one another and in a second position for allowing the first and second portions to move vis-à-vis one another. A magnetically conducive shield is disposed on or in at least one of the first and second portion that includes the solenoid locking mechanism, for preventing an unauthorized magnetic field from causing the solenoid to retract the spring loaded pin thereby allowing the locking device to be opened.
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This is a continuation of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/849,319, filed May 18, 2004, now U.S. Pat. No. 7,453,968 which is hereby incorporated by reference herein in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to methods and apparatus for processing a received serial data signal, and more particularly to methods and apparatus for determining the phase of such a signal so that it can be reliably sampled to recover its data content.
Receiver circuitry may receive a serial data signal with no accompanying information about the timing of the individual data bits in that signal. This timing information is sometimes referred to as the phase of the signal. The receiver circuitry must recover the data from the received signal. To do this, the receiver circuitry needs to sample the received signal during each data bit interval (“unit interval”) in that signal to determine whether the signal currently represents a binary 1 or a binary 0. Information about the phase of the signal is needed so that the signal can be sampled at a time during each unit interval that will give reliable results. For example, it may be desired to sample the signal as close to the center of each unit interval as possible. Because the data signal is not received with any accompanying phase information, the receiver circuitry itself must derive the phase information it needs from the received data signal. The process of determining the phase of a received data signal may be referred to as phase alignment; and because the phase of the received signal may change over time, the phase alignment may need to be dynamic to keep the results current at all times.
A known dynamic phase alignment (“DPA”) technique includes producing several candidate clock signals, all of which have the same frequency (related to the frequency of the received data signal), and each of which has a unique phase. For example, there may be eight candidate clock signals, the phases of which are equally spaced over one clock signal cycle. Phase detector circuitry is used to compare the phase of transitions in the received data signal to the phase of transitions in one of the candidate clock signals. Assuming the phase detector does not detect a perfect phase match (as it almost never does), the phase detector circuitry keeps moving from one candidate clock signal to the next trying to find the candidate signal having the phase that will be best for use in timing the sampling of the data signal.
Typically the phase detector circuitry quickly finds what it regards as currently the best (or at least a very good) candidate clock signal for use in controlling data signal sampling. But continued operation of the phase detector circuitry also typically causes it to switch to a different candidate clock signal as it continues to search for the best such signal to use. The new choice may in fact be somewhat better or somewhat worse than the old choice. In either case, as long as there is still some phase mismatch, the search for the best signal continues, which may cause the phase detector to soon revert to its previous choice. In other words, even when the system is effectively at convergence, continued searching for a better candidate clock signal to use may cause the system to unproductively bounce back and forth between two choices, one of which may be better than the other, but either of which can be used with acceptably good results. Although systems having the foregoing characteristic can operate very well, the above-described bouncing or hunting can be undesirable. For example, it can increase noise in the system, and it can cause data signal interpretation errors that might not otherwise occur.
Examples of phase detector systems of the type described above are shown in such references as Aung et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,227,918, Lee et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,366,267, Lee et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,650,140, Venkata et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,750,675, Venkata et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,180,972, Venkata et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,854,044, Lui et al. U.S. Pat. No. 6,724,328, Venkata et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,138,837, Venkata et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,272,677, Asaduzzaman et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,352,835, and Asaduzzaman et al. U.S. Pat. No. 7,149,914. These references also show examples of systems that can be modified in accordance with the principles of the present invention (e.g., to include the phase detector circuitry of this invention in place of the prior phase detector circuitry).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Dynamic phase detector circuitry in accordance with this invention selects two phase-adjacent clock signals from a plurality of phase-distributed candidate clock signals. Different such selections may be made until it is found that transitions in the two selected clock signals are predominantly on respective opposite sides of transitions in the serial data signal with which phase alignment is desired. One of the two selected clock signals is further selected for use in controlling the timing with which the serial data signal is sampled to recover data from that signal. The consistency with which the two selected clock signals continue to have transitions on their respective opposite sides of the transitions in the serial data signal is monitored separately for each of the two selected signals. Different consistency measure thresholds are preferably used for each of the two signals, with the signal that is further selected for use in controlling the timing of data signal sampling preferably having the greater threshold value. As long as both of the two selected signals continue to have transitions that are predominantly on their respective opposite sides of the serial data signal transitions, and as long as the consistency measure threshold for the further selected signal is not reached before the consistency measure threshold for the other of the two selected signals is reached, no change is made in any of the clock signal selections. In addition, a lock output signal may be produced under these conditions to indicate that the dynamic phase alignment is stable.
Further features of the invention, its nature and various advantages, will be more apparent from the accompanying drawings and the following detailed description.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows illustrative signal waveforms (all plotted along a common horizontal time scale) that are useful in explaining the invention.
FIG. 2 is a simplified schematic block diagram showing illustrative circuitry constructed in accordance with the invention.
FIG. 3 is a table showing illustrative modes of operation of circuitry of the type shown in FIG. 2 in accordance with the invention.
FIGS. 4 a - 4 b are collectively a simplified flow chart showing further illustrative aspects of operation of circuitry of the type shown in FIG. 2 in accordance with the invention.
FIG. 5 shows more illustrative signal waveforms (all plotted along a common horizontal time scale) that are useful in explaining further aspects of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
FIG. 1 illustrates typical and representative signal conditions that can occur in either the prior systems mentioned in the background section of this specification or in a system in accordance with this invention. A serial data signal DATAIN represents successive bits of data. Each bit of data occupies one “unit interval” or “UI” in the data signal. The data signal does not necessarily transition (change in level) at the beginning and end of each UI, but all transitions in the data signal level are at the boundaries between UIs. In FIG. 1 both possible levels of DATAIN are shown for each UI, and the boundaries between UIs are indicated by the crosses to show where transitions can occur. Only one complete UI is shown in FIG. 1 , but it will be understood that this UI is preceded and followed by many other UIs in what is typically a long series of UIs, each of which is immediately adjacent to the preceding and following UIs in the series.
FIG. 1 indicates the “optimal sampling point” for the representative UI shown in that FIG. In the particular example shown in FIG. 1 the optimal sampling location is indicated to be the center of each UI. It will be understood, however, that in other systems the optimal sampling point may be somewhat earlier or somewhat later than the center of each UI. Any desired optimal sampling point can be accommodated by the present invention.
FIG. 1 also shows two representative candidate clock signals on the same horizontal time axis as DATAIN. These two candidate clock signals are labelled “Phase X” and “Phase X+45°”, respectively. The Phase X and Phase X+45° signals are two phase-adjacent ones of eight candidate clock signals. All of these signals have the same frequency, which in this example is equal to the bit rate of the DATAIN signal. Each of the eight candidate clock signals has a phase that is different from the phases of all of the other ones of those signals. These eight different phases are preferably equally distributed over one cycle of any one of the candidate clock signals. Thus the phase difference between any two phase-adjacent candidate clock signals is 45° in this example. Although eight signals with 45° phase spacing are employed in the illustrative embodiment shown and described herein, it will be understood that any number of such signals having any suitable phase spacing can be used instead if desired.
In some prior phase alignment systems phase detector circuitry is used to compare the phase of transitions in the DATAIN signal with the phase of transitions in candidate clock signals like those described above, taking the candidate signals one at a time. The objective is to find the one candidate clock signal having the phase that makes it best for use in timing the sampling of DATAIN to extract the data information from that signal. In the example shown in FIG. 1 the prior phase detector circuitry may compare the phase of falling edges in a candidate clock signal with the phase of UI boundaries in the DATAIN signal. The candidate clock signal having falling edges that are closest in phase to UI boundaries has rising edges that are closest to the center of the UIs. In the particular case shown in FIG. 1 , the Phase X+45° signal has falling edges that are closest in phase to UI boundaries in DATAIN. The rising edges in Phase X+45° are therefore closest to the center of the UIs and thus have the best timing for use in controlling sampling of DATAIN.
After selecting Phase X+45° for use in controlling sampling of DATAIN, the above-described prior phase detector circuitry will, however, continue to detect that the falling edges in Phase X+45° are actually somewhat later in time or phase than the UI boundaries in DATAIN. Eventually this will cause phase alignment circuitry of the above-described prior type to switch to the phase-adjacent candidate clock signal whose falling edges are earlier in time or phase than the UI boundaries in DATAIN. This means switching from Phase X+45° to Phase X as the signal selected for controlling the timing of DATAIN signal sampling. Although probably still an acceptable choice, Phase X is not as good a choice as Phase X+45° because the positive-going transitions in Phase X are farther from the center of UI than the positive-going transitions in Phase X+45°.
After operating with Phase X for some time, the fact that negative-going transitions in Phase X are ahead of UI boundaries in DATAIN will cause the above-described prior phase alignment circuitry to switch back to using Phase X+45° as the signal for controlling sampling of DATAIN.
The above-described prior phase alignment circuitry will continue to switch back and forth between Phase X+45° and Phase X indefinitely (assuming that the UI boundaries in DATAIN remain between falling edges in these two candidate clock signals). This switching back and forth serves no useful purpose, and it may have such disadvantages as increasing noise in the system and increasing the risk of false interpretation of bits in DATAIN.
Illustrative dynamic phase alignment (“DPA”) circuitry 10 in accordance with the present invention is shown in FIG. 2 . This circuitry includes two phase detector circuits 20 and 30 . Each of phase detector circuits 20 and 30 receives the DATAIN signal via one of its inputs. The other input to phase detector 20 is the candidate clock signal currently being used to control sampling of DATAIN. This candidate clock signal is sometimes referred to herein as the “current phase” signal. The other input to phase detector 30 is the candidate clock signal (sometimes referred to as the “next phase” signal) that is adjacent in phase to the current phase signal and that the current phase circuitry (elements 20 and 22 ) are pointing to as a possibly (although not necessarily) better choice for use in controlling sampling of DATAIN. (The manner in which this “pointing” is done will be explained later in this specification.) For example, in the situation illustrated by FIG. 1 , the current phase signal might be Phase X+45°, in which case the next phase signal would be Phase X.
If phase detector 20 detects that a transition in DATAIN is later in time than a negative-going transition in the current phase signal, circuitry 20 outputs an “up” signal pulse on its UPA output lead to indicate that a better phase match might be achieved by selecting as the current phase signal the candidate clock signal having greater phase angle than the candidate clock signal currently selected as the current phase signal. Conversely, if phase detector 20 detects that a transition in DATAIN is earlier in time than a negative-going transition in the current phase signal, circuitry 20 outputs a “down” signal pulse on its DNA output lead to indicate that a better phase match might be achieved by selecting as the current phase signal the candidate clock signal having a lower phase angle than the candidate clock signal currently selected as the current phase signal.
Circuitry 22 may be counter and divider circuitry. Circuitry 22 counts up in response to each UPA pulse produced by circuitry 20 . Circuitry 22 counts down in response to each DNA pulse. The count contained by circuitry 22 at any given time during counting operation of that circuitry is thus the net of the UPA and DNA pulses it has received since it was last reset. Circuitry 22 produces an output signal on an F UPA output lead whenever the net count contained in circuitry 22 is 28 UPA pulses. Circuitry 22 produces an output signal on an F DNA output lead whenever the net count contained in circuitry 22 is 28 DNA pulses. The counter in circuitry 22 may be reset to a neutral starting count each time such an F UPA or F DNA output signal is produced. A counter in circuitry 32 (described in more detail below) is also reset whenever the counter in circuitry 22 is reset.
Elements 30 and 32 are constructed and operate similarly to what has been described above. Circuitry 30 produces an UPB or DNB output pulse whenever a transition in DATAIN is later or earlier, respectively, than a negative-going transition in the next phase signal. Circuitry 32 forms a net count of the UPB and DNB pulses and outputs an F UPB or F DNB signal whenever the net count contained in circuitry 32 is 14 UPB or DNB pulses, respectively. Again, the counter in circuitry 32 may be reset to a neutral starting count each time such an F UPB or F DNB output signal is produced. The counter in circuitry 32 may also be reset at other times, such as whenever the counter in circuitry 22 is reset.
The integration operations performed by elements 22 and 32 (e.g., forming net counts of the up and down pulses and then requiring the net counts to reach thresholds of 28 or 14 before producing any further output signals) prevent the system from trying to be too responsive to phase differences between DATAIN and the candidate clock signals applied to elements 20 and 30 . In addition, the use of different thresholds in elements 22 and 32 (especially the use of a smaller threshold (e.g., 14) in element 32 than in element 22 (e.g., 28)) helps make the system more likely to lock on one phase than to switch arbitrarily between two phases as will be shown below. This further improves the stability of the system in accordance with the invention. (Later in this specification it will be explained that the difference in the thresholds mentioned above may not actually be as great as the difference between 28 and 14.)
Control circuitry 40 receives all of the F UPA, F DNA, F UPB, and F DNB signals. On the basis of those signals, circuitry 40 controls multiplexer circuitry 50 to select the current phase signal and the next phase signal from among the eight candidate clock signals supplied to multiplexer circuitry 50 via leads 52 . An illustrative selection control algorithm that control circuitry 40 may implement in accordance with the invention is shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 a - 4 b.
Each horizontal line in FIG. 3 illustrates different possible conditions of the counts in circuits 22 and 32 when one or the other of those circuits reaches its threshold for outputting one of the F UPA, F DNA, F UPB, or F DNB signals. The channel with the circuit 22 or 32 thus outputting one of these signals is identified in the FIG. 3 column headed “Winner.” The two left-hand columns indicate the “polarity” of the concurrent net counts in circuits 22 and 32 , respectively. The right-hand column indicates the current-phase action (if any) taken or commanded by circuitry 40 in response to the conditions indicated in the first three columns. The possible, subsequent, next-phase action taken or commanded by circuitry 40 is illustrated by FIGS. 4 a - 4 b , described later in this specification.
Considering first the first line in FIG. 3 , if both of circuits 22 and 32 are registering net UP counts when either of those circuits reaches its threshold (28 or 14, respectively) for outputting an F UPA or F UPB signal, then control circuit 40 causes multiplexer 50 to select a higher phase candidate clock signal for the current phase signal. For example, if the current phase signal was Phase X and the next phase signal was Phase X+45°, the new current phase signal would be Phase X+45°. It will be apparent from this and the following discussion that to perform its function, control circuit 40 needs to receive not only signals telling it when one of circuits 22 and 32 has reached its threshold and from which direction, but also what the current state of the count in the other one of circuits 22 and 32 is. For example, the F UPA, F DNA, F UPB, and F DNB signals can include signals indicating whether the count in the associated circuit 22 and 32 is currently trending up or trending down.
The second line in FIG. 3 illustrates what may be thought of as a condition opposite that illustrated by the first line. This is a condition in which both of circuits 22 and 32 are registering net DN counts when either of those circuits reaches its threshold for outputting an F DNA or F DNB signal. When that type of condition is detected, control circuitry 40 causes multiplexer 50 to select for the current phase signal a candidate clock signal having lower phase. For example, if the current phase signal was Phase X and the next phase signal was Phase X+45°, the current phase signal would become Phase X−45°. As another example, if the current and next phase signals were Phase X+45° and Phase X, respectively, the new current phase signal would be Phase X.
The third line in FIG. 3 illustrates the following condition: Circuit 32 outputs an F DNB signal before circuit 22 reaches the count required for output of an F UPA signal. However, the net count in circuit 22 is UP. This indicates that the phase of DATAIN is between the phases of the current and next phase signals. It may additionally suggest that the phase of DATAIN is quite close to the phases of the current phase signal and farther from the phase of the next phase signal (because circuit 32 is receiving sufficiently predominant DNB pulses to reach its threshold count of 14, while circuit 22 is not receiving sufficiently predominant UPA pulses to (in the same time) reach its threshold count of 28). This further suggests that the current phase signal is already the best available choice for use in sampling DATAIN. Accordingly, control circuit 40 does not change the signal selections being made by multiplexer 50 , and may in addition produce an output “LOCK” signal indicating to the circuitry making use of DPA circuitry 10 that the DPA circuitry is in a desirable, stable, “lock” condition.
The fourth line in FIG. 3 illustrates a condition somewhat like the third line condition, except that in this case circuitry 22 reaches its UP threshold (28) and outputs an F UPA signal before circuitry 32 reaches its DN threshold (14). This again indicates that DATAIN has phase between the phases of the current and next phase signals. However, it also suggests that the phase of DATAIN is closer to the phase of the next phase signal than to the phase of the current phase signal. Accordingly, control circuit 40 causes multiplexer 50 to select the next higher phase candidate clock signal for the current phase signal. For example, if current phase was Phase X and next phase was Phase X+45°, current phase becomes Phase X+45°.
The fifth line in FIG. 3 is somewhat like the third line, except that in this case the current phase signal has greater phase angle (e.g., Phase X+45°) than the next phase signal (e.g. Phase X). Circuitry 32 reaches its UP threshold (14) and outputs an F UPB signal before circuitry 22 reaches its DN threshold (28). This condition indicates that the phase of DATAIN is between the current and next phases. In addition, this condition tends to suggest that the phase of DATAIN is closer to the current phase than to the next phase. Control circuitry 40 therefore makes no change in either the current phase signal or the next phase signal, and it may also output a “LOCK” signal as described above in connection with the third line in FIG. 3 .
The last line in FIG. 3 bears the same kind of relationship to the fourth line that the fifth line bears to the third line. Again, the current phase signal has greater phase angle than the next phase signal. The phase of DATAIN is between the current phase and the next phase. However, circuit 22 reaches its DN threshold (28) and outputs an F DNA signal before circuitry 32 reaches its UP threshold (14). This suggests that the next phase signal is closer to the phase of DATAIN than the current phase. Accordingly, control circuitry 40 causes multiplexer 50 to select a new current phase signal having phase angle that is decreased relative to the previously selected current phase signal.
The above discussion of FIG. 3 covers only possible changes in the current phase signal. Whenever there is a change in the current phase, the new next phase signal is subsequently determined by the polarity of an initial subsequent count of the counter in circuitry 22 . This can be done in the manner illustrated by FIGS. 4 a - 4 b . For example, after the counters in both of circuits 22 and 32 are reset (step 112 ) (e.g., following a change in the current phase), the counter in circuitry 32 is held in reset and only the counter in circuitry 22 is released (step 114 ). Steps 120 , 122 , 124 , and 130 show that the counter in circuitry 32 is held in reset until the counter in circuitry 22 reaches +7 or −7. If +7 is reached, next phase is selected (by element 50 in FIG. 2 ) as the current phase +45° (step 122 ). If −7 is reached, next phase is selected (by element 50 in FIG. 2 ) as the current phase −45° (step 124 ). After next phase has been selected in this manner, the counter in circuit 32 is released from reset (step 130 ). Using a threshold like +/−7 in the selection of next phase helps prevent next phase from switching around too much.
Once next phase has been selected, the counters in circuits 22 and 32 compete by counting to 28 and 14, respectively (step 140 ). The step 132 intervening between steps 130 and 140 monitors the possibility of the counter in circuitry 22 falling below +7 or above −7. If that happens, the counter in circuitry 32 is reset (step 134 ) and the next phase selection process is repeated by returning to step 120 . Thus the threshold difference between circuits 22 and 32 is not as great as it may at first appear to be, because the counter in circuitry 22 is always given a head start of 7 before the counter in circuitry 32 is released to begin counting. The threshold difference between circuits 22 and 32 is therefore only 7, not 14 as it may superficially appear to be.
When the counter in either of circuits 22 and 32 exceeds its threshold, control passes from step 140 to step 142 . This step determines the action to be taken according to FIG. 3 . If the action to be taken is a change in the current phase, that is done in step 152 and control then passes back to step 112 . On the other hand, if the action to be taken is “lock,” that is done in step 150 , after which control passes back to step 112 .
It is believed desirable for the next phase threshold (e.g., 14) to be less than the current phase threshold (e.g., effectively 21, after the head start of 7 given the counter in circuitry 22 before the counter in circuitry 32 is released to begin counting as described above) because this contributes to system stability. Next phase should be farther from the phase of DATAIN than current phase. When that is the case, circuitry 32 should reach its relatively low threshold before circuitry 22 reaches its relatively high threshold, and under those conditions the system will “lock” (i.e., not change the selections of current phase and next phase). On the other hand, if circuitry 22 reaches its high threshold (effectively 21) before circuitry 32 reaches its low threshold (14), there is a need to change the current and next phase signal selections because the current phase signal is not the best one for use in controlling when the DATAIN signal is sampled. It will be appreciated, however, that it may not be necessary for circuits 22 and 32 to have precisely this difference in thresholds. Good operation may be achieved with thresholds that are farther apart, not as far apart, or even equal to one another.
It will also be understood that FIGS. 3 and 4 a - 4 b are only illustrative of how circuitry 40 may be arranged to respond to various conditions in the circuitry upstream from circuitry 40 .
Another desirable attribute of the circuitry of the invention is that its resolution tends to increase with jitter on the data. The circuit has the tendency to settle in the better of the two best phases with jitter on the data because jitter slows down the counter 22 / 32 that is closer to the optimal sampling point. This is illustrated by FIG. 5 .
In FIG. 5 , next phase is closer to the optimal sampling point. The next phase detector 30 will mostly be outputting DN pulses because next phase is somewhat above the optimal sampling point. However, because of the noise on the data, the next phase detector will also output some UP pulses. The closer next phase is to the sampling point, the more UP pulses will occur when compared to DN pulses. However, total DN pulses should be greater than UP pulses, assuming the jitter is distributed in a Gaussian distribution around the optimal sampling point and next phase is above the optimal sampling point. The UP pulses slow down the next phase counter 32 and make it more likely that the current phase path 20 / 22 will reach its threshold first, causing a switch to next phase. If the current phase is closer to the optimal sampling point, the current phase counter will be slowed down by the jitter, making the circuit more likely to lock. The end effect is that the circuit tends to settle in the phase whose falling edge is closer to the data transition point where the jitter is centered.
It will be understood that the foregoing is only illustrative of the principles of the invention, and that various modifications can be made by those skilled in the art without departing from the scope and spirit of the invention. For example, the use of eight candidate clock signals 52 is only illustrative, and a larger or smaller number of such signals can be used instead if desired. The candidate clock signals do not have to have the same frequency as the bit rate of the DATAIN signal. For example, the candidate clock signals could have a frequency that is a multiple of (e.g., two, three, or four times) the bit rate. In such cases (or indeed in any case) the current phase signal might not be used directly to control sampling of the DATAIN signal, but might instead be used as a pointer to another clock signal that is best for sampling the DATAIN signal. For example, this other clock signal could be another of the candidate clock signals having a predetermined phase shift from the current phase signal.
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Dynamic phase alignment circuitry selects from among several, phase-distributed, candidate clock signals the one of those signals that is currently best for use in controlling the timing of sampling of a serial data signal to recover the data from that signal. The circuitry selects two phase-adjacent ones of the candidate clock signals that are currently the two best candidates for final selection. The circuitry makes a final selection of the generally better one of these two best candidates in a way that avoids unproductive switching back and forth between these two best candidates.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a method for assessing and determining the condition of keratin-containing materials, particularly the condition of hair, with existing structural damage caused by external factors such as the environment, weathering, natural aging, physical or chemical noxae or cosmetic treatments, to agents and devices that are appropriate therefor and to the use thereof.
2. Related Art
Keratin-containing materials including the skin and skin appendages, for example hair, nails, feathers and hoofs, are subject to a multitude of natural and unnatural physical and chemical influences. These include energy-rich radiation (for example UV light), weather conditions or weathering (for example temperature, air humidity or air composition), cosmetic treatments, for example hair bleaching, permanent wave treatments, coloring or enameling. Such influences manifest themselves in varying degrees of structural modifications of these materials leading to a possible change in their chemical and physical properties. In the case of, for example, hair, this can result in a loss of gloss, suppleness, hold or combability. In addition, the brittleness and splitting of hair increases. The degree of damage increases with the frequency and duration of exposure to the influencing parameters.
For an effective use of hair-care, hair-conditioning or hair-restructuring agents it is necessary not only to recognize the current condition of the hair with reliability but, in particular, to make a correct selection of the agents for permanent waving, coloring and bleaching of hair that are adapted to a particular hair structure. This, however, requires a reliable determination of the degree of hair damage. The hair condition can be determined either visually or in tactile manner by subjective evaluation of, for example, gloss, brittleness, coarseness or the appearance of splitting, or this can be done by use of objective measuring methods.
The method of subjective assessment of hair condition or hair damage is fast and simple. The recognition of incipient and advanced structural changes (hair damage) based on subjective parameters, however, leads to highly erratic or unusable results either because of a lack of experience in assessing the hair condition or hair damage or else owing to masking of the damage by hair-care agents.
Numerous methods are known for objective examination of keratin-containing materials for the purpose of detecting any damage that may be present. An example is the determination of the cysteine content by high-pressure liquid chromatography (HPLC). This method has the drawback that it requires comprehensive laboratory studies which are time-consuming and costly. Hence, this method is not practicable for daily use, and particularly not for hair-dressers or beauticians.
It is also known (for example, from EP-A 0 702 232) to determine hair damage by use of anionic dyes.
This method, however, provides insufficient information about the structural condition of hair. Other known methods consist of determining the elongation factor of hair or the degree of copper absorption of the damaged hair. Such methods are described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,461,925 and 4,665,741. These methods are nonspecific and can give false-positive or false-negative results. Moreover, they are time-consuming and require costly equipment.
Because, on the one hand, a reliable recognition and evaluation of existing damage to keratin-containing materials is indispensable for effective and logical cosmetic treatment and, on the other, no practicable rapid test methods for this purpose, and no devices or agents suitable for carrying out such a method, are known, a great need exists for a rapid test and for devices and agents suitable for such a test.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The object of the present invention is to eliminate the drawbacks of the prior art and to provide a reliable method for recognizing and evaluating damage conditions in keratin-containing materials, particularly hair, and devices and agents needed for said method.
This objective was reached within the scope of the claims presented herein.
Surprisingly, we have now found that keratin-containing material, for example hair, damaged to different degrees reacts differently to enzymatic and/or chemical treatment in aqueous solution and that the liquid sample shows different degrees of turbidity depending on the degree of damage to the keratin-containing material.
Hence, one aspect of the present invention is a method for recognizing and determining the condition of a keratin-containing material, said method consisting of subjecting a sample of keratin-containing material, for example a sample of hair, in aqueous solution to enzymatic and/or chemical treatment and then examining, evaluating and determining the condition of the hair on the basis of the turbidity of the resulting aqueous solution. The condition of the hair can readily be determined with the aid of a comparative value (zero value or standard value). The comparative value can be obtained by subjecting the same amount of healthy hair to enzymatic and/or chemical treatment under the same conditions as those used for the hair test sample and determining the turbidity of the resulting liquid sample.
By the expression “determining the condition of keratin-containing materials” is meant, in particular, the determination of possible or expected damage to the material involved. In the following, the aqueous solution obtained after the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment of a sample of keratin-containing material, for example a hair sample, will be referred to as the “liquid sample”.
The method of the invention combines a number of advantages. It represents a rapid test for determining the condition of keratin-containing materials which in a very short time provides reliable information concerning the current condition of keratin-containing materials permitting a diagnosis of said condition. The method affords reproducible results enabling the user to follow changes in the condition of the keratin-containing material over a longer period of time on the basis of objective criteria and to prepare a data file therefor.
The method of the invention can be applied particularly advantageously in the area od hair care or hair cosmetics. For the user and particularly the hair-dresser, this also opens up the possibility of flexible and individual cosmetic hair treatment aiming at causal hair care. The method permits optical or visual examination of the liquid sample and, hence, is simple to carry out. The agents and devices needed to this end are easy to handle. Because of the high reproducibility and possibility of carrying out a differentiated examination of the condition or degree of damage in keratin-containing materials combined with the ease of handling, the method of the invention and the devices and agents of the invention that are appropriate therefor represent an ideal solution for fast evaluation of hair quality in particular.
All enzymatic and/or chemical procedures can be used for the method of the invention as long as they bring about a proteolytic or hydrolytic decomposition of hair. Hence, the method of the invention comprises enzymatic and/or chemical treatment of a sample of keratin-containing material (for example a hair sample) based on a proteolytic or hydrolytic reaction. Suitable to this end are purely enzymatic treatments, purely chemical treatments or combined enzymatic/chemical treatments of the materials to be examined.
As for enzymatic methods, suitable are all enzymes from the group of proteases and proteinases (exo- and endopeptidases or exo- and endoproteases and mixtures thereof) known for this purpose and which are capable of catalyzing the degradation of keratin-containing material, at least one enzyme for the enzymatic (or enzymatic/chemical) treatment being present in the aqueous solution involved. The enzymes can be used alone or as a mixture. They include, for example, papain, pronase E, proteinase K, subtilisin or trypsin, as well as keratinases, for example from Fervidobacterium pennavorans (FRIEDRICH, A. B., and ANTRANIKIAN,. G., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 62: 2875, 1996), from Streptomyces pactum, DSM 40530 (BOECKLE, B. et al., Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 61: 3705, 1995). from Candida pulcherima KSY 188-5 (GOTOCH, T., et al., Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. 59: 367, 1995) or from Bacillus licheniformis PWD-1 (LIN, X, Appl. Environ. Microbiol. 61 (4): 1469-1474 1995, CHENG S. W., Biosci. Biotechnol. Biochem. 59(12): 2239-2243, 1995). The use of special keratinases can be advantageous, because they can accelerate the proteolytic degradation of keratin-containing materials. For example, the keratinase from Fervidobacterium pennavorans is known to be able to bring about rapid decomposition of chicken feathers. (FRIEDRICH, A. B. and ANTRANIKIAN, G., Appl. Environ. Microbiol 62: 2875, 1996).
The enzymes suitable for the method of the invention are commercially available, for example papain (isolatable from Carica papaya ) from Boehringer Mannheim, pronase E (isolatable from Streptomyces griseus ) from Sigma (Deisenhofen) or proteinase K (isolatable from Tritirachium album ) from Merck (Darmstadt).
As for purely chemical methods for the decomposition of keratin-containing materials, organic and/or inorganic reagents, which are capable of preferentially hydrolyzing keratin, are suitable and thus are keratolytically active and/or have reducing properties. Organic and inorganic reagents suitable for this purpose include reducing agents that can be used under basic as well as under acid conditions. The organic and inorganic reagents can be present in the aqueous solution, either alone or as a mixture. For example, partial aqueous reductive hydrolyses with, for example, urea-bisulfite solutions (for example a solution containing urea and sodium metabisulfite) in accordance with the IWTO (International Wool Textile Organization) specification (IWTO 11-62 (D), new edition, 1996), partial alkaline-aqueous hydrolyses with alkaline solutions, for example sodium hydroxide solutions in accordance with the IWTO specification (IWTO 4-60, new edition 1966), partial alcoholic-reductive hydrolyses with tributylphosphine and sodium iodide solutions according to KILPATRIK, D. J. et al., Text. Res. J. 40: 25, 1970), partial acidic-basic hydrolyses with performic acid-ammonia solutions, partial basic-reductive hydrolyses with thioglycolic acid-urea solutions or partial acidic-reductive hydrolyses with thioglycolic acid or cysteine glacial acetic acid solutions, such as cysteine, sodium metabisulfite, sodium sulfite, dithiothreitol (DTT) and dithioerythrol (DTE) are all suitable.
In this regard, the present invention also comprises a method characterized in that an aqueous solution of a sample of keratin-containing material, particularly a hair sample, is subjected to a chemical treatment and that the proteolytic or hydrolytic reaction underlying this treatment is carried out with the aid of at least one keratolytically active and/or reducing organic and/or inorganic reagent.
By combined enzymatic/chemical treatments of the keratin-containing material to be examined are meant treatments whereby the desired hydrolysis or proteolysis of the keratin-containing material takes place with the participation of both enzymes and purely chemical substances. In this case, the liquid sample in which the sample of the material (for example, the hair sample) is subjected to the enzymatic/chemical treatment contains at least one of the aforesaid enzymes together with at least one keratolytically active and/or reducing organic and/or inorganic reagent. Suitable to this end are, advantageously, amino acids or sulfites [for example cysteine, sodium metabisulfite, sodium sulfite, dithiothreitol (DDT) and dithioerythrol (DTE)].
Such a combined enzymatic/chemical treatment is a preferred object of the present invention.
Hence, a preferred method of the invention consists of subjecting an aqueous solution of a sample of the keratin-containing material, particularly a hair sample, to an enzymatic and chemical treatment and of carrying out the proteolytic or hydrolytic reaction underlying said treatment with the aid of at least one enzyme, as defined hereinabove, in combination with at least one keratolytically active and/or reducing organic and/or inorganic reagent, as defined hereinabove.
The enzyme can be added to the aqueous reaction solution first, followed by the organic and/or inorganic reagent, or the enzyme and the reagent can be used simultaneously, or the organic and/or inorganic reagent is added to the reaction solution first, followed by the enzyme. It can be advantageous to carry out the method by adding to the reaction solution first the organic and/or inorganic reagent and then the enzyme.
According to the invention, the examination and evaluation of the liquid sample can be carried out during and/or after the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment. In this regard, the invention comprises a method whereby the examination and evaluation of the liquid sample occur during and/or after the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment.
Naturally, the amounts of the enzymes and organic/inorganic reagents to be used depend on the choice of the enzymes and reagents, on the amount and type of sample of keratin-containing material and on the conditions under which the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment of the sample takes place (particularly the temperature and pH). In this respect, it should naturally also be kept in mind that enzymes can exhibit different temperature optimums and that the pH also affects the enzyme activity. The optimum conditions under which proteases, proteinases or peptidases exhibit their highest proteolytic activity are known to those skilled in the art. They can also be found in the abundant literature on this subject or they can be obtained from various enzyme providers. Moreover, the type of enzymes and the type and the amount of the other chemical reagents to be used depend on the time period within which the keratin-containing materials are to undergo proteolytic degradation so as to produce a desired turbidity in the liquid sample to be examined. Of course, the conditions under which a desired turbidity is obtained with specific amounts of enzymes and/or chemical reagents under specific conditions (temperature and pH) with a specific amount of hair sample can readily be determined by, and adapted to the needs of, those skilled in the art by carrying out comparative tests.
In general, it may be assumed that the enzymes to be used according to the invention can be employed in an amount (specific activity) from 1.0 to 500 U/mL, preferably from 5.0 to 250 U/mL and particularly from 5.0 to 35.0 U/mL. We were able to determine that a specific enzyme activity, particularly in conjunction with a hydrolytically acting, keratolytically active and/or reducing chemical reagent, in the range from 5.0 to 35.0 U/mL is sufficient to produce turbidity within 5 to 30 minutes, so that a reliable and reproducible determination of the condition of or damage to the keratin-containing materials, particularly hair damage, can be performed.
As regards the amount of the keratolytically active and/or reducing chemical reagents to be used according to the invention, no firm numbers can be stated because of the differences existing among the various possible reagents. By simple testing, however, it is easy to determine the desired amount for the proteolysis or hydrolysis of a sample of keratin-containing material and for attaining adequate turbidity for the determination of the condition of or damage to the material. We found it useful, however, to use the said inorganic chemical reagents in an amount from 0.5 to 50.0 mg/mL, preferably from 1.0 to 25.0 mg/mL and particularly from 2.0 to 15.0 mg/mL, advantageously in combination with an appropriate enzyme. As regards organic chemical reagents, for example cysteine (particularly L-cysteine), amounts between 0.1 and 50 mg/mL, preferably between 0.2 and 30 mg/mL and particularly between 0.5 and 25 mg/mL can be used. Higher cysteine concentrations in the aqueous solution (reaction solution) should be chosen particularly when cysteine is the only chemical reagent present, preferably in combination with an enzyme that is appropriate according to the invention. Small amounts of cysteine can be used advantageously when at least one other inorganic keratolytically active and/or reducing agent, for example one or more sulfites, is present together with cysteine, particularly in combination with an enzyme to be used according to the invention.
The presence of at least one inorganic chemical reagent (for example one or more sulfites) together with an organic chemical reagent (for example, cysteine), particularly in combination with an appropriate enzyme, is not necessarily required for optimum proteolytic degradation of a sample of keratin-containing material. We found that at low cysteine concentrations from 0.1 to 2.0 mg/mL the simple presence of at least one inorganic chemical reagent, for example a sulfite [for example, in a total amount of 10 mg of sodium metabisulfite (7.0 mg/mL) and sodium sulfite (3.0 mg) can cause the reaction rate to increase and the turbidity in the liquid sample to appear faster. Alternatively, the reaction rate and thus the turbidity can be increased by increasing the cysteine concentration. Advantageously, in this manner both the rate of appearance and the intensity of the desired turbidity can readily be controlled by varying the organic and inorganic reagents used.
The aqueous solution to be used for the method of the invention and in which the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment of a sample of keratin-containing material takes place has a pH in the range from 5.0 to 11.0, preferably from 5.0 to 9.0 and particularly from 5.5 to 7.5, depending on the reactants chosen (enzyme and/or organic and/or inorganic reagents) for the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment. With proteinase K, an advantageous pH range is from 5.5 to 7.5, with pronase E from 6.0 to 7.5 and with papain from 6.0 to 7.5. In general, an appropriate pH range is that from 5.5 to 7.5 in which advantageous proteolytic or hydrolytic decompositions of the sample of keratin-containing material and thus suitable turbidity can be achieved. For the said enzyme examples, a pH of 6.5 can be viewed as a guideline. When other enzymes are used, the pH optimums must, of course, be chosen accordingly.
Advantageously, the reaction mixture or the liquid sample which is in the form of an aqueous solution and in which the enzymatic and/or hydrolytic treatment of a sample of keratin-containing material takes place can contain a buffer system, for example a phosphate buffer. Suitable for this purpose is, for example, a sodium phosphate buffer (50 mM) of pH 6.5.
The temperature range in which the enzymatic and/or chemical reaction of the keratin-containing material takes place in the aqueous solution also depends on the reactants chosen for the enzymatic and/or hydrolytic treatment of the keratin-containing material. The temperature chosen should be between 20 and 100° C., preferably between 30 and 60° C. and particularly between 40 and 50° C.
We found that the rate and the extent of decomposition of the keratin-containing material, particularly of hair, increased with increasing temperature and that the turbidity increased accordingly. At a temperature of 50° C. and, for example, with a reaction mixture consisting of a proteolytic enzyme (for example papain) and a reducing agent (for example cysteine) in a phosphate buffer (50 mM), a hair sample decomposed rapidly. Here, too, as in the selection of the reactants (for example, variation in the amounts of cysteine and sulfites), it is possible to control the change in turbidity advantageously by selecting an appropriate reaction temperature.
Advantageously, the amount and length of the sample of keratin-containing material (for example, a sample of hair, wool, fiber or nails) are chosen so that they can be compared with a defined amount (in mg) and/or length (in cm) of a control (for example, of healthy material). The amount and length of the sample to be used can vary widely depending on the volume of the reaction vessel in which the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment takes place. Advantageously, the sample size of keratin-containing material can be between 0.01 and 100 mg, preferably between 0.5 and 50 mg and particularly between 1.0 and 10 mg. In the case of hair (or wool or fibers), the length of the hair sample can be between 0.05 and 5.0 cm, preferably between 0.1 and 1.0 cm and particularly between 0.1 and 0.5 cm. Smaller amounts (0.1 to 10 mg) and lengths (0.1 to 0.5 cm) should be advantageous when the measurement of turbidity is to be performed in a small volume (for example in small test tubes or cuvettes for photometric determinations). The amounts mentioned as examples correspond to the amounts mentioned in the foregoing as examples for the reactants used in the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment. Naturally, the amounts and lengths of the keratin-containing material can be increased or decreased depending on the prevailing conditions and the procedure to be used. Basically, it is advantageous not to use a hair length exceeding about 1.0 cm, because, in general, a shorter hair length can accelerate the proteolytic and/or hydrolytic degradation of hair and thus make it possible to obtain turbidities that can be evaluated within a very short time (<10 minutes).
The length of time needed for the formation of an appropriate turbidity for determining the condition of keratin-containing materials varies depending on the choice of the aforesaid parameters (reactants, pH, temperature and amount and length of the sample of keratin-containing material). The duration of the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment of the sample of keratin-containing material can vary from 1 minute to 30 minutes and preferably from 5 to 20 minutes. Various tests have shown that sufficient turbidity for the evaluation and determination of the condition of, for example, hair can be attained by the method of the invention within as little as 10 minutes.
Because the tests for carrying out the present invention were performed, in particular, on hair, the invention shall be explained in greater detail on the example of hair without thereby limiting the scope of the invention. The measures and the values and quantities described in the following can readily be applied and transferred also to other keratin-containing materials.
In general, we were able to establish that in the presence of an enzyme the extent of proteolytic degradation of hair samples varies within wide limits depending on the selection of appropriate organic or inorganic chemical reagents, pH and temperature. A higher reaction rate manifests itself in a reduction of the maximum attainable turbidity. For a slower reaction occurring within 10 to 1 5 min following the addition of the enzyme (for example, when papain and 20 mg/mL of cysteine are used at pH 5.5 and 50° C. or 10 mg/mL of DTE, pH 6.0, 45° C.), an increasingly linear curve is obtained. This can facilitate the evaluation. Hence, it is particularly advantageous when the reaction time to maximum turbidity is between 5 and 20 minutes and particularly between 7 and 15 minutes. We found that this method of carrying out the reaction is advantageous when the hair samples to be analyzed are expected to present considerable damage. The preferred conditions for the enzymatic/chemical treatment of hair samples are, for example, as follows: 5.0 mg of approximately 0.1-cm-long hair (21.1 U) plus cysteine (20 mg/mL), pH 6.5, 50° C. or papain (21.2 U) plus DTE (10 mg/mL), pH 6.2, 50° C.
For the analysis and evaluation of the turbidity obtained in the liquid sample according to the invention, it is disadvantageous if, after the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment of the hair, undecomposed hair components are present in the liquid sample. This could be a hindrance, for example, in the use of physical measuring methods, particularly in turbidimetric measurements with a photometer, and could lead to erroneous results. Hence, it is advantageous to remove hair components that have remained undecomposed by the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment before the examination or to keep them removed during the examination and to carry out the examination and evaluation of the liquid sample in the absence of undecomposed hair components. In many cases, particularly when instrumental methods of measurement are used (for example, extinction or turbidity measurements with a photometer) it will suffice to free of undecomposed hair components primarily that region of the liquid sample which contains the path of the radiation used for measuring the turbidity. Bottom sediments of undecomposed hair components have no major relevance in this case.
Before the examination of the liquid sample by a physical separation method, the undecomposed hair components can be removed for example by filtration, centrifugation or sedimentation or by the use of appropriate mechanical separation devices, for example sieves, nets, screens or filters. Such methods can readily be applied using small test tubes, measuring cells or measuring cuvettes, or the mechanical separation means can be permanently or removably built into such test tubes, cells or cuvettes. For example, the mechanical separation means built into the measuring cell may make it possible to separate the region of the liquid sample in which the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment of the hair is carried out from the region of the liquid sample used for the turbidity measurement. In this case, it can be advantageous if the measuring cell with integrated or inserted mixing system brings about uniform distribution of the hair components causing the turbidity.
Hence, according to the invention, a preferred method consists of removing, before examining the liquid sample, the components of the hair (or of the keratin-containing material) that remained unreacted during the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment or of keeping said components away during the examination so that the examination and evaluation of the liquid sample are carried out in the absence of undecomposed components of the hair (or of the keratin-containing materials).
It can be advantageous for the measurement and examination of the liquid sample if the transparent container (test tube, cell, cuvette) is made of glass or plastic material and if additionally it is fitted with a device for thermostatting the liquid sample. Such a device can consist of a heating band or a heated water bath.
The examination with the naked eye can be carried out, for example, by comparing a liquid sample obtained from an appropriately treated hair sample with the liquid sample obtained from undamaged hair (comparative or zero value), preferably in transmitted light. Such a method can be used particularly when, for example, only a rough evaluation of hair damage is desired.
According to the invention, examination by physical measuring methods is preferred, because it permits a more accurate evaluation and determination of damage to keratin-containing materials (for example, hair damage). Particularly preferred is a method whereby the examination and evaluation of the liquid sample is based on a turbidity measurement. Suitable to this end are all optical methods known to those skilled in the art, provided said methods make it possible to perform measurements on liquids containing undissolved, suspended particles. These include, for example, methods based on light scattering, nephelometric measurements (tyndallometry), fluorescent radiation measurements, transmitted light or extinction measurements and turbidimetric measurements (turbidimetry). According to the invention, turbidity measurement (turbidimetric measurement) of the liquid sample obtained is preferred.
The method of the invention based on physical measurement methods can be carried out by all instruments and agents known to those skilled in the art and which are commercially available. These include photometers in particular. Turbidity measurement with a photometer or turbidity photometer is preferred.
Hence, a preferred method comprises examining and evaluating the liquid sample by turbidimetric measurement with a photometer. Thereafter, the condition of the keratin-containing material (hair or hair damage) can readily be determined by comparison with a standard or zero value (preferably based on undamaged hair).
According to the invention, however, the use of a turbidity photometer for determining the condition of keratin-containing materials in one of the methods underlying the present invention is also included.
In the event that the condition of the keratin-containing material is examined, evaluated and determined by turbidimetric measurement, generally valid turbidity units must be used. Such turbidity units are either the values determined by measuring the attenuation of the radiation passing through the liquid sample (FAU, formazine attenuation unit) or those obtained by measuring the intensity of the scattered radiation (FNU, formazine nephelometric unit). The German “formazine turbidity unit” (TE/F) corresponds to the values determined by use of FNU.
According to the method of the invention, the examination and evaluation of the liquid sample can be carried out during and/or after the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment of the sample of keratin-containing material. The examination and evaluation of the liquid sample during and/or after the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment of the sample can be performed either indirectly and discontinuously or directly and continuously (on-line). By the discontinuous method, the turbidity of the liquid sample can be determined or measured on the basis of individual values at specific time intervals.
The continuous method whereby the turbidity or the change in turbidity in the liquid sample is followed directly and continuously (on-line) has the advantages of being less time-consuming because, for example, less pipetting is required. Moreover, such a method permits kinetic evaluation of the data. The method of the invention can thereby be further shortened, so that an evaluation and determination of the condition of the keratin-containing material can be performed in less than 10 minutes.
According to the invention, the continuous method is preferred. Such a method requires appropriate instrumentation consisting of a photometer in combination with a heating system that heats the transparent reaction vessel (measuring cell, test tube, cuvette) needed for the turbidity measurement, a mixing device inserted or built into the reaction vessel and a controllable drive, preferably an electric motor, for actuating the mixing device.
The heating system preferably consists of a controlled thermostatting system (thermocouple) and can consist, for example, of a heating band in contact with the reaction vessel.
The mixing device, which preferably is driven in controllable manner by an electric motor that is solidly connected with the photometer, can consist of a stirrer or of a syringe or disposable syringe which reaches into the measuring cell or into the reaction liquid contained therein. The rotating stirrer can be provided with appropriate stirring blades or it can consist of an angular or round rod made of metal, glass or plastic, which can have indentations, for example one having the shape of an auger. The stirring device, however, can also consist of a magnetic stirrer whereby the stirring is brought about by a stirring element present in the reaction liquid. When a syringe is used, said syringe can advantageously be provided at its lower end with a screen, sieve or net. The plunger or piston of the syringe can, by a constant up-and-down movement, keep the hair sample or the liquid sample in constant motion. This ensures that the sample of keratin-containing material in the reaction liquid is constantly kept in motion and that the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment of the sample of keratin-containing material is carried out under optimum conditions. The volume of the syringe in this case is the reaction space in which the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment of the sample of keratin-containing material takes place. The plunger can be moved up and down by means of a controlled electric motor. FIGS. 1 a and 1 b and FIG. 2 are schematic representations of suitable systems.
Those skilled in the art know that proteolytic and hydrolytic reactions can be influenced by the intensity at which the reaction liquid is mixed and that they can depend on the speed of the mixer or on the degree of movement of the mixing device. In general, it may be assumed that the rate and intensity of the proteolytic or hydrolytic decomposition of the keratin-containing material underlying the present invention increases with increasing speed of rotation or of movement of the mixing device. This parameter can be varied depending on the time interval within which a specified turbidity is to be attained. Rotational speeds of a magnetic stirrer or a rod-shaped stirrer with stirring blades or indentations from 100 to 10,000 rotations per minute (rpm), particularly from 500 to 5000 rpm and preferably from 500 to 2000 rpm have been found to be advantageous. The number of up-and-down movements of a plunger or piston in a syringe-type mixing device can range from 10 to 500 and particularly from 50 to 200.
Hence, a preferred method consists of subjecting the sample of keratin-containing material to an additional mechanical stress during the enzymatic and/or chemical treatment.
When the method of the invention and of the attendant recognition, evaluation and determination of the condition of the keratin-containing material is to be highly automated, the examination and evaluation of a liquid sample can be carried out by electronic means. Hence, the method of the invention also consists of performing the examination and/or evaluation of the liquid sample in computer-controlled manner and with the aid of a computer.
To this end, the described photometer system is advantageously connected to a computer, internal processor or “personal computer”. In this manner, the data obtained by turbidimetric measurement can be stored and then evaluated at any time.
In addition, a recorder or printer can advantageously be connected to a photometer to provide a graphic representation of the turbidity variations or to print out numerical values. It is also possible to connect a video screen or display to the photometer to be able to obtain directly readable graphics or numerical values. Such data can be stored by means of a connected computer and, for example, retrieved at any time for comparison purposes and selectively printed by means of a connected printer. Any common computer, particularly a common personal computer (PC), can be used for this purpose.
Hence, another object of the method of the invention is characterized in that the examination and evaluation of the liquid sample is carried out with the aid of a computer and/or recorder and/or a video screen (display) and/or a printer.
The availability of an an apparatus for recognizing, determining and evaluating the condition of a keratin-containing material, which apparatus consists of a combination of components namely the photometer with the reaction vessel (for example a measuring cell, cuvette or test tube), a heating system for heating the reaction vessel of the photometer, a mixing device inserted or built into the reaction vessel and a controllable drive for moving the mixing device, is thus advantageous for carrying out the method of the invention.
Hence, another object of the invention is an apparatus for recognizing, determining and evaluating the condition of a keratin-containing material, which apparatus consists of a photometer with reaction vessel, with an adapter or support therefor, in combination with a heating system for heating the reaction vessel, a mixing device for mixing the liquid sample in the reaction vessel and a controllable drive for the mixing device. To maintain a constant temperature in the reaction vessel, the heating system can be connected with a thermocouple, and the heater can be in the form of a heating band. Such a heating band can be integrated with the adapters and supports for the reaction vessels, particularly the cuvettes or test tubes, to be used according to the invention and normally provided with photometers. The mixing device can consist of a syringe with a plunger or piston or of a stirrer which can be moved mechanically, electrically or magnetically or of an ultrasonic generator so that the mixing is ultrasound-induced.
Such an apparatus can advantageously be functionally connected with a recorder, printer, video screen (display) or computer, internal processor or personal computer (PC).
It may be advantageous for practical handling purposes if the apparatus of the invention is in the form of a mobile, compact unit. In particular, the computer can advantageously be in the form of a manual instrument which is spatially separated from the stationary photometer unit and is preferably connected to a recorder, printer or a video screen display, and can be used in mobile manner.
Because the use of an apparatus as that described hereinabove is advantageous for purposes of the invention, the present invention also includes the use of the described apparatus for identifying and determining the condition of a keratin-containing material in one of the methods of the invention.
It is advantageous for carrying out the method of the invention if both the appropriate equipment and the reagents required therefor are combined as a unit or in the form of a kit. Such a kit advantageously consists of a system as described hereinabove and includes a buffer solution, at least one enzyme and at least one proteolytically or hydrolytically active and keratinolytically effective and/or reducing chemical reagent. Such a combination (kit) has the advantage that all individual components are adapted to each other, that the user can carry out the method easily and on a routine basis and that reproducible and comparable results can be obtained at all times.
Another object of the present invention is therefore a kit for examining, evaluating and determining the condition of a keratin-containing material, said kit comprising a buffer solution, at least one enzyme and at least one proteolytically or hydrolytically active and keratinolytically effective and/or reducing chemical reagent. Advantageously, this kit can also contain a sample of a keratin-containing material, for example a sample of hair that has not been cosmetically treated and/or a liquid sample serving as standard, blank or zero value. In addition to the above-indicated components, such a kit can also include the apparatus underlying the present invention.
The use of a kit such as that described in the foregoing for recognizing and determining the condition of keratin-containing materials by a method according to the invention is advantageous and therefore is also an object of the present invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
The objects, features and advantages of the invention will now be illustrated in more detail with the aid of the following description of the preferred embodiments, with reference to the accompanying figures.
FIGS. 1 a and 1 b are schematic cross-sectional views through two embodiments of apparatuses for direct (on-line) determination of the turbidity of liquid samples containing hair in combination with a photometer, wherein a=electric motor, b=adapter for glass cuvette, c=glass cuvette, d=aluminum block, e=cap, f=plug, g=stirrer; h=heating band. mg/mL of Na 2 S 2 O 5 ; 3.0 mg/mL of Na 2 SO 3 ; 45° C.; stirrer speed 600 rpm (magnetic stirrer). In each case, a single determination was plotted.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The following examples illustrate the invention in greater detail.
EXAMPLES
FIG. 2 is a schematic cross-sectional view through an alternative embodiment of an apparatus for direct (on-line) determination of the turbidity of liquid samples containing hair in combination with a photometer, wherein a=electric motor, b=disposable syringe, c=plunger, d=adapter for glass cuvette, e=glass cuvette, f=aluminum block, g=cap, h=plug, i=reaction space, k=screen, m=heating band.
FIG. 3 is a graphical illustration of turbidity measurement results showing proteolytic decomposition of liquid samples containing hair of two different degrees of oxidation by turbidimetric photometry, in which 1=blank, non-oxidized hair, 2=non-oxidized hair, 3=once-oxidized hair, 4=3 times oxidized hair. Test conditions: 50 mg of hair (1.0 cm-long); 100 μL (21.2 U) of papain; 5.0 mL of 50 mM sodium phosphate buffer, pH 6.5 (reaction volume, liquid); 0.74 mg/mL of L-cysteine; 7.0 mg/mL of Na 2 S 2 O 5 ; 3.0 mg/mL of Na 2 SO 3 ; 45° C.; stirrer speed 600 rpm (magnetic stirrer). In each case, the result of a single determination was plotted.
FIG. 4 is a graphical illustration of turbidity measurement results showing proteolytic decomposition of liquid samples containing hair of seven different degrees of oxidation by turbidimetric photometry, in which 1=once-oxidized, 2=twice-oxidized, 3=3-times oxidized, 4=4-times oxidized, 5=5-times oxidized, 6=6-times oxidized, 7=7-times oxidized hair. Test conditions were the same as in FIG. 3 with the exception that 0.5-cm-long hair was used. In each case, the result of a single determination was plotted.
FIG. 5 is a graphical illustration of results of turbidimetric photometry of the proteolytic decomposition of samples of hair subjected to permanent wave treatment a different number of times. Number of permanent wave treatments: 1=one, 2=two, 3=six. Test conditions as in FIG. 3 with the exception that 0.3-cm-long hair was used. In each case, a single determination was plotted.
FIG. 6 is a graphical illustration of turbidity measurement results showing optimization of the proteolytic decomposition of hair samples of different degrees of oxidation, in which 1=unoxidized hair, 2=once-oxidized, 3=3-times oxidized hair. Test conditions were the same as in FIG. 3 with the exception that 50 mg of 0.3-cm-long hair and 500 μL (108 U) of papain were used.
FIG. 7 is a graphical illustration of results of direct, continuous (on-line) measurement of turbidity in the proteolysis of oxidized hair samples, in which 1=unoxidized hair, 2=once-oxidized, 3=twice-oxidized, 4=3-times oxidized hair. Test conditions: 0.5 mg of hair sample (0.1 cm-long); 100 μl (21.2 U) of papain; 3.0 mL of 50 mM sodium phosphate buffer, pH 6.2 (reaction volume, liquid); 10 mg/mL of DTE; 50° C.; stirrer speed 1000 rpm.
FIGS. 8 a and 8 b are graphical illustrations of turbidity measurement results showing a comparison of the proteolytic decomposition of weathered and nonweathered, untreated hair samples of dark-brown 18 a ) and blond hair ( 8 b ), in which 1=hair roots, 2=hair tips. Test conditions for 8 a and 8 b: 50.0 mg of hair sample (0.5-cm-long); 100 /μL (21.2 U) of papain; 5.0 mL of 50 mM sodium phosphate buffer, pH 6.5 (reaction volume, liquid); 0.74 mg/mL of L-cysteine; 7.0
Example 1
Oxidative Treatment of Hair Samples
To prepare hair oxidatively damaged to different degrees, hair from Central European women was sorted according to color and density and made into tresses without hair roots and tips (in each case, 3 g of 15.0-cm-long hair). Table 1 shows the degrees of oxidation and chemical treatment of the hair.
TABLE 1
Degree of Oxidation
Chemical Treatment
Oxidized once
30 min with 6% H 2 O 2
Oxidized twice
2 × 30 min with 6% H 2 O 2
Oxidized 3 times
3 × 30 min with 6% H 2 O 2
Oxidized 4 times
4 × 30 min with 6% H 2 O 2
Oxidized 5 times
5 × 30 min with 6% H 2 O 2
Oxidized 6 times
6 × 30 min with 6% H 2 O 2
Oxidized 7 times
7 × 30 min with 6% H 2 O 2
Hydrogen peroxide was mixed in a 1:3 ratio with a bleaching powder [50.0% of ammonium per-sulfate, 23.0% of NaHCO 3 , 25.5% of sodium silicate, 0.5% of SiO 2 (Aerosil 300, Degussa), 1.0% of EDTA).
Example 2
Permanent Wave Treatment of Hair Samples
To prepare hair damaged to different degrees by permanent wave treatment, tresses of the same origin and type as described in Example 1 were subjected to permanent wave treatment once, three times and six times.
To this end, the tresses were thoroughly moistened, dabbed with an absorbing towel and conditioned overnight at 95-100% relative humidity. Permanent wave lotion containing 8 w % of thioglycolic acid was applied uniformly to the conditioned tresses. The tresses were placed in a plastic pouch and kept in a drier at 45° C. for 15 minutes. At the end of the exposure period, the tresses were washed with warm running water at 37° C. and then dipped into a fixing solution (3% H 2 O 2 ) for 3 minutes. The tresses were then removed from the fixing bath and allowed to stand 7 minutes. The treatment was completed by a 5-min final soaking in warm water at 37° C. and then dried 30 min with circulating air at 45° C.
For a three-fold and six-fold permanent wave treatment, this procedure was repeated the requisite number of times with 24-hour intervals between individual treatments.
Example 3
Untreated, Weathered Hair Samples
The starting material were pigtails of untreated brown and blond hair of Central European women which hair had been exposed to normal weather influences. To ensure sufficient weathering, hair at least 20-cm-long was used. The hair was removed from the head just before the proteolytic or hydrolytic treatment was applied. In each case, a comparison was made between hair roots (no weathering) and hair tips exposed to environmental conditions.
Example 4
Determination of the Degree of Turbidity
To determine the degree of turbidity, 1.0 mL of liquid (liquid sample) was removed from the preparation containing the proteolytically treated hair and analyzed with a Nephla LPG 23 turbidity photometer (Dr. Bruno Lange GmbH, Berlin) provided with a cuvette adapter and a glass cuvette (11 mm). The photometer had permanent calibration constancy and its accuracy at the calibration point of 10 FNU (TE/F) was <2% [sic—Translator]. The analyzed sample was then returned directly to the reaction vessel (glass cuvette, measuring cell) for further measurements. To obtain the blank value, a reading was obtained in the absence of hair on 1.0 mL of the buffer (50 mM sodium phosphate buffer, pH 6.5) plus the reducing agent (L-cysteine, DTT or DTE) and the enzyme (papain, pronase E or proteinase K).
By means of the turbidity photometer with a cuvette (measuring cell), turbidity measurements were made up to a temperature of <60° C. (temperature of the reaction mixture). After calibration, the turbidity was selectively plotted against FNU, TE/F or mg/L of SiO 2 in accordance with the DIN 2 formazine standard. The same was true for the modified device of Example 5.
Example 5
Apparatus for Direct, Continuous Measurement of Turbidity
To be able to follow the proteolytic degradation of hair samples continuously and directly (on-line), the turbidity photometer of Example 4 was modified by building into it a heating band and a stirring unit. To this end, the wall of the cuvette adapter for the 11-mm round cuvettes was integrated with a heating band (HR 5377R17.5L 12A, supplied by Telemeter Electronic GmbH) and a thermocouple (RS 219-4719, supplied by RS Components GmbH) which were controlled by means of a controller (CAL 3200, supplied by CAL-Controls). The stirring unit consisted of a stirrer which reached into the cuvette (wood auger 1.5 mm in diameter) and which was actuated by an electric motor (SP 200 EC 3-5V DC, supplied by SP. J. Schwarzer GmbH). The controller and the electric motor were designed for low voltage and were supplied with power from a transformer. FIGS. 1 a and 1 b are schematic representations of such a device, and FIG. 2 shows an alternative device.
Example 6
Standardization of Hair Samples
Before the actual enzymatic treatment to create standardized baseline conditions for tests involving proteolytic decomposition of the hair samples to be examined, the hair was washed in standard fashion for 2 hours with 1% sodium dodecylsulfate (SDS). It was then carefully rinsed with distilled water and dried in a drier at 37° C. for 12 hours.
Example 7
Proteolytic Decomposition of Once- and 3-Times-Oxidized Hair Samples with Papain
Papain is a nonspecific endopeptidase (thiolprotease) from Carica papaya with esterase and trans-aminase activity. Its temperature optimum was 50° C. and the pH optimum between 6.0 and 7.0 (EC 3.4.22.2). The enzyme was supplied by Boehringer Mannheim (Product No. 1 693 379) in the form of a suspension (10 mg/mL).
Before the treatment with papain, 50.0 mg samples of each of unoxidized, once-oxidized and 3-times oxidized hair (as in Example 1) of 1.0 cm length were suspended or preswollen in a total volume of 5.0 mL of sodium phosphate buffer (50 mM, pH 6.5) in a closed glass tube for 1 h at 45° C. To activate the protease and to reduce the disulfide bridges of the hair, L-cysteine (0.74 mg/mL), sodium metabisulfite (Na 2 S 2 SO 3 ) and sodium sulfite (Na 2 SO 3 , 3 mg/mL) were added. After the addition of 100 μL (21.6 U) of a papain suspension (10 mg/mL), the turbidity was determined with a Nephla LPG 23 turbidity photometer (Example 4). The reaction was carried out with stirring (magnetic stirrer, 600 rpm) at 45° C. The blank value was that obtained for a hair sample in buffer solution containing the reducing agent but no papain. In each case, a single determination was plotted.
The reagents L-cysteine, sodium metabisulfite and sodium sulfite were supplied by Sigma (Deisenhofen). FIG. 3 shows the results obtained. It is quite evident that the two samples of hair with different degrees of oxidation gave a different increase in turbidity. After as little as 40 min, all hair samples with different degrees of oxidation could be differentiated in terms of their turbidity behavior. The turbidity of the unoxidized hair increased only very slightly, whereas that of the three times-oxidized hair increased after 20 min much more than that of the once-oxidized hair sample. The blank showed no increase in turbidity at all. It is clear that the turbidity behavior depends on and correlates with the condition of the hair or the degree of hair damage.
Example 8
Proteolytic Decomposition with Papain of Hair Samples Oxidized up to Seven Times
In analogy to Example 7, the turbidity of hair samples of seven different degrees of oxidation was determined as described in Example 1. In this case, we used samples of shorter, 0.5-cm-long hair (50 mg each) to increase the rate of reaction. In each case, a single determination was plotted.
FIG. 4 shows the results of this test series. After 20 minutes, it was possible to differentiate the differently pretreated hair samples, the degree of turbidity increasing with the extent of oxidation. It is evident that the turbidity behavior depends on and correlates with the condition of the hair or the degree of hair damage.
Example 9
Proteolytic Decomposition with Pronase E of Samples of Hair Oxidized Once, Twice and Three Times
Pronase E is a nonspecific enzyme mixture of endo- and exoproteases from Streptomyces griseus. Its temperature optimum was 35-40° C. and the pH optimum 6.0-7.5 (EC 3.424.4k). The preparation obtained from Sigma, Deisenhofen, had a specific activity of 5.3 U/mg.
Before treatment with pronase E, in analogy to Examples 7 and 8, 50.0-mg each of unoxidized and once, twice and three times oxidized hair samples (as in Example 1) 1.0 cm in length were suspended or preswollen in a total volume of 5.0 mL of sodium phosphate buffer (50 mM, pH 7.5) or tris/HCl buffer (50 mM, pH 7.5) in a closed glass tube for one hour at 37° C. After addition of 2.0 mg (or 4 mg) of pronase E (10.6 or 21.2 U), the glass tubes were allowed to incubate at 37° C. with stirring (magnetic stirrer, 600 rpm) in a water bath, and as in Examples 7 and 8 the turbidity was determined with a Nephla LPG 23 turbidity photometer (Example 4). Here, too, marked differences in turbidity were attained depending on the differences in hair condition (hair damage).
By selecting a higher concentration of pronase E (4.0 mg, corresponding to 21.2 U), the decomposition of the hair sample was accelerated.
Example 10
Proteolytic Decomposition with Proteinase K of Samples of Hair Oxidized Once, Twice and Three Times
Proteinase K is a serine endopeptidase obtained from Tritirachium album which preferably hydrolyzes the peptide bonds after the carboxyl group of N-substituted, hydrophobic, aliphatic and aromatic amino acids. The optimum temperature range of the proteinase K used (Merck, Darmstadt) was 25-35° C. and the optimum pH 6.5-7.5 (EC 3:4.21.14d). The enzyme activity of the suspended proteinase K was 600 U/mL. To activate this proteinase, it was also necessary to add Ca 2+ (BAJORATH, J. et al., Eur. J. Biochem. 176: 441, 1988)
Before treatment with proteinase K, in analogy to the preceding examples, 50.0-mg each of unoxidized and once, twice and three times oxidized hair samples (as in Example 1) 0.5 cm in length were.+suspended o r preswollen in a total volume of 5.0 mL of 50 mM tris/HCl buffer, pH 7.5, containing 2 M Ca 2+ (pH 7.5) in a closed glass tube for one hour at 25° C. After addition of 71 μL of proteinase K (42.2 U), the glass tubes were allowed to incubate at 25° C. with stirring (magnetic stirrer, 600 rpm) in a water bath, and as in the preceding examples the turbidity was determined with a Nephla LPG 23 turbidity photometer (Example 4). Here, too, marked differences in turbidity were attained depending on the differences in hair condition (hair damage).
Example 11
Proteolytic Decomposition with Papain of Hair Samples Subjected to Permanent Wave Treatment Once, Three Times and Six Times
As in Examples 7 to 10, hair with varying degrees of permanent wave treatment was subjected, as in Example 2, to proteolytic digestion with papain, and the increase in turbidity was used to interpret the hair condition or hair damage. To this end, 50 mg of 0.5-cm-long hair was used.
FIG. 5 provides a graphic representation of the results with a single determination plotted in each case. Definite differences in turbidity were produced by hair subjected to permanent wave treatment a different number of times, and these differences correlated with the condition of the hair (hair damage).
Example 12
Comparison of Proteolytic Decomposition of Weathered and Nonweathered, Untreated Hair Samples of Dark-Brown and Blond Hair
To determine the damage induced by weathering, the turbidity of samples of hair roots and hair tips were compared to each other. Dark-brown and blond hair was used for this purpose to establish how turbidity is affected by the hair color or the color pigments released by the enzymatic degradation, which in the case of dark-brown hair is eumelanine and in that of blond hair pheomelanine. These tests were carried out as in Example 7 by using in each case a 50.0-mg sample (0.5-cm long) of hair roots and hair tips for each of the two types of hair color. In each case, the result of a single determination was plotted. FIG. 8 a (dark-brown hair) and FIG. 8 b (blond hair) show the results obtained.
The curves indicate that weathered hair (hair tips) more readily underwent proteolytic degradation and, hence, produced more pronounced turbidity than nonweathered hair (hair roots). Differentiation of the two types of hair was possible after 10 minutes. Moreover, we found that the different hair colors and hair thicknesses had no effect on the turbidity measurement.
Based on tests with cosmetically treated hair (oxidized and permanently waved), we found that the proteolytic degradation of weathered hair was slower than that of cosmetically treated hair. From this we can conclude that the damage induced by weathering is mainly limited to the cuticula, whereas cosmetic treatment causes structural changes in the cortex as well (ROBBBINS, C. R. & BAHL, M. J., J. Soc. Cosmet. Chem. 35:379, 1984).
Example 13
Comparative Studies of Various Hair Samples
A comparison was made of all turbidity values obtained for the tested samples of untreated (naturally weathered) hair, oxidized hair, hair that had been subjected to permanent wave treatment and dark-brown and blond hair. All turbidity values were measured after 30 min incubation of 50 mg of hair with: 100 μL of papain; 5.0 mL of 50 mM sodium phosphate buffer, pH 6.5; 0.74 mg/mL of L-cysteine; 7.0 mg/mL of Na 2 S 2 O 5 ; 3.0 mg of Na 2 SO 3 ; 45° C.; stirrer speed (magnetic stirrer) 600 rpm. The hair samples were 0.5 cm long with the exception of hair type No. 6 in which case the length of the hair sample was 1.0 cm. The test and reaction conditions were as in Example 7. Table 2 shows the turbidity values obtained for the samples of the various hair types. Hair taken at the roots and hair taken at the top represent unweathered and weathered hair, respectively. The percentages refer to the concentration of the H 2 O 2 used for the oxidative treatment carried out as in Example 1.
TABLE 2
Turbidity
No.
Hair Type
(TE/F)
1
Dark-brown pigtail, untreated (hair roots)
20
2
Blond pigtail, untreated (hair roots)
20
3
Dark-brown tresses, unoxidized
50
4
Dark-brown pigtail (hair tips)
60
5
Blond pigtail (hair tips)
60
6
Dark-brown tresses once subjected to perm.
70
wave treatment
7
Dark-brown tresses twice subjected to perm.
120
wave treatment
8
Dark-brown tresses, oxidized once (6%)
130
9
Dark-brown tresses, 3 times subjected to perm.
230
wave treatment
10
Dark-brown tresses, oxidized twice (6%)
240
11
Dark-brown tresses, oxidized 3 times (6%)
240
12
Dark-brown tresses, oxidized 4 times (6%)
360
13
Dark-brown tresses, oxidized 5 times (6%)
410
14
Dark-brown tresses, oxidized 3 times (9%)
430
15
Dark-brown tresses, oxidized 6 times (6%)
470
16
Dark-brown tresses, oxidized 7 times (6%)
530
The samples of hair roots from the pigtails studied showed the lowest degree of damage. The weathered dark-brown and blond hair tips were only insignificantly more damaged (TE/F=60) than the dark-brown tresses of type-3 hair (TE/F=50) which served as a control for the treated hair samples. The hair that had received permanent wave treatment showed less damage compared to the oxidized hair. Thus, hair subjected to three permanent wave treatments (No. 9) showed about the same damage as twice-oxidized hair (No. 10). A marked difference was noted between more strongly bleached hair (9% H 2 O 2 ) and less strongly bleached hair (6% H 2 O 2 ), both oxidized three times (TE/F=430 vs. 240).
Example 14
Optimization of Proteolytic Decomposition
In contrast to the foregoing examples, hair samples were cut to a 0.3-cm length and treated with 500 μL (108 U) of papain. Unoxidized, once-oxidized and 3 times-oxidized hair samples were used. The oxidations were carried out as in Example 1. The test and reaction conditions were otherwise the same as in Example 7. FIG. 6 shows the results obtained. By increasing the papain content to 108 U per test and by reducing the hair length from 1.0 and 0.5 cm to 0.3 cm, the proteolytic degradation was accelerated even further, so that hair damage could be differentiated after as little as 10 minutes.
Example 15
Direct, Continuous Measurement of Turbidity Caused by Proteolysis of Oxidized Hair Samples
5.0 mg each of unoxidized, once and 3 times oxidized, 0.1 -long hair was suspended in a total volume of 3.0 mL of 50 mM sodium phosphate buffer, pH 6.2, in a 10-mm glass cuvette. 10.0 mg/mL of DTE (Sigma, Deisenhofen) was added to activate the protease and reduce the disulfide bridges of the hair. After the reaction temperature of 50° C. was reached, 100 μL (21.2 U) of a papain suspension (10 mg/mL) was added, and the turbidity was determined directly and continuously with the photometer described in Example 5. The reaction and the continuous measurement were performed with constant stirring (1-mm auger, 1000 rpm). FIG. 7 shows the curves obtained for the hair samples examined.
After less than 10 min, the individual hair samples could definitely be differentiated.
Example 16
Reproducibility of Turbidity Measurements
The reproducibility of the turbidity measurements was checked under identical conditions using two preparations each of unoxidized and 3 times-oxidized hair samples (as in Example 1). The procedure was the same as in Example 7. Only the average value of the duplicate determinations was plotted. The result indicates that the error for a duplicate determination is <5%.
Example 17
Effect of the Reducing Agent on Turbidity Behavior in the Proteolytic Decomposition of Hair Samples
Reducing agents, for example sulfites and L-cysteine, were used to activate the protease papain. Sulfites and L-cysteine penetrate the hair by diffusion and reduce the disulfide bridges. In the presence of L-cysteine and sulfites, the sodium alkylthiosulfate (“Bunte salt”) is formed (CLARK, H. T., J. Biol. Chem. 97: 235, 1932). Whether this change in the tertiary structure has an effect on or accelerates the proteolytic degradation of hair was tested. To this end, to each preparation of unoxidized and 3 times-oxidized hair (50.0 mg each, 0.5-cm-long) [we added] the amounts of sulfite used in the examples (7.0 mg/mL of sodium metabisulfite, Na 2 S 2 O 5 , 3.0 mg/mL of sodium sulfite, NaSO 3 ) were added together with L-cysteine (0.74 mg/mL)(Solution A). Alternatively, the sulfite was omitted and only L-cysteine was added at a concentration of 10.68 mg/mL) (Solution B). The reaction volume (liquid), the amounts of papain and sodium phosphate buffer (pH 6.5), the temperature and stirrer speed were the same as in Example 7.
We found that the preparations with sulfites (Solution A) and without sulfites (Solution B) differed only insignificantly.
Examples 18-77
Different Enzymatic/Chemical Treatments of Hair Samples with Papain
The proteolytic decomposition of hair samples according to the following examples was carried out in a total volume (liquid) of 3.0 mL. The hair treatments (oxidations, permanent wave treatments, weathering) were carried out as in Examples 1, 2 and 3. The decompositions were carried out by the method of Example 6 and Example 7.
Hair
Hair
Papain
Reducing
Example
Sample
Treatment
Temp.
pH
(U)
Agent
Remarks
18
2.0 mg,
3-times
45° C.
6.5
21.6
0.74 mg/ml Cys,
V (1)
1.0 mm
oxidized
7 mg/ml Na2SO5,
3 mg Na2SO3
19
5.0 mg,
3-times
45° C.
6.5
21.6
0.74 mg/ml Cys,
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
7 mg/ml Na2S2O5,
3 mg Na2SO3
20
5.0 mg,
3-times
45° C.
6.5
21.6
10 mg/ml DTT
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
21
5.0 mg,
not
45° C.
6.5
21.6
10 mg/ml DTT
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
22
5.0 mg,
3-times
45° C.
6.5
21.6
10 mg/ml DTT
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W) (2)
23
5.0 mg,
3-times
45° C.
8.0
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
24
20 mg,
3-times
45° C.
8.0
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
25
10 mg,
3-times
45° C.
6.5
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
26
5.0 mg,
3-times
45° C.
6.5
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
oxldized
(W)
27
5.0 mg,
3-times
45° C.
7.0
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
28
5.0 mg,
3-times
45° C.
7.0
21.6
10 mg/ml DTT
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
29
5.0 mg,
3-times
45° C.
6.0
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
30
5.0 mg,
3-times
45° C.
6.2
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
31
5.0 mg,
3-times
45° C.
6.2
43.2
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
32
5.0 mg,
3-times
50° C.
6.2
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
33
5.0 mg,
3-times
50° C.
6.2
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
23.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
34
15 hairs
3-times
50° C.
6.2
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
(2.0 mg)
oxidized
46.0 mm
(W)
35
15 hairs
not
50° C.
6.2
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
(2.0 mg)
oxidized
46.0 mm
(W)
36
100
3-times
50° C.
6.2
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
hairs
oxidized
(14 mg)
46.0 mm
(W)
37
100
not
50° C.
6.2
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
hairs
oxidized
(14 mg)
46.0 mm
(W)
38
5.0 mg,
3-times
50° C.
6.2
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
10.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
39
5.0 mg,
once
50° C.
6.2
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
40
5.0 mg,
twice
50° C.
6.2
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
41
5.0 mg,
3-times
50° C.
6.2
10.8
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
42
5.0 mg,
weathered,
50° C.
6.2
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
hair roots
43
5.0 mg,
weathered,
50° C.
6.2
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
hair tips
44
5.0 mg,
3-times
50° C.
7.0
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
45
5.0 mg,
3-times
50° C.
7.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
46
5.0 mg,
3-times
50° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
47
5.0 mg,
not
50° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
48
5.0 mg,
once
50° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
49
5.0 mg,
twice
50° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
50
5.0 mg,
3-times
50° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
51
5.0 mg,
not
50° C.
5.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
52
5.0 mg,
once
50° C.
5.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
53
5.0 mg,
3-times
50° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
54
5.0 mg,
not
35° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
55
5.0 mg,
once
35° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
56
5.0 mg,
3-times
35° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
57
5.0 mg,
3-times
50° C.
6.5
21.6
2.5 ml Phosphat
S (3)
1.0 mm
oxidized
pH 6.5; 0.5 ml 120
(W)
mg/ml Cystein
58
5.0 mg,
once
50° C.
6.5
21.6
2.5 ml Phosphat
S
1.0 mm
oxidized
pH 6.5; 0.5 ml 120
mg/ml Cystein
59
5.0 mg,
not
50° C.
6.5
21.6
2.5 ml Phosphat
S
1.0 mm
oxidized
pH 6.5: 0.5 ml 120
(W)
mg/ml Cystein
60
5.0 mg,
once
40° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
61
5.0 mg,
3-times
40° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
62
5.0 mg,
once
40° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein +
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
20% EtOH
(W)
63
5.0 mg,
3-times
40° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein +
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
20% EtOH
(W)
64
5.0 mg,
once
40° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein +
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
10% EtOH
(W)
65
5.0 mg,
3-times
40° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein +
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
10% EtOH
(W)
66
5.0 mg,
once
40° C.
6.5
21.6
10 mg/ml Cystein +
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
20% EtOH
(W)
67
5.0 mg,
3-times
40° C.
6.5
21.6
10 mg/ml Cystein +
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
20% EtOH
(W)
68
5.0 mg,
3-times
40° C.
6.5
21.6
0.74 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
7.0 mg/ml Na 2 S 2 O 5
(W)
3.0 mg/ml Na 2 SO 3
69
5.0 mg,
3-times
40° C.
6.5
21.6
10.74 mg/ml
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
Cystein
(W)
70
5.0 mg,
3-times
40° C.
6.5
21.6
10 mg/ml Cystein
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
7.0 mg/ml Na 2 S 2 O 5
(W)
3.0 mg/ml Na 2 SO 3
71
5.0 mg,
not
50° C.
6.5
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
oxidized
(W)
72
5.0 mg,
weathered,
50° C.
6.5
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
hair tips
73
5.0 mg,
weathered,
50° C.
7.0
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
hair roots
74
5.0 mg,
weathered,
50° C.
6.5
21.6
10 mg/ml DTE
V
1.0 mm
hair roots
75
5.0 mg,
6 × DW
50° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
(W)
1.0 mm
76
5.0 mg,
3 × DW
50° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
(W)
1.0 mm
77
5.0 mg,
1 × DW
50° C.
6.5
21.6
20 mg/ml Cystein
V
(W)
1.0 mm
(1) V = 5-min preincubation, then papain;
(2) W = hair washed with 1% SDS as in Example 6;
(3) S = 5-min preincubation, then simultaneous addition of cysteine and papain;
(4) DW = permanent wave treatment as in Example 2.
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The method for recognizing damage and determining the extent of the damage to a keratin-containing material, such as hair or wool, includes subjecting a sample of it in aqueous solution to an enzymatic and/or chemical treatment for proteolytic or hydrolytic degradation of the sample, and subsequently measuring the turbidity of the resulting liquid sample to determine the extent of the damage, either by visual observation with the naked eye or by physical measurement methods. An apparatus suitable for performing the method and enzymes, such as proteases and proteinases, and chemical agents for carrying out the method are also described.
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[0001] This application is based upon and claims priority from Provisional Application No. 61/555,990, filed Nov. 4, 2011, incorporated by reference herein.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] This invention is directed towards an apparatus and method for simultaneously setting the attack angle of a number of aerodynamic surfaces such as fins on a throwing toy. The ability to adjust the angle of attack of such fins greatly affects the performance of such throwing toy and also provides additional play value and marketability.
[0003] It is known that the performance of a throwing toy is significantly affected by being spun along its travelling axis when it is thrown, much like a football that is thrown with a spiral. It is also known that most people find it difficult to throw a consistent spiral. It is also known that the direction of the rotation is different when thrown by left handed throwers verses right handed throwers, so that it would be desirable to provide a throwing toy that will spiral consistently when thrown with a direction and degree of rotation that can be adjusted as desired.
[0004] One conventional game ball having a shape generally similar to an American football is known that has individually adjustable fins provided on the outside of the ball. However, the individually adjustable fins can be difficult to adjust together to have a common angle of attack with respect to a rotational axis of the game ball to have a consistent spiral.
[0005] It would be desirable to provide a throwing toy that can be adjusted to have a consistent spiral about a rotational axis to suit the needs and handedness of the thrower. It would also be desirable to provide such a throwing toy with a timer for monitoring and displaying flight time of the throwing toy when it is thrown. The present invention addresses these and other needs.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0006] Briefly, and in general terms, the present invention provides for a throwing toy having a leading end, a trailing end, and a longitudinal throwing axis extending along a length of the throwing toy from the leading end to the trailing end of the throwing toy. The throwing toy includes a main body having an elongated, ellipsoidal shape, a leading end and a trailing end, and a fin mounting portion integrally connected to the trailing end of the main body. In a presently preferred aspect, the fin mounting portion is a generally tubular tail portion. The fin mounting portion includes a plurality of fins mounted on the fin mounting portion of the throwing toy, each of the fins having a leading edge, a trailing edge, and a common aerodynamic angle of attack relative to the longitudinal axis. The fins are connected to the fin mounting portion and are configured for rotation of at least one of the leading edge and trailing edge relative to the other of the leading edge and trailing edge.
[0007] In a presently preferred aspect, the fins are configured to be rotated simultaneously together to present a plurality of aerodynamic surfaces oriented with the same aerodynamic angle of attack, to cause the toy to rotate about the longitudinal throwing axis when the throwing toy is thrown. The fins can be rotated and set together at a desired aerodynamic angle of attack relative to the longitudinal throwing axis between maximum angles of attack on either side of the longitudinal throwing axis, such as to be rotated at an angle on either side of the longitudinal throwing axis, or to be oriented parallel to the throwing axis, and, for example.
[0008] In one presently preferred embodiment, the leading edges of the fins are connected to a common rotatable member, such as a rotatable adjustment ring, for example, that is rotatably connected to the main body, and that in one preferred aspect can extend radially outwardly from the fin mounting portion. In a presently preferred aspect, each of the fins includes a flange or extension extending from the leading edge of the fin that protrudes through a corresponding one of a plurality of holes provided in the rotatable adjustment ring. When the adjustment ring is rotated about the longitudinal throwing axis of the throwing toy, the flanges or extensions protruding into the adjustment ring are caused to correspondingly be rotated and set the angle of all the fins to a new angle of attack, so that when one fin is adjusted all fins are adjusted simultaneously. In another presently preferred aspect, at least a portion of each fin rotates relative to a pivot point on the fin located rearwardly of the flange or extension.
[0009] In another presently preferred aspect, an axial tubular bore is defined within the main body and fin mounting portion of the throwing toy, and extends along the longitudinal throwing axis through the throwing toy from the leading end of the main body of the throwing toy to the trailing end of the fin mounting portion of the throwing toy.
[0010] In another presently preferred aspect, an internal electronic timer and timer display are disposed in the main body of the throwing toy for measuring, recording and/or displaying the time the throwing toy is in the air after it is thrown and before it is caught or flight is otherwise terminated, such as by hitting the ground. The electronic timer is started when the throwing toy leaves a thrower's hand, and is stopped by sensing the impact when the throwing toy is caught or hits the ground. In a presently preferred embodiment of the invention, the time of flight may be saved as a metric to be compared to other players or one's own performance.
[0011] The mechanism for simultaneously setting the angle of the fins allows for a quicker operation of the adjustments for the toy, making play more enjoyable, provides improved accuracy in setting all fins to the same angle for optimum performance, and provides a valuable feature that can be demonstrated in the package, thus providing a strong marketing element. An electronic timer of the throwing toy of the invention for measuring the time the ball is in the air after it is thrown and before it is caught or flight is otherwise terminated also provides improved play value of the throwing toy by providing a metric of performance by a single player that is read out on the toy itself.
[0012] The throwing toy of the invention also provides the additional benefits for individual play and improvement, in allowing one or more users to have a play pattern where a player can play individually or with a group of players in a meaningful manner, as they can attempt to improve on their measured performance, and in providing a way of positively measuring and demonstrating the remarkable performance of the throwing toy of the invention.
[0013] Other features and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, which illustrate, by way of example, the operation of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0014] FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a throwing toy of the present invention.
[0015] FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the throwing toy of FIG. 1 .
[0016] FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of the throwing toy similar to FIG. 2 , showing the throwing toy in a rotated position.
[0017] FIG. 4 is a rear view of the throwing toy of FIG. 1 .
[0018] FIG. 5 is an enlarged diagrammatic side elevational view of the throwing toy of FIG. 1 .
[0019] FIG. 6 is an enlarged diagrammatic partial side sectional view of the throwing toy of FIG. 1 .
[0020] FIG. 7 is a side elevational view of the throwing toy of FIG. 1 , illustrating a first aerodynamic angle of attack of the fins in a first rotational position of the rotatable adjustment ring.
[0021] FIG. 8 is a side elevational view of the throwing toy similar to FIG. 7 , illustrating a second aerodynamic angle of attack of the fins in a second rotational position of the rotatable adjustment ring.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0022] With reference to the drawings, which are provided by way of example, for purposes of illustration, and not by way of limitation, the present invention provides for a throwing toy 10 having a leading end 12 , a trailing end 14 , and a longitudinal throwing axis 16 extending along a length of the throwing toy from the leading end to the trailing end of the throwing toy. The throwing toy includes a main body 18 having an elongated, ellipsoidal shape, a leading end 20 and a trailing end 22 , and a fin mounting portion 24 integrally connected to the trailing end of the main body. In a presently preferred aspect, the fin mounting portion is a generally tubular tail portion. The fin mounting portion includes a plurality of fins 26 mounted on the fin mounting portion of the throwing toy, each of the fins having a leading edge 28 , a trailing edge 30 , and a common aerodynamic angle of attack relative to the longitudinal axis. The fins are connected to the fin mounting portion and are configured for rotation of at least one of the leading edge and trailing edge relative to the other of the leading edge and trailing edge. The fins typically are formed of generally planar pieces of polymeric material or other similar suitable pliable material, and are typically adhered along at least a portion of an inner edge 31 of the fins to the outer surface of the generally tubular tail portion at the trailing end of the throwing toy, such as in slots or fin trays 32 , for example.
[0023] In a presently preferred aspect, the fins are configured to be rotated simultaneously together to present a plurality of aerodynamic surfaces oriented with the same aerodynamic angle of attack, to cause the toy to rotate about the longitudinal throwing axis when the throwing toy is thrown. The fins can be rotated and set together at a desired angle of attack relative to the longitudinal throwing axis between maximum angles of attack on either side of the longitudinal throwing axis, such as to be in line with the throwing axis and to rotate at an angle on either side of this axis, for example.
[0024] In one presently preferred embodiment, the leading edges of the fins are connected to a common rotatable member 33 , such as a rotatable adjustment ring, for example, that is rotatably connected to the main body, and which in one preferred aspect can extend radially outwardly from the fin mounting portion. The common rotatable member is typically rotatably connected to the main body by a ratchet mechanism, such as a plurality of detents, for example, allowing the common rotatable member to be rotated and set in a desired position relative to the main body and fin mounting portion. Alternatively, the common rotatable member can be similarly rotatably connected to the fin mounting portion to be rotated and set in a desired position relative to the main body and fin mounting portion. In a presently preferred aspect, each of the fins includes a flange or extension 34 , best seen in FIGS. 6 , 7 and 8 , extending from the leading edge of the fin that protrudes through a corresponding one of a plurality of holes 36 , shown in FIG. 6 , provided in the rotatable adjustment ring, so that each fin rotates about a medial pivot point 38 on the fin located rearwardly of the flange or extension. When the adjustment ring is rotated about the longitudinal throwing axis of the throwing toy, the flanges or extensions protruding into the adjustment ring are caused to correspondingly be rotated and set the angle of all the fins to a new angle of attack, so that when one fin is adjusted all fins are adjusted simultaneously.
[0025] Alternatively, the fins can be mounted to the fin mounting portion of the throwing toy by pivot pins extending into the fin mounting portion at medial pivot points, and a mechanism can be provided that connects the pivot pins 39 of each fin with gears, a filament, or the like, so that when one pivot pin is rotated all pivot pins rotate, causing the fins to rotate together. In a presently preferred aspect, a simple locking mechanism such as a lockable tab or detent may additionally be provided on an adjustment ring to prevent movement from a setting until the thrower so desires.
[0026] In another presently preferred aspect, an axial tubular bore 40 , shown in FIGS. 4 and 6 , is defined within the main body and fin mounting portion of the throwing toy, and extends along the longitudinal throwing axis through the throwing toy from the leading end of the main body of the throwing toy to the trailing end of the fin mounting portion of the throwing toy.
[0027] In another presently preferred aspect, the throwing toy includes an internal electronic timer and timer display 42 disposed in the main body of the throwing toy for measuring, recording and/or displaying the time the throwing toy is in the air, the “hang time” after it is thrown and before it is caught or flight is otherwise terminated, such as by hitting the ground. The electronic timer is started when the throwing toy leaves a thrower's hand, and is stopped by sensing the impact when the throwing toy is caught or hits the ground. A device such as a weight on a spring can be used to sense the acceleration when thrown and the deceleration on being caught or hitting the ground. The number displayed can be a multiple of the seconds recorded to make the differential times more determinable and make the numerical impact more dramatic for an individual user who is using the timer and adjustable fins to improve his or her performance.
[0028] There are numerous configurations of apparatus within the scope of the invention to adjust the angle of the fins simultaneously including, but not limited to connecting either end of the fins to a common structure or element so that when one fin is adjusted all fins are adjusted, and a mechanism that connects the pivot point of each fin with gears, filament, and the like, so that when one pivot is rotated all pivots rotate.
[0029] The invention may be embodied in other forms without departure from the benefits and characteristics described. The embodiments described therefore are to be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive. Although the present invention has been described in terms of certain preferred embodiments, other embodiments that are apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art are also within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, it is not intended that the invention be limited, except as by the appended claims.
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Apparatus and method of adjusting the angle of attack to the longitudinal axis of a plurality of aerodynamic surfaces on a high performance throwing toy which affect the performance of such toy and to also provide a means of measuring such performance by recording the time the toy is airborne during flight.
| 0
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This application is a division of application Ser. No. 07/724,797 filed Jul. 2, 1991 which is now U.S. Pat. No. 5,263,806.
This invention relates to an apparatus and method for taking heavy and large quantities of material such as the overburden of strip mines and conveying into a truck or other transportation receiver to remove the material.
One of the most common arrangements for moving large quantities of heavy material such as the overburden for strip mines, earth from excavations for dams and highways, and other similar material movement is to load large trucks by means of a front end loader or the use of large electric or hydraulic shovels.
The present invention is an improved arrangement where an apparatus is used that is mounted on a mobile base that has a feed station into which a bulldozer can push its entire load or several loads and the feed station oscillates to feed the load onto an inclined conveyor which elevates the heavy and large quantities of material, which can include large boulders, to dump into a rock truck to be hauled to a remote location. The inclined conveyor has a continuous conveyor that is transversely rigid to convey the material upward. The inclined conveyor forms the bottom of a trough having outwardly inclined sidewalls. The edge of the conveyor is under the sidewalls which have removable wear plates and the sidewalls diverge slightly as the material is conveyed upward which helps decrease the power needed to drive the unit.
The conveyor is made of a series of overlapping rigid plates which push and carry the material upward but because of their relatively flat profile can slide under the material to help take inertia shock loading as the conveyor is started when fully loaded. As the conveyor turns around the end drive sprockets at the top, the rigid plates in the conveyor separate slightly to permit any debris caught between the overlaps to fall loose.
The feed station includes an oscillating feed plate which moves back and forth under two rigid sidewalls. Moveable bulkheads on each side of the feed station helps gather and feed the material on the feed plate in a manner that causes it to move to a notched opening in the center of the feed plate which overlies the bottom of the conveyor. When a bulldozer pushes a fresh load of material onto the feed plate, the material pushes the moveable bulkheads upward on the feed plate, which is inclined. The bulkheads then return by gravity.
A common practice is to push material with bulldozers down to a front end loader (FEL) to help the FEL achieve full bucket capacity. Using the mobile feeder loader to load rock trucks versus using a front end loader enables the bulldozer to push the material to be loaded directly onto the feeder conveyor itself which loads directly onto the trucks. This avoids such problems as traction of the FEL in wet weather and freezing conditions especially in the wintertime when mud may freeze in the bucket of the loader. In many cases a bulldozer will be working on a grade and the bulldozer utilizes the slope of the grade itself to help push the material to be loaded downhill onto the feeder conveyor. The expectations are that trucks may be loaded in approximately twenty seconds, but certainly less than one minute, versus a normal four pass loading with front end loaders that have a probable cycle time of three to three and one-half minutes to load the truck. Using the present invention, trucks effectively get in, get loaded and get back on the way which is what the truck is built to do.
The feeder conveyor would normally be used for moving overburden in strip mining. First, the topsoil is removed to a location where it can be returned to provide for topsoil to reclaim the site when the coal has been removed from the strip mine. Next, the overburden under the topsoil is removed which will also be returned after the coal has been taken from the ground. The overburden usually involves a drilling and blasting operation. In the eastern coal fields the coal seams to be mined are on the order of 20 inches to 50 inches thick as the thicker seams have usually already been strip mined. The overburden may be in a ratio of 12 to 17, meaning that 12 to 17 cubic yards of overburden must be removed for each cubic yard of coal available. The invention is especially usable under these circumstances but is also usable in other applications where larger volumes of material must be moved, such as a dam project or a road project cutting through a mountain and similar applications.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
In this description, including the accompanying drawing, there is shown and described a preferred embodiment of the invention. It is to be understood that changes and modifications can be made in the preferred embodiment within the scope of the invention and that others skilled in the art will be able to modify it and embody it in a variety of forms, each as may be suited in the conditions of a particular case.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
FIG. 1 is a side elevational schematic view of the invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic plan view of the invention;
FIG. 3 is a broken away, partial plan view of part of the lower right corner of the invention showing the drive arrangement for the oscillation feeder plate which is shown in dotted lines;
FIG. 4 is a schematic side view of one of the moveable bulkheads in its lower and upper position;
FIG. 5 is a cutaway schematic view of the conveyor;
FIG. 6 is a schematic view of the conveyor as it turns on its drive sprocket; and
FIG. 7. is a schematic plan view showing the take-up mechanism for the conveyor.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
With reference to FIG. 1, there is shown an overall side view of the mobile feeder loader 10 of the present invention. These machines are very large with the preferred embodiment shown in FIG. 1 being approximately 50 feet long and having a width of approximately 22 feet at 45 inches of height.
The feeder loader 10 has a self-propelled mobile base 12 which preferably comprises a propelling mechanism such as two track crawlers which are hydraulically driven. These crawlers are available from a number of manufacturers with the one on the preferred embodiment being a Komatsu PC400 LC3 crawler side frame, distributed in the United States by Komatsu of Atlanta, Ga. The crawler side frames 14 are spaced apart and supported by a car body on which is mounted an engine 16 and generator 18. Also mounted on the car body is an electric driven hydraulic motor and pump with tank 20. The width of the crawler with the two side frames and the car body is approximately 17 feet and the length is approximately 161/2 feet. The engine 16 drives the generator 18. Electric motors drive the hydraulic pump for the crawler propelling mechanism and the oscillation feeder plate.
Two upper side frames are mounted on the car body for supporting the conveyor. Each upper side frame consists of two sets of I-beams pinned together. The longer I-beam 22 is pinned to the car body at 30 and pinned at the top to the conveyor at 26. The shorter I-beam 28 is pinned at the lower end of the longer I-beam 22 at 24 and pinned at the top to the conveyor at point 32 which is approximately midway of the length of the conveyor. The longer and shorter I-beam form an L with the feeder conveyor and operate as a unitary member permitting the feeder conveyor to pivot about the car body at pin 30. The amount of pivot is controlled by an adjustable hydraulic cylinder 34 which causes the feeder conveyor to pivot about pin 30. The long I-beam 22 is approximately 16 feet long and the short I-beam 28 is approximately 9 feet long.
The mobile feeder loader 10 has a feeder portion at its lower end which feeds the material onto an inclined conveyor which elevates the material to sufficient height so that it may fall off the end of the conveyor into a truck or other receiver 36. The receiver could be another conveyor or other type of receiver but normally would be an end dump or rock truck. These trucks are usually huge and normally 50 to 100 tons but may vary from 35 tons to 220 tons and may even be smaller or larger than this range. The flexibility of the present invention permits a variety of receivers to be loaded having different capacities as no matter what the capacity they can be optimally loaded. The previous arrangement would require an attempt to size the front end loader, electric shovels or hydraulic shovels to the size of the truck and such arrangements were relatively inflexible.
With reference to FIG. 1, the feeder part of the feeder loader is located at the lower most left portion. First is a lip 38 which rests on the ground during normal operation with an inclined forward most face 40 which rises approximately 45 inches tall. Just to the right of the inclined face 40 is a feeder plate 42 which oscillates transversely approximately 12 inches. The oscillation is done by hydraulic cylinders 44 mounted underneath the plate. The cylinders are two way and automatically reverse at the end of the one foot stroke. Four cylinders are utilized, two on each side to reduce the height. The feeder plate 42 is carried on four rails 46 which are welded upside down to the underside of the plate and roll on stationery complementary wheels which are preferably TD25E double flange rollers 48 available from Dresser Industries in Libertyville, Ill. The hydraulic cylinders 44, rails 46 and rollers 48 are better seen in FIG. 3.
With further reference to FIG. 1, there are two feeder sides 50 at each end of the feeder plate 42 under which it oscillates as will be explained more fully infra. There are also two moveable bulkheads 52 to assist in moving the material to be conveyed onto the conveyor. Also, as seen in FIG. 1, the feeder plate 42 is relatively flat and is inclined upward.
The conveyor portion of the apparatus is an inclined trough having inclined conveyor sides 54 with a conveyor at the bottom of the trough carried by chain links 56 on top of rollers 58. For simplicity, only three of the many rollers 58 are shown in FIG. 1. The rollers are available from a number of sources, but the ones preferred are the rollers used on the Caterpillar D7 tractor available from Caterpillar Corporation in Peoria, Ill. The chain links are the same as used on the tracks of the same tractor. At the bottom of each conveyor side 54 are replaceable wear plates 60.
The conveyor is partially supported by a number of beams or frames 62 spaced along the side and bottom thereof.
The chain links 56 form a continuous path around drive sprocket 64 and idler sprocket 66. The drive sprocket 64 is driven by a chain 68 which in turn is driven by a gear box and clutch 70. The gear box is a Sumitoma gear box of 380 horsepower rating available from Sumitoma in Houston, Tex. The clutch is an air operated clutch available from Horton Manufacturing Co., Inc. located in Minneapolis, Minn.
The starting and stopping of the conveyor is achieved through the clutch and it is necessary to have a soft start up since there is a large inherent weight inertia associated with the weight of the material on the conveyor. This arrangement for starting and stopping of the conveyor permits the conveyor and feeder unit to, in effect, store a large amount of the material to be conveyed so that the truck, or other receiver, can be optimally loaded without delay when ready to receive a full load. Thus the amount of material present on the feeder plate and on the conveyor stores sufficient material or accumulates sufficient material so that it functions as a surge pile or accumulator usually sufficient to fill a truck without any delay once the truck is positioned under the end the conveyor. The gear drive and clutch 70 are driven by an 150 horsepower AC electric motor 72 available from Weg, Rochester, N.Y. There is a duplicate of the electric motor 72 and gear drive and clutch 70 on the opposite side of the conveyor.
The control of the mobile feeder loader 10 and especially the starting and stopping of the feeding and conveying of the material into the truck 36 is under the control of an operator in the cab 74. The cab is mounted above the top of the conveyor and gives excellent visibility for controlling the mobile feeder loader. The cab is accessible by a ladder 76 from a catwalk (not shown) on the side of the conveyor. An auxiliary or lower cab 75 is provided for moving the feeder loader's position from one location to another. The location of this cab on the mobile base 12 avoids the need for rollover protection for cab 74 since that cab would not normally be used by the operator for repositioning of locations.
As seen on the left of FIG. 1, a bulldozer blade 78 pushes the material 80 up the inclined face 40 of the lip 38 and onto the inclined feeder plate 42. The width of the feeder is slightly greater than the width of the blade of the bulldozer. The material spills over the top part of the inclined face 40 onto the feeder plate 42 and, when desired, the 45 inch height of material on the front of the inclined face can be also pushed onto the feeder plate by the dozer raising its blade up the inclined face 40 as it is pushing the material onto the feeder plate.
The dozer would normally push somewhere between 20 and 40 yards, depending upon the size of the dozer, onto the feeder area which has the capability of storing 80 to 90 yards. Thus, the feeder area can accumulate anywhere from two of the very largest loads of the largest dozers pushed thereon to four or four and one-half loads of some of the smaller dozers. Thus, the dozer can work continuously. Normally the dozer would have no trouble in pushing 100% of its rated load since it would often be pushing downhill on grades that at times are quite steep. Meanwhile, the trucks on the other end of the feeder loader can be loaded in optimum loading in optimum time. The "gate" or the "bridge" between these functions which is provided by the mobile feeder loader of the present invention to keep both the dozers and trucks moving potentially at their ultimate efficiency with the conveyor starting and stopping between each truck load. Normally two dozers would be used to push material onto the feeder loader alternatively with one another at any given time. The angle of the feeder plate 42 and the conveyor is approximately 1 feet of rise for each 2 feet of horizontal length.
With reference to FIG. 2, there is shown a plan view of the feeder loader in schematic form. The inclined face 40 dumps onto the feeder plate 42 which oscillates transversely under the two feeder sides 50. The figure is somewhat of an optical illusion because of the various angles with this type of view but each side can be viewed as angled outwardly with the shade lines in the figure being parallel to the conveyor. Meanwhile, each moveable bulkhead 52 slide above the feeder plate 42 and is divided into a lower section 82 which is of a smaller angle to the feeder plate than the upper section 84 which has a steeper angle as can be seen in FIGS. 1 and 4. The removable bulkhead are supported on the underside of each bulkhead by two I-beams 86 which serve as rails that ride on two rollers 88 for each I-beam. This is best seen in the schematic side view of FIG. 4 where the moveable bulkhead is shown in solid lines in its most downward position and in dotted lines in its most upward position. The I-beams and rollers are not shown in plan view but are located just above the feeder plate 42 shown in dotted lines in FIG. 3.
As the dozer blade pushes material into the feeder area the material pushes against the moveable bulkheads which ride on the rails up the rollers to their upward position. As material is fed from the feeder plate into the conveyor, the moveable bulkheads 52 move by gravity from their upper dotted line position of FIG. 4 down the rollers 88 to their lower position. The clearance between the bottom of the moveable bulkhead 52 and the feeder plate 42 may be from 11/2 inches to actually rubbing. The moveable bulkhead permits substantially the entire feeder plate to be cleared of material which is especially important as cutting down on the cleanup time involved at the end of a shift especially when there is only one shift.
As is seen in FIG. 2, the feeder plate 42 has a notch 90 located over the conveyor 92. The notch runs 83% of the full height of the feeder plate and has a width at its top slightly less than the conveyor width 92 present in the trough of the conveyor. The width of the notch in its lower position narrows down to slightly less than the upper width. The feeder plate oscillates transversely or to the left and right of FIG. 2 approximately 12 inches from the solid line position to the dotted line position and back. These oscillations are at the rate of about 10 full cycles per minute. The transverse oscillation of the feeder plate 42 causes the notch opening to shift back and forth over the conveyor dropping the material from the plate through the notch onto the conveyor. As can be appreciated, when the feeder plate moves to the left and slides from underneath the right sidewall 50, the space left between the sidewall and the material will fill in so as the feeder plate moves back to the right the material that is filled in causes the material on the feeder plate to be pushed left and into the notch. The same would occur on the left side. Meanwhile, as material is being removed from the feeder plate, the moveable bulkheads 52 move downward under gravity to a lower position to assist in gathering and pushing the load of material on the feeder plate down to the lower position so that it can be more readily moved to the center notch for dropping onto the conveyor.
The support for the feeder plate 42 can be seen in FIG. 3 where the plate is shown in dotted lines that move under both the sidewall 50, or feeder sides 50, and the moveable bulkhead 52. The feeder plate is a steel plate approximately 1 inch thick and rests on the rails 46 which are supported by the rollers 48 and driven to oscillate back and forth by the feeder plate hydraulic cylinders 44.
With reference to FIG. 2 and FIG. 5, the conveyor 92 has two parallel sets of chain links 56 carried by rollers 58 that support the entire length of chain links 56 as described earlier. For simplicity, only three of rollers 58 are shown in FIG. 1. These two parallel chain link groups are bridged transversely by rigid steel flights 94. These steel flights overlap longitudinally with one another as seen in schematic FIG. 6. They are fastened by bolts so that they can be removed for replacement in the event of repair. These flights are not flexible in a transverse direction but are very rigid and uniquely permit the carrying of large, heavy materials such as boulders, ore, overburden and the like. The flights 94 extend under the bottom edge of the bottom replaceable wear plates 60.
The spacing between the conveyor sides 54 at the bottom in the vicinity of the wear plates varies from 72 inches at the lower end to 78 inches at the widest upper end. This is an important feature to improve the economics of the operation of the conveyor and keeps the material from crowding together as it is conveyed upward under normal operations. The material being by the conveyor may be on the order of 31/2 feet deep so that there is a substantial amount of the material in contact with the sidewalls which causes wear of the sidewalls, especially in the vicinity of the replaceable wear plates 60. This is unlike some conveyors where the material is primarily just in the center and is loaded in a manner to be kept from the sides.
The feeder loader 10 usually has the conveyor run at a speed slightly faster than the material that is laid on so that there is no jamming.
The flights 94 are 78 inches wide, 3/4 inch thick and 91/2 inches in length with a 1 inch overlap between adjacent flights. The flights each have an upper surface, a forward edge 96 and a rearward edge. Preferably, the upper surface is flat. There is approximately a 3/4 inch space between the flights at the overlap which opens up to a maximum opening as the flights go around the end of the conveyor as shown in FIG. 6. The normal design speed is 176 feet per minute for the conveyor which is rapidly achieved from a dead stop with the flights slipping under the load partially to help take up the inertia and prevent shock loading. This occurs because the conveyor is relatively flat and if a huge rock is being conveyed, the likelihood of a single flight taking the full load from such a massive member is reduced by the low heights. The flight edge 96 moves in the direction of the material being conveyed and helps to grip the material being conveyed. When the flights open up as they pass over the end of the conveyor, material caught between the flights will be dropped loose.
With reference to FIG. 7 there is shown the schematic breakaway plan view of the takeup mechanism 97 for taking up slack in the main conveyor. It consists of a sliding plate 98 which carries 2 idler wheels 66. The sliding plate slides along the frame. The conveyor and chain links have a tendency to pull the idle sprocket 66 and sliding plate 98 to the right. To pick up the slack in the conveyor and chain links, the sliding plate 98 is pushed to the left and held in position by spacers 100 which positively lock the plate 98 in position. The spacers 100 have a central shaft between transverse member 102 and the sliding plate 98. This shaft is free to slide into sliding plate 98 and is adapted to receive a number of horseshoe spacers each 1/2 inch by 3 inches. A hydraulic jack is temporarily placed between the transverse frame member 102 and the sliding frame 98 and sliding plate is jacked to the left until the proper tension is achieved on the conveyor and links. When this is done the proper number of spacers 100 are added to the spacer shaft so when the hydraulic jacks are removed the sliding plate places the spacers in compression which retain the plate in its proper position. Also carried by the plate are two rollers 104 which help support the conveyor chain links.
With reference to FIGS. 1 and 5 there is shown a support belt 105 for carrying the conveyor 92 and rigid steel flights 94 on the return or under side. The support belt is a standard flexible reinforced endless belt that is slightly less than the width of the rigid steel flights 94. As seen in FIG. 1, support belt 105 is looped over idler rolls 112 and 114 at each end of the support belt. The upper supporting side of the support belt is supported by transverse I-beams 109 which in turn support longitudinal beams 108 which run lengthwise under the loaded support belt 105. The longitudinal beams 108 have stainless steel wear strips on the top surface for the loaded support belt 105 to slide over. The return side 106 of support belt 105 is supported from sagging by riding over a number of transverse carrier members 110 which have on their top surface stainless steel wear strips 107. The top surface of support belt 105 is thus held against the return side of conveyor 92 and rigid steel flights 94 to support them. The contact friction of support belt 105 with conveyor 92 causes the support belt to be carried along and support the conveyor 92 during its return movement. There is no separate drive for the support belt and the idler rolls 112 and 114 are free to turn and are not powered.
It is to be understood that the following claims are intended to cover all of the generic and specific features of the invention herein described and it is to be understood that this specific embodiment herein shown is not to be construed in the limiting sense but is merely to depict and illustrate the principles of the present invention. Modifications may be devised by those with skill in the art which will not depart from the spirit or scope of protection as set forth in the following claims.
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An apparatus and method for loading overburden and ore into rock trucks that includes pushing the material onto an oscillating feed table that then feeds the material onto an inclined conveyor having an endless belt made of a series of overlapping rigid flights.
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TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The invention relates to a post having a post anchor connected with the post and comprising two end sections, where one section extends into the post and the other section is intended for fastening on or in another element.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] A post anchor of this type is known from the prior art, for example, from DE 36 34 266. In that document, a screw-in threaded rod is adhesively bonded in a corresponding drillhole in a post, a longitudinal groove being provided on the threaded rod so that the glue can accordingly be allowed to enter the drillhole between the threaded rod and the wall of the drillhole.
[0003] Another post anchor is known from DE 199 12 815, in which a threaded spike is provided on a plate which can be placed against the underside of a post, this threaded spike penetrating the post during positioning of the post anchor. Provided on the opposite side of the post anchor is a sleeve with an internal thread so that an anchor bar can be subsequently screwed in outside of the post.
[0004] In all the proposals of the prior art, even when the threaded rods are glued in, there is a problem in terms of the parallelism of the post anchor and post. This means that the post anchor does not usually have its center axis lying exactly parallel to the longitudinal axis of the post. This is an unwanted property of such a system and a disadvantage when assembling such post anchor systems on building sites.
[0005] In practice, the unit consisting of threaded rod and post is therefore not, as in DE 199 12 815, put together once on the building site; instead, this takes place beforehand so that the parallelism can be achieved to the greatest possible degree under industrial production conditions.
[0006] Moreover, the connection of metal anchors in wooden posts usually leaves something to be desired in terms of the force required to extract the anchors, for example.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] Taking this prior art as a starting point, the object on which the invention is based is to provide a post anchor of the type mentioned in the beginning which has better parallelism and in which the fixing is, moreover, better secured against twisting.
[0008] In an embodiment of the present invention a post includes a post anchor connected with the post and includes two end sections, where one section extends into the post and the other section is intended for fastening on or in another element, wherein the post includes a drillhole, wherein one section is a drill bit section, having in a first segment, adjacent to its tip, a smaller drilling core diameter and having in a second segment, arranged nearer to the other section, a larger drilling core diameter, wherein the drillhole has substantially no radial play with the drill bit section for arranging the section introduced in the post in the drillhole in the post in a substantially stress-free manner.
[0009] In another embodiment of the present invention, a post anchor includes two end sections, where one section can be introduced into a post and the other section is intended for fastening on or in another element, wherein the section which can be introduced into the post is a drill bit section for making a drillhole in the post in a substantially stress-free manner, which drillhole has substantially no radial play with the drill bit section, characterized in that the drill bit section has in a first segment, in the longitudinal direction adjacent to its tip, a smaller drilling core diameter and in a second segment, arranged nearer to the other section, a larger drilling core diameter.
[0010] In yet another embodiment of the present invention, a method includes introducing a post anchor into a post, characterized in that it includes the following steps: (a)
[0011] drilling a drillhole in the post with the drill bit section ( 11 ) of the post anchor, (b) introducing adhesive into the drillhole with the drill bit section inserted so as to take up, by filling, any remaining radial play and the axial play of the drill bit section in the drillhole, or, alternatively, withdrawing the drill bit section, introducing adhesive into the drillhole and reinserting the drill bit section into the at least partially adhesive-filled drillhole.
[0012] This object is achieved with a post having a post anchor connected with the post and comprising two end sections, where one section extends into the post and the other section is intended for fastening on or in another element, wherein the post comprises a drillhole, wherein one section is a drill bit section, having in a first segment, adjacent to its tip, a smaller drilling core diameter and having in a second segment, arranged nearer to the other section, a larger drilling core diameter, wherein the drillhole has substantially no radial play with the drill bit section for arranging the section introduced in the post in the drillhole in the post in a substantially stress-free manner.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
[0013] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a post according to an embodiment of the present invention
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0014] The invention will now be described in more detail with the aid of an exemplary embodiment with reference to the drawing. The single drawing shows a partly sectioned perspective view of a post together with an inserted post entrance.
[0015] The reference number 1 is used to denote a post. The post 1 is made of wood and has a square cross section. Of course, the cross section may also be shaped differently, being for example round or elliptical, rectangular or polygonal. The material of the post 1 may also be chosen from another material only if these materials are similar to wood within the context given below. The similarity in question is in particular important for plastic materials.
[0016] Said post 1 has a longitudinal axis whose orientation here is indicated by the arrow 2 running parallel to it. The post 1 can be fastened on a wall or floor surface (not shown in the FIGURE) with the aid of a post anchor (anchor 10 for short) according to the invention. The FIGURE shows one moment during the production of the connection between anchor 10 and post 1 when the anchor 10 has not yet been fully sunk in the post 1 .
[0017] The anchor 10 is preferably constructed in one piece and as such comprises at least two different regions 11 and 12 . The first region 11 is made up of an auger bit, this region 11 being intended to be set into the post 1 . The second region 12 can be designed according to the particular application of the post anchor; in particular it may thus be a threaded rod section. This threaded rod section 12 , either by itself or by way of a further section (not shown in the drawing), can be positively connected to a drive, for example a drilling machine, to enable the auger bit 11 to be driven into the post 1 .
[0018] The FIGURE shows, in dotted form, the outlines of a drillhole 20 in which the auger bit section 11 has already been advanced more than halfway. Instead of using an auger bit which allows chips cut out of the post to be lifted out, use may also be made of any other drill bit which makes possible the production of a stress-free bore, in particular in wood, in which there is no radial play. Radial play here is to be understood as meaning the distance 21 between the outside of the drill bit 11 and the inner wall of the bore 20 .
[0019] The auger bit 11 extracts chips from the drillhole 20 and at the same time creates a certain free space in the axial direction, i.e., along the longitudinal axis 13 of the anchor 10 , into which free space an adhesive can be passed in through the upper opening 22 of the bore 20 once the drill bit section 11 has been fully inserted. Particularly advantageous adhesives are epoxy resin-based adhesives and polyurethanes. Before the adhesive is introduced, the anchor 10 may preferably be rotated back by an eight to a half of a rotation in order to make it easier to pass in the adhesive. Alternatively, it may be completely withdrawn, the adhesive poured in and the drill bit reinserted.
[0020] A drill bit according to the prior art only supports its own weight and forces are solely applied in the longitudinal direction, i.e., along the axis 13 . The post anchor 10 here receives the bearing pressure. This is true for the threaded rod section 12 as well as for the drill bit section 11 . Therefore the drill bit section 11 according to the invention is divided into two different segments, having received the reference numerals 41 and 42 . The two segments are made in one piece. The drill bit section 11 has first drilling core diameter or central core 31 , followed by a central segment 42 of the drill bit 11 , having a second core diameter 32 , being larger than the diameter of the first drilling core diameter 31 .
[0021] In a preferred embodiment the first drilling core diameter 31 is set between one fourth to one half of the external diameter of the drill bit 11 . The second drilling core diameter 32 is set between one half and ⅘ of the external diameter of the drill bit 11 . This creates between the two segments 41 and 42 a discontinuity between the diameters of the drilling cores 31 and 32 , respectively. The ratio between the axial length of the areas 41 and 42 can be, e.g., between 1:4 and 1:1 preferably around 1:2 for achieving a larger stiffness of the post anchor 10 without impeding the extraction of the chips due to a larger core drill diameter.
[0022] Instead of two segments 41 and 42 it is also possible to provide three segments, wherein the smallest core drill diameter has a value of one fourth, the second central core drill diameter has a value of one half and the third largest core drill diameter has a value of ¾ of the external diameter of the drill bit 11 . It is of course possible to choose different transitions and a higher number of segments.
[0023] Additionally it is possible to use a continuously enlarging drill core for achieving a steady growth of stiffness of the anchor 10 in direction of arrow 2 .
[0024] The threaded rod section 12 comprises two different elements, the threaded rod as such and the drill chuck support. The threaded rod section 12 and the drill chuck support can be positioned one behind the other on an axis 13 , but it is also possible to adapt the side surface of the threaded rod section 12 , e.g., providing a groove, to create a drill chuck support within this section.
[0025] At location 33 the drill head has a slightly larger diameter then the drill core 34 .
[0026] The drill bit according to the invention ensures axially correct fitting, allowing the anchor 10 to be well centered in the post 1 . The prior art according to DE 199 12 815 employing the spike results in a displacement of the material of the post 1 and thus in stresses therein. The auger bit 10 produces a stress-free bore in wood and other comparable materials.
[0027] The length of the anchor 10 depends on its field of application. For a post 1 having a diameter or cross-sectional dimensions of from 5 to 10 centimeters, given a diameter of the auger bit 11 of between 6 and 10 millimeters, a customary total length of the anchor may be between 10 and 70 centimeters. Preferably, this length is divided in half between the drill bit part 11 and the threaded rod part 12 . Of course, it is also possible for the threaded rod 12 or the auger bit 11 to be shorter or longer than the respective other section. It is also possible to provide a connection element (not shown in the drawing) between the auger bit 11 and the threaded rod 12 (or a flat rod without a thread). This may be an outer hexagonal section or a disc which is oriented radially with respect to the longitudinal axis.
[0028] The anchor 10 according to this invention provides a simple, very secure anchor device which is able to be centered and which is correctly aligned axially, this anchor device 10 being driven into the post 1 beforehand within a storage area or during the production of said post. Alternatively, the post anchor 10 may be set into the posts 1 provided on a building site once on site.
[0029] The diameter of the drill bit section 11 of the post anchor 10 can be chosen between 5 and 18 millimeters and the total length of the post anchor 10 can be chosen between 10 and 100 centimeters, wherein said length is preferably divided equally between the drill bit section 11 and the other section 12 .
[0030] The scope of protection is in no way intended to be limited by the preceding description showing an exemplary embodiment and shall apply only to the claims which follow.
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Disclosed is a post anchor ( 1 ) comprising two final sections ( 11, 12 ), one ( 11 ) of which can be introduced into a post ( 10 ) while the other one ( 12 ) is used for fixing the anchor ( 1 ) to or in another element. The section ( 11 ) that can be introduced into the post represents a drill bit section ( 11 ) which is used for introducing a bore ( 20 ) into the post ( 10 ) in a substantially stress-free manner. The drill bit section ( 11 ) in the bore ( 20 ) is provided with essentially no axial clearance and is preferably embodied as a screw bit. The drill bit section ( 11 ) has a first smaller drill core diameter ( 31 ) in a first zone ( 31 ) bordering the tip thereof while having a larger drill core diameter ( 32 ) in a second zone ( 32 ) located closer to the other section ( 12 ) in the longitudinal direction thereof ( 13 ).
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application claims the priority of German Application No. 100 57 699.0 filed Nov. 21, 2000, which is incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] This invention relates to an apparatus for measuring the tension of sliver composed of cotton fibers, chemical fibers or the like, as it runs in a draw frame. Upstream of the draw frame a creel is situated below which coiler cans are positioned from which sliver is withdrawn. Downstream of the creel, as viewed in the direction of sliver advance, a rider roll assembly and a sliver guide with transporting rolls are provided, followed downstream by input rolls of the draw unit of the draw frame. The slivers running into the draw frame from the coiler cans are in a tensioned condition at least in the zone between the transport rolls and the input rolls of the draw unit.
[0003] The sliver tension effected by the transport rolls is derived from the ratio of the circumferential speed of the lower input roll of the draw unit to the circumferential speed of the transport rolls. A setting of the transport roll tension is feasible by means of the transmission gearing associated with the transport rolls. The transport roll tension should be set in such a manner that the slivers between the transport rolls and the lower input roll of the draw unit run with the smallest possible tension which still ensures that the slivers do not undulate as they run on the sliver guide table. Further, when setting the tension, it should be taken into consideration that a satisfactory spread of the sliver is ensured. The tension setting is based on a table in which the different transmission gears are associated with a respective transport roll tension; such table is based empirically for different fiber materials. For the same transmission gear a different transport roll tension may result in case an assortment (fiber lot) change occurs. In practice, the run of the slivers is visually observed and based on such observation, an appropriate transmission gear is selected. In addition, the quality of the drafted sliver at the output of the draw unit is taken into consideration.
[0004] It is a disadvantage of the above-outlined conventional arrangement that the tension setting requires substantial experience and does not make possible a precise determination of the transport roll tension.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0005] It is an object of the invention to provide an improved apparatus of the above-outlined type from which the discussed disadvantages are eliminated and which, in particular, makes possible a precise determination of the transport roll tension and a setting for different fiber lots.
[0006] This object and others to become apparent as the specification progresses, are accomplished by the invention, according to which, briefly stated, the draw frame includes a transport roll pair for simultaneously guiding a plurality of slivers running in an advancing direction; and a series of drafting roll pairs spaced from one another in the advancing direction. One of the drafting roll pairs is a first drafting roll pair as viewed in the advancing direction. The first drafting roll pair is positioned downstream of the transport roll pair. A measuring device is contacted by the running slivers and includes a pressure-sensitive member exposed to a force derived from the running slivers for emitting, a signal representing the force; and a deflecting arrangement for deflecting the running slivers for causing them to be partially trained about the deflecting arrangement to exert to the pressure-sensitive member a pressing force proportional to a tension of the slivers prevailing upstream and downstream of the pressure-sensitive member.
[0007] The measures according to the invention make possible a precise determination particularly of the transport roll tension and thus provide for an optimal setting of such tension even in case of a fiber lot change. In this manner, tension values are determined for the most important materials. Therefore, the actual measured value for the tension draft may be compared with the determined, desired value and the machine operator may receive an indication whether the correct tension values have been selected.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] [0008]FIG. 1 a is a schematic side elevational view of a draw frame incorporating the invention.
[0009] [0009]FIG. 1 b is a partial, schematic top plan view of the construction shown in FIG. 1 a.
[0010] [0010]FIG. 2 a is a sectional side elevational view of a preferred embodiment of the invention.
[0011] [0011]FIG. 2 b is a fragmentary sectional front elevational view of the construction shown in FIG. 2 a.
[0012] [0012]FIG. 3 is a side elevational view of another preferred embodiment of the invention.
[0013] [0013]FIG. 4 is a schematic side elevational view of a draw unit, incorporating the embodiment of FIG. 3 and showing a block diagram of the electronic draw frame control.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0014] [0014]FIG. 1 shows a draw frame DF which may be an HSR model manufactured by Trüttzschler GmbH & Co. KG, Monchengladbach, Germany. The draw frame has an input region 1 , a measuring region 2 , a draw unit 3 and a sliver coiling unit 4 . In the input region 1 two side-by-side extending rows of coiler cans are arranged, of which one row of three coiler cans 5 a , 5 b and 5 c are shown underneath a creel 6 . The slivers 7 a , 7 b and 7 c withdrawn from the respective coiler cans are guided by supply rolls 8 a , 8 b and 8 c and introduced into the draw unit 3 . Each driven supply roll 8 a , 8 b and 8 c is associated with a respective upper roll 9 a , 9 b and 9 c co-rotating with the supply rolls. As shown in FIG. 1 b , the second row of coiler cans (not visible in FIG. 1 a ) is associated with additional supply rolls 8 d , 8 e and 8 f , each cooperating with a respective, non-illustrated upper roll similar to the rolls 9 a - 9 c . The six slivers 7 a - 7 f withdrawn from the coiler cans are guided to the draw frame proper along the creel 6 .
[0015] After the slivers have been drawn and combined into a single drafted sliver 10 in the draw unit 3 , the sliver 10 is deposited in coils into a receiving coiler can 11 by a rotary head of the coiler unit 4 .
[0016] In the region underneath each roll pair 8 a , 9 a , etc. which crush the respective slivers 7 a - 7 f , a non-illustrated guide for each sliver is provided. The advancing direction of the slivers is designated at A. Particularly at high withdrawing speeds the slivers balloon and swing above the oiler cans. The slivers are quieted after passing the supply rolls 8 a - 8 f . Downstream of the creel 6 , at the input of the draw frame a driven roll assembly is provided which is composed, for example, of two lower rider rolls 12 a , 12 b and three upper rider rolls 13 . Each supply roll 8 a - 8 f is connected to a drive.
[0017] With reference to FIGS. 1 a , 1 b and 4 , in the draw unit 3 the length portion 7 ′″ of the slivers 7 a - 7 f is exposed to the transport roll tension in the region between the cooperating transport rolls 15 , 16 and the cooperating input rolls 26 , III. The apparatus 17 structured according to the invention is disposed in this region such that the length portions 7 ′″ of the slivers 7 a - 7 f , as they run in the direction A, press down on the apparatus 17 . The length portion 7 ′ of the slivers 7 a - 7 f extends between the respective supply rolls 8 a - 8 f on the one hand and the rider rolls 12 a , 12 b , 13 on the other hand, while the length portions 7 ″ of the slivers 7 a - 7 f extend between rider rolls 12 a , 12 b , 13 on the one hand and the cooperating transport rolls 15 , 16 , on the other hand. The length portions 7 ′, 7 ″ and 7 ′″ are all exposed to controlled tensions.
[0018] The supply rolls 8 a - 8 f all have the same diameter, for example, 100 mm. The rpm decreases in the working direction A from supply roll to supply roll and is predetermined by a control and regulating device 38 . As a result, the circumferential speed of the supply rolls decreases in the working direction A. The circumferential speed of the supply rolls is set such that the tension of the running slivers 7 a - 7 f has the desired magnitude. The supply rolls 8 a - 8 f are rotated by non-illustrated drives or transmission mechanisms. The supply rolls 8 a - 8 f are conventional, two-part constructions. As shown in FIGS. 1 a and 1 b , the slivers 7 a - 7 f run from the creel 6 to the intake region 1 through the rider roll assembly 12 , 13 , the sliver guide 14 which includes a measuring device with the transport rolls 15 , 16 , the tension-sensing apparatus 17 (to be described in detail later), the draw unit 3 , the sliver guide 27 , the sliver trumpet 30 provided with calender rolls 28 , 29 and the coiler head which deposits the sliver in the coiler can 11 .
[0019] [0019]FIG. 2 a and 2 b illustrate an embodiment of the apparatus 17 according to the invention. A table-like frame 42 is provided whose plate 42 a is supported by two legs 42 b , 42 c on a fixed machine component 41 . In the region of the two ends of the plate 42 a two rotary deflecting rollers 44 and 45 are arranged in a series as viewed in the working direction A. On the upper face of the plate 42 a a support element 20 is secured which holds a small-displacement measuring member 19 , for example, a piezoelectric element which functions as a force take-up device. Opposite the supporting element 20 the measuring element 19 cooperates with a frame-like pressing element 18 composed of a supporting element 43 contacting the measuring member 19 and a rotary deflecting roller 46 secured to the upper region of the supporting element 43 . The length portions 7 ′″ of the slivers 7 a - 7 f emerging from the transporting rolls 15 , 16 are deflected, as they run underneath a deflecting roller 44 , from a horizontal position to proceed upwardly at an oblique angle to the deflecting roller 46 and then, running above the deflecting roller 46 , the slivers are deflected at an angle to proceed downwardly to a deflecting roller 45 and are, as they run underneath the deflecting roller 45 , reoriented into a horizontal direction. The slivers exert, via the deflecting roller 46 and the supporting element 43 , a pressing force on the measuring element 19 .
[0020] In operation, first the frame 42 is set on the draw frame cover 41 so that the length portions 7 ′″ of the slivers 7 a - 7 f remain unaffected. Thereafter the frame-like supporting element 43 is passed within the frame 42 under the length portions 7 ′″ and above the force take-up device 19 and is positioned and immobilized on the frame 42 . The measuring process may be activated when the intended delivery speed is reached. To eliminate the effect of the free sliver length, the weight of the input portion of the sliver and the loop-around friction, the slivers are deflected by the rotatable rollers 44 , 45 and 46 and thus the length of the raised sliver portion is defined. The extent of draft and the output number of the input weight are known data inputted into the control device, so that the sliver weight may be subtracted from the tensioning force.
[0021] According to the embodiment of the sensor device 17 ′ shown in FIG. 3, a supporting element 43 ′ has a rounded upper face directly engaged by the running sliver which, due to its tensioned state, presses down with a force P on the measuring member 19 counter-supported by the supporting element 20 secured to the machine frame 41 . The measuring member 19 is disposed between the support element 20 and the pressing element 18 . This embodiment is void of deflecting rollers which characterize the embodiment of FIGS. 2 a and 2 b . The device 17 ′ is inserted underneath the sliver and the measuring process may be activated when the intended delivery speed is reached.
[0022] While the tension-sensing device 17 or 17 ′ was described as being positioned to contact the sliver length portions 7 ′″ between the transport rollers 15 , 16 and the input drafting roll pair 26 , III, it is to be understood that instead or additionally, the tension sensing device 17 or 17 ′ may be disposed between the supply rolls 8 a - 8 f on the creel 6 and the rider rolls 12 a , 12 b , 13 to contact the sliver length portions 7 ′ and/or between the rider rolls 12 a , 12 b , 13 and the transport rolls 15 , 16 to contact the sliver length portions 7 ″.
[0023] Turning to FIG. 4, the draw unit 3 of the draw frame has an input 21 and an output 22 . The length portions 7 ″ of the slivers 7 a - 7 f are moved through the measuring member 14 as they are pulled by the transport rolls 15 , 16 .
[0024] The draw unit 3 , in which the drafting of the slivers occurs, is a 4-over-3 construction, that is, it has a lower output roll I, a lower middle roll II and a lower input roll III as well as four upper rolls 23 , 24 , 25 and 26 . The draft is composed of a preliminary and principal draft. The roll pairs 26 , III and 25 , II constitute the preliminary drafting field whereas the roll pair 25 , II and the roll assembly 23 , 24 , I constitute the principal drafting field. The drafted slivers reach, at the draw unit output 22 , a sliver guide 27 and are, by means of calender rolls 28 , 29 , pulled through a sliver trumpet 30 in which the slivers 7 a - 7 f are combined into a single sliver 10 which is subsequently deposited in a coiler can 11 .
[0025] The transport rolls 15 , 16 , the lower input roll III and the lower mid roll II which are mechanically interconnected, for example, by a toothed belt, are driven by a regulating motor 31 rotated by a desired rpm value which may be inputted. The respective upper rolls 26 and 25 are driven by friction by their respective lower rolls. The lower output roll I and the calender rolls 28 , 29 are driven by a main motor 32 . The regulating motor 31 and the main motor 32 are provided with a respective regulator 33 and 34 . The rpm regulation occurs by means of a closed regulating circuit in which tachogenerators 35 and 36 are connected with the regulating motor 31 and the main motor 32 , respectively. At the draw unit input 21 a mass-proportionate magnitude, for example, the cross section of the slivers is measured by the input measuring organ 14 . At the draw unit output 22 the cross section of the exiting sliver 10 is measured by an output measuring member 37 integrated in a sliver trumpet 30 .
[0026] A central computer unit 38 (control and regulating device), for example, a microcomputer with microprocessor, transmits a setting of the desired value to the regulator 33 for the regulating motor 37 . The measured values of the measuring organ 14 are transmitted to the central unit 38 during the drafting process. From the measured magnitudes determined by the measuring organ 14 and from the desired value for the cross section of the exiting sliver 10 , the central unit 38 determines the setting value for the regulating motor 37 . The measured values determined by the output measuring member 27 serve for monitoring the discharged sliver 10 . With the aid of such a regulating system fluctuations in the cross section of the inputted slivers are compensated for by means of a suitable regulation of the drafting process and thus an evening of the sliver 10 may be achieved. 39 designates an inputting device and 40 designates schematically the drive for the supply rolls 8 a - 8 f . The measuring element 19 of the measuring device 17 is also connected with the control and regulating device 38 to receive, from the measuring device 17 , electric signals x which represent the pressure which the running sliver exerts on the measuring element 19 . Such a pressure is a function of the tension of the running sliver upstream and downstream of the measuring device 17 . In the control and regulating device 38 the tension force exerted on the running sliver is computed from the signals x. The resulting signals are stored in a memory 47 . In this manner tension values for the most important materials [N/ktex input] are stored. As a result, the actual measured tension value may be compared with the inputted tension values and thus the machine operator may receive an indication whether the correct tension values were selected.
[0027] While the invention is described in conjunction with a regulated draw frame, it is to be understood that the invention may find application in a non-regulated draw frame as well.
[0028] It will be understood that the above description of the present invention is susceptible to various modifications, changes and adaptations, and the same are intended to be comprehended within the meaning and range of equivalents of the appended claims.
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A draw frame includes a transport roll pair for simultaneously guiding a plurality of slivers running in an advancing direction; and a series of drafting roll pairs spaced from one another in the advancing direction. One of the drafting roll pairs is a first drafting roll pair as viewed in the advancing direction. The first drafting roll pair is positioned downstream of the transport roll pair. A measuring device is contacted by the running slivers and includes a pressure-sensitive member exposed to a force derived from the running slivers for emitting a signal representing the force; and a deflecting arrangement for deflecting the running slivers for causing them to be partially trained about the deflecting arrangement to exert on the pressure-sensitive member a pressing force proportional to a tension of the slivers prevailing upstream and downstream of the pressure-sensitive member.
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CLAIM TO PRIORITY
[0001] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/552,777 entitled “Improved Integrated Power Window And Skylight Operating Systems” filed Mar. 12, 2004. That Provisional Application is incorporated herein in its entirety by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] This invention relates to power window and skylight operating systems.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Motorized window and skylight operator systems have existed in the market for a number of years. In general, these motorized window and skylight operator systems include a motorized operator and an operator control unit. Optionally, these systems may have at least a system control unit. Examples of such operator systems are shown, for example, in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,136,578; 4,241,541; 4,253,276; 4,266,371; 4,305,228; 4,346,372; 4,497,135; 4,521,993; 4,617,758; 4,823,508; 4,840,075; 4,843,703; 4,845,830; 4,894,902; 4,937,976; 4,938,086; 4,945,678; 5,054,239; 5,152,103; 5,199,216; 5,313,737; 5,493,813; and 5,813,171, all of which are fully incorporated herein by reference.
[0004] The above-mentioned references disclose various operator control unit and system control units for mechanically opening and closing windows and skylights. A problem with prior motorized operator systems, however, is that they have typically been difficult to install. Operable fenestration units such as skylights and windows are made in many sizes and configurations, and accordingly, a motorized operator must generally be adjusted for the particular parameters of the individual unit to which it is fit. This involves, for example, determining and setting operator limits corresponding to the fully open and closed positions of the unit. If these limits are not properly determined and set, the operator may continue to run and apply force to the skylight or window after it has reached the full physical limit of its travel, thereby causing damage to the operator, hardware, or unit.
[0005] Another installation problem arises in adapting the operator to locally available electrical power. Alternating current power systems within residences and commercial buildings in the United States generally operate at 120 volts and 60 Hz. In other parts of the world, however, 240 volt systems are common, as are 50 Hz frequencies. With prior art power operator systems, it is accordingly necessary to ensure that the proper voltage and frequency is supplied by the building electrical power system to avoid damage to the operator motor and circuitry.
[0006] Moreover, in installations where wireless remote control operation is desired, prior art systems have generally provided that control by means of infrared signals. Such signals, however, generally enable only “line-of-sight” communication between the transmitting and receiving devices. As a result, the operator system may not be easily usable with windows or skylights having drapes, blinds, or curtains, or where walls or other obstructions intervene between the transmitter and receiver.
[0007] In these days of rising energy prices it is common for great care to be taken in the use of thermostatic control systems for controlling air conditioning. Little development has been directed toward the use of more passive ventilation options under thermostatic control. It would be desirable if a thermostatic control sensed the local temperature where people actually are rather than the temperature at whatever fixed location the thermostatic control happens to be located.
[0008] What is still needed in the industry is an easily installable power operator system for windows and skylights that addresses the problems presented by prior art devices.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0009] The present invention addresses the need of the industry for an easily installable power operator system for windows and skylights. The present invention also assists in energy savings by permitting a home owner or building operator to take advantage of passive cooling controlled by automation. In addition, the present invention senses the temperature at the location of a remote control that can follow the occupants of the structure wherever they might be so that a desired temperature can be achieved where the people actually are located.
[0010] In a preferred embodiment of the invention, a power operator and control system includes means for automatically determining the physical travel limits of a particular window or skylight on which the system is installed and automatically varying the motor torque to prevent damage to the system, hardware, window, or skylight.
[0011] In further preferred embodiments of the invention, the operator and control system includes a DC regulated power supply along with means enabling direct application of AC power at any common voltage or frequency. It is thereby unnecessary to ensure that AC power of any specific voltage or frequency is available at the site where the operator system is to be installed, greatly enhancing ease of installation.
[0012] Also, other preferred embodiments of the invention may include a wireless remote control system for the operator wherein the signal used for communication is at radio frequency (RF). This enables the remote control system to be used in applications where line-of-sight positioning of transmitter and receiver is not possible, thereby greatly increasing the flexibility of installation and operation of the system.
[0013] In another embodiment of the invention, the remote control includes a temperature sensor and a processor. The system is capable of controlling the opening and closing of at least one skylight located in an upper portion of a structure and at least one window located in a lower portion of the structure. The window is preferably located on a shady or cooler side of the structure. Thus the remote control senses a temperature at its location and, if that temperature is higher than a preset value, opens the window and the skylight to facilitate passive movement of warm air out through the skylight and cooler air in through the window by convention. The remote control located thermostat may also eliminate the need for a hard wired thermostat, thereby reducing system installation time and cost. Further, the remote control may be made to simultaneously operate any number and combination of windows and skylights as may be desired.
[0014] Other features and advantages of the invention will be apparent from the following description of the preferred embodiments thereof, and from the claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0015] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of an embodiment of a motorized window and skylight operating system according to the invention;
[0016] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of another embodiment of a motorized window and skylight operating system according to the invention;
[0017] FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a first embodiment of an operator control unit with wall switch control;
[0018] FIG. 4 is a perspective view of a second embodiment of an operator control unit with wall switch control;
[0019] FIG. 5 is a perspective view of yet another embodiment of the operator control unit with wall switch control;
[0020] FIG. 6 is a partial perspective view of a motorized operator system according to the present invention coupled with a window;
[0021] FIG. 7 is a perspective view of the operator control unit and motorized operator having a chain drive; and
[0022] FIG. 8 is block diagram of a portion of several components of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0023] FIGS. 1 and 8 depict a motorized window and skylight operator system 10 according to the present invention. The motorized window and skylight operator system 10 generally includes a motorized operator 12 and an operator control unit 14 . Optionally, the system 10 may include a remote control unit 16 for wirelessly controlling the system from a remote location. In the depicted embodiment, the motorized operator 12 generally includes an operator cover 18 , an upper portion 20 having a motor 22 , and a lower portion 24 having a chain drive 26 . Other drives may also be used as will be recognized by those skilled on the art. The upper portion 20 may be coupled with the lower portion 24 by fasteners 28 such as screws. The operation and further details of the motorized operator 12 are disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,521,993 and 4,945,678, both previously incorporated herein by reference.
[0024] In the context of this application the term fenestration is to be construed to include but not be limited to openable windows and openable skylights.
[0025] The operator control unit 14 may be controlled by any suitable means including wireless remote control 30 , automatic sensing units 31 , or a wired switch 32 which may be conveniently mounted in a wall switch panel 34 . The operator control unit 14 enables opening, closing or stopping movement of the window or skylight connected with the motorized operator at any intermediate point between the fully open and fully closed position of the window or skylight.
[0026] Automatic sensing units 31 may include sensors for sensing incremental movement of the window, the presence of a substance (e.g., carbon dioxide and water), or physical conditions (e.g., temperature and relative humidity) in an area. These sensing units may also include means for transmitting control signals to the operator control unit if particular movements occur or conditions arise. Moreover, the sensing units may be located either adjacent or remote from the operator control unit to effect automatic opening or closing a window upon the occurrence of preselected conditions at the sensor.
[0027] Some non-limiting examples of these sensing units include sensors for monitoring temperature, heat, carbon dioxide, rain, fire, smoke, and moisture sensors. In one example, a heat or smoke detector is used to detect the presence of fire and smoke and to signal opening or closing the window or skylight as desired to control smoke ventilation. In another example, a thermostat is used to effect automatic opening or closing a window or a skylight when a predetermined temperature is reached at the thermostat. This allows the use of passive cooling under a thermostatically controlled system.
[0028] Moreover, a rain sensor may be used to effect automatic opening or closing a window or a skylight upon the detection of rain. The rain sensor may have gold plated contacts and/or alternating current (AC) sensing. Gold plated contacts reduce corrosion of rain sensors by rain, particularly rain with acidic contamination. Alternating current sensing may provide a more reliable method of detecting rain than direct current sensing as is used in many prior art sensing systems.
[0029] If desired, the system may be controlled with any suitable wireless remote control 30 including apparatus using infra-red (IR), radio frequency (RF), sound, microwave, electrical, or magnetic signals. In one preferred embodiment, a handheld unit 36 includes an RF transmitter to send commands to a receiver in the operator control unit.
[0030] RF signaling eliminates the need for “line of sight” proximity of the system transmitter and receiver as in prior IR signaling systems. Further, RF signaling eliminates the problem of interference by direct sunlight encountered with IR systems. Third, the RF systems work in multi-directional orientation so as to avoid the need to point the transmitter directly to the receiver. The RF transmitter may use a “rolling code” system as is known in the art to help safe guard against frequency capture. The transmitter communicates the key code, information on the command type (such as open, close, window, and blind), and the unit code (such as 1-9 and “all”). This enables the remote to control an infinite number of motors, grouped into 1 of 9 different unit codes or groups, and control them individually or all at once. The communication may be made in a “burst” or “packet” transmission which contains all the information on the command. Moreover, the “packet” information may be sent twice to ensure accuracy and eliminate false signals. Although any suitable frequency or modulation method may be used, in one currently preferred embodiment the transmission frequency is 433 MHz AM.
[0031] Each operator control unit 14 can be connected with and control multiple motorized operators 12 , enabling simultaneous control of multiple windows and/or skylights. For example, a thermostat connected with a single operator control unit 14 may open and close several windows and skylights simultaneously to maintain a more comfortable interior temperature and take advantage of the “chimney cooling effect” to reduce energy consumption. Taking advantage of passive, convective cooling can realize substantial energy savings.
[0032] In some embodiments, the operator control unit 14 may include a DC regulated power supply that converts AC power supplied at any common voltage and frequency to a constant and regulated DC output, thereby improving operator motor 22 performance by reducing speed and torque fluctuations caused by fluctuations in the AC power supply. The power supply enables direct application of varying worldwide power inputs to avoid the requirement for separate transformers and power supplies or re-wiring of transformers to compensate for changing voltage requirements.
[0033] In some embodiments, the operator control unit 14 includes means for controlling the torque of motorized operator 12 through software control of output current to motorized operator 12 . The torque controlling means adjusts to provide the necessary torque to drive the system and allows current settings to be set to specific parameters for different operator systems 10 through software control determined by appropriate switch settings on a control board. This allows the creation of a custom profile for each operator system. The torque controlling means allows the operator torque to increase and decrease at different stages of operation to avoid damage to motorized operator 12 and to the controlled windows or skylights.
[0034] The operator control unit 14 may include means for resetting the system with a wall switch panel 34 controlled by a remote control 30 ; means for changing switch settings on the control board; and means for powering down and back up. The means provide various flexible options to reset the system and to control the system easily.
[0035] In further embodiments, the operator control unit 14 includes other components or routines, such as main control loop, initialize window routine, read line voltage and adjusts for changes routine, drive motor routine, timer interrupt service routine, and read inputs and determine a goal positions routine, as described in U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,933,613; 5,004,961; 5,285,137; 5,355,059; and 5,449,987, all of which are fully incorporated herein by reference.
[0036] FIG. 2 depicts a motorized window and skylight operating system according to the present invention. The system generally includes a motorized operator 12 with a chain drive or gear drive, a remote control 30 , and an operator control unit 14 . The chain drive motorized operator 12 is generally used with heavy skylights, while the gear drive is generally used for windows and lighter weight skylights.
[0037] FIGS. 3-5 depict three embodiments of the operator control unit 14 suitable for the motorized window and skylight operating systems according to the invention. In the depicted embodiments, the operator control unit 14 is wired to a wall switch panel 34 . The wall switch panel 34 may include a membrane switch 38 which makes wall switch panel 34 easy to clean and unobtrusive. A cut groove 40 may be incorporated around the membrane switch to allow for placing and cutting of wall paper over the face of the entire wall switch panel 34 . This cut groove 40 also serves as a paint barrier to prevent paint from getting on the membrane switch when the face of the wall switch panel is being painted. An optional bi-color light emitting diode (LED) 42 may be incorporated on the wall switch panel 34 for providing feedback to the installer or user on the operating status and fault codes of the motor 22 or control board.
[0038] FIG. 6 depicts the motorized operator system 10 of the present invention engaged with a window 44 having a rotary crank type manual operator mechanism 46 as is commonly known in the art. The motorized operator 12 couples to rotatable shaft 48 of the window operator mechanism 46 using a spline adaptor 50 as depicted. The motorized operator 12 is attached to the frame of the window 44 with a bracket 52 .
[0039] In some embodiments, the operator control unit 14 itself may be installed in a wall with the operator control unit 14 recessed substantially inside the wall such that the only visible feature is a low profile wall switch panel 34 that matches a standard size (4.5″×4.5″) 2-gang electrical box face plate. In other embodiments, the system may incorporate easy break-off flanges 54 that allows common operator control unit 14 to be installed in both new construction projects and in remodeling projects.
[0040] The operator control unit 14 may be installed in 0, 90, 180 and 270 degree orientations while the mating wall switch panel 34 can remain in the normal viewing angle. This provides the end user more installation options. This may be accomplished through the use of two sets of mounting holes 52 in the box 58 to mount the wall switch panel 34 and the use and placement of two knock-outs 60 for high-voltage input wiring. The two sets of mounting holes 52 are then oriented orthogonal to each other.
[0041] In some embodiments, common screws or nails are used to mount operator control unit 14 into the wall. High-voltage AC input wiring can be routed into the box 58 on two opposite sides via removable knock-outs 60 to provide for ease of assembly. In some embodiments, a strain relief bushing of push-in design may be provided to allow Romex style nonmetallic sheathed wiring to be pushed into box 58 without the need to assemble and tighten any fasteners to provide clamping force. The wiring access hole left when knock outs 60 are removed may be designed to accept standard ½″Romex or conduit fittings to meet the strain relief requirement.
[0042] A terminal block 62 including an easy snap-on feature may be provided to allow easy and secure hook-up of supply wiring and to fasten the terminal block 62 to the electronic box 58 sidewalls without requiring any additional fasteners.
[0043] In some embodiments, motor 22 in the motorized operator 12 is a high reduction gear motor with an interchangeable drive bushing which fits onto the crank shaft 48 of manual window or skylight operators 46 . A 24 volt DC motor 22 is used to power motorized operator 12 .
[0044] Motor 22 is controlled digitally through a pulse width modulation (PWM) control circuit. The control circuit monitors current drawn at the motor to sense the position of the window or the skylight. When the window or the skylight reaches a pre-determined stall position in either open or closed orientations, the motor current spikes to the stall current limit allowed by the control. This serves to protect the motor 22 from over current burn-out and establishes an end point location for the control program.
[0045] The operator control unit 14 may include a digital processor 63 capable of running a control program. The control program may include an initialization routine to prevent the motorized operator 12 from reaching the full open end point of the hardware, since this type of stall load severely shortens the life of the hardware. The initialization routine first determines parameters related to the end points of the hardware (stall in open and close) and the time between open and closed positions. The end point parameters are stored in a non-volatile memory connected with the digital processor 63 . In one embodiment of the invention the program stops the fenestration at 75% of full open on the first command to “open.” Each successive “open” command opens the fenestration another 5% until the fully open position is reached. These stop points may be estimated in comparison with the motor 22 rotation count between full open and full closed stall conditions.
[0046] The control program may also provide a safety or obstruction detection and avoidance feature. This feature enables the window or the skylight to sense the presence of an obstruction during all but the last 20% of the closed position, preferably the last 10%, more preferably the last 5%. This is accomplished by using a lower amperage cutoff point for the motor.
[0047] Further safety may be provided through the use of a screen interlock. The screen interlock is a device fastened to the screen of the motorized window. The screen interlock interrupts the power to the drive motor 22 when the screen is removed from the window, thereby preventing the insertion of fingers of other body parts into the fenestration where they might be caught in the closing process. Thus the screen acts as a safety barrier.
[0048] In some embodiments, the operator control unit 14 includes a six switch DIP on which the user sets specific operating parameters by placing various switches on or off. The positions of switches one and two are used to determine the type of motor to be controlled (motors for window, light skylight, or heavy skylight) or whether the unit is a leader or follower (for skylight synchronous operation). Switch three is used to set the operating direction of the window motor (clockwise vs. counterclockwise). Switch four is used to signal the control board that motorized blinds are connected to. Switches five and six are used to determine the number of locks (such as one, two and none) to drive on a motorized casement window or to tell the control board which synchronous motor positions are for skylight synchronous operation.
[0049] In some embodiments, the control circuit monitors a number of input points and drives the motor accordingly. The first and primary input to the control circuit may be via a wall switch panel 34 connected directly to the control board. The second input may be via a radio frequency (RF) receiver, which is responsive to a remote control as previously described. The third input may be via a high priority input (HPI), which is a set of three pair control loops.
[0050] The first loop of the HPI is the open and hold or smoke vent port. This port enables the direct connection of a pair of contacts to open the window or the skylight and lock out the wall switch panel 34 control in the case of fire detected by a fire or smoke sensor connected to the port. The second port of the HPI is the close and hold or security port. This second port enables the direct connection of a pair of contacts to close and lock out the vent when it is controlled by a home security system. The third HPI port works in conjunction with the security port by providing a positive (dry contact) feedback that the fenestration is in the fully closed position. The third port enables the fenestration to signal the security system that the fenestration is closed prior to arming the security system monitoring command.
[0051] An additional input port may be built into the control circuit for connection to a rain sensor (not shown), which will close the window or the skylight upon sensing condensing moisture or raindrops on its contact surface.
[0052] Further, the control circuit may provide an interface for 12 volt DC operated power blinds. The blinds connected to the interface may be controlled via a hand held remote control or through the wall switch panel.
[0053] FIG. 7 depicts a perspective view of an operator control unit 14 engaging with a motorized operator 12 having a chain drive 26 for opening and closing windows and skylights. The motorized operator 12 is in a close proximity with and connected through a cable to operator control unit 14 . The motorized operator 12 includes a lower portion having a chain drive 26 and an upper portion having a DC motor 22 . The operator control unit 14 includes a control board (not shown). In some embodiments, the control board (not shown) enables asynchronous control of multiple skylights using a single system control unit, such as a remote control 30 , a membrane switch 38 , high priority inputs (HPI), or a rain sensor. A command signal from either the remote control 30 , the membrane switch 38 , the HPI, or the rain sensor to one primary skylight receiver board is communicated through hardwiring from a RS485 bus to a plurality of independent, secondary skylights downstream of the primary skylight. The secondary skylights execute the command with no feedback to the master. A bi-color light emitting diode (LED) 42 , visible through the unit cover, may be optionally incorporated on the control board (not shown). LED 42 provides feedback to the installer or the user on the operating status and fault codes of the motor or control board.
[0054] A wall switch panel 34 may be connected to the control board through a RJ45 cable and connector 43 , such as those depicted in FIG. 5 , to provide additional control input options to the user. Optionally, a standard 110VAC single pole/double throw (momentary center “off”) switch (not shown) may be used to control the unit's opening, closing, or resetting without either a wall switch panel 34 or a remote control 30 . The control board may include a RS485 input to provide for home automation control system interface. The operator control unit 14 may include locating tabs on the base of the operator control unit 14 to align the box 58 to the operator control unit 14 during installation, thereby preventing misalignment and simplifying installation.
[0055] In some skylight embodiments, snap features are provided to fix in place temporarily the cover 18 for the motorized operator 12 or the operator control unit 14 during installation until the more permanent mounting fasteners 28 such as screws can be installed. This prevents the cover 18 from “falling” from the unit and possibly being damaged or creating a safety hazard.
[0056] The chain drive 26 in the motorized operator 12 includes a heavy lift chain 64 that is capable of lifting heavy skylight lids. The chain 64 is driven by a high reduction gear drive 68 coupled to a 24 volt DC motor 22 . Again, the motor 22 may be controlled digitally through a pulse width modulation control circuit. The digital control system may also include simultaneous monitoring of the motor 22 speed and rotations through a Hall effect pickup and a magnet attached directly to the motor 22 shaft. The control circuit monitors the current drawn at the motor 22 to sense skylight lid position.
[0057] When the skylight lid reaches a pre-determined stall position in either open or closed orientation, the motor 22 current spikes to the stall current limit allowed by the control. This serves to protect the motor 22 from over current burnout and establishes the end point position for the control program. The control program then runs through an initialization routine to determine parameters related to the end points (stall in open and close) and the number of motor 22 rotations between open and closed positions. These parameters are stored in a non-volatile memory and used to control the skylights position depending upon the input commands given to the control circuit. The control program is designed to prevent the motorized operator 12 from reaching the full open end point of the hardware, since this type of stall load severely shortens the life of the hardware. In some embodiments, the unit may open to 90% of full open position on skylights. These stop points may be estimated in comparison with the motor 22 rotation count between full open and full closed stall conditions.
[0058] Again, an additional input port may be built into the control circuit for connection to a rain sensor. The additional input port enables a signal to close the window or the skylight upon sensing condensing moisture or rain drops on its contact surface. Optionally, a wall switch panel 34 may be used to input commands to the operator control unit 14 connected through a RJ45 cable and a cable connector on each end of the cable 43 .
[0059] To lift heavy skylights, multiple motors, either in one single motorized operator 12 or in a multiple motorized operators 12 , may be used together. The control circuit for these multiple motors 22 may include a two-way communication link via a pair of four wire connection ports. These ports enable the motors 22 to communicate the relative chain position and motor 22 revolution counts to insure that the skylight lids are moved by the motors 22 in unison. The motor 22 may also be controlled digitally through a pulse width modulation control circuit, which may also simultaneously monitor the motor 22 speed and rotations by using a Hall effect pickup and a magnet attached directly to the motor 22 shaft. Without feedback produced by the Hall effect pickup, the motors 22 could run at different speeds, and result in the chains running “out of time.” In some instances, misalignment of the chains by more than six millimeters total between the motors may result in damage to the skylight or even breakage of the glass.
[0060] The present invention may be embodied in other specific forms without departing from the central attributes thereof, therefore, the illustrated embodiments should be considered in all respects as illustrative and not restrictive, reference being made to the appended claims rather than the foregoing description to indicate the scope of the invention.
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An operable fenestration operating system for a structure including a window or skylight having a frame, an operable sash and presenting a resistance force opposing opening and closing of the sash. A motorized operator is coupled with the frame and the sash to selectively open and close the sash. The invention includes an operator control unit communicatively connected to the motorized operator. The operator control unit includes a processor, a sensor for sensing the magnitude of the resistance force, a pulse width modulation circuit for supplying electrical power to the motorized operator. The processor varies the torque output of the motorized operator using the pulse width modulation circuit in response to the sensed parameter.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to dynamoelectric machines, and more particularly, to means for liquidly cooling the field winding thereof.
2. Description of the Prior Art
Dynamoelectric machines, such as turbine generators, are often designed such that the steel in their rotors is operated near magnetic saturation. Rating increases for dynamoelectric machines of given size operated near such limit are made possible only by raising the magnetic saturation limit of the rotor. The magnetic saturation limit of a dynamoelectric machine's rotor can be increased by reducing the depth of coil slots formed in the rotor. Liquidly cooled coils can be operated at higher excitation current levels than those which are gas cooled and, thus, liquid coolant permits the use of shallower coil slots than are required by gas coolant. In general, the superior cooling properties of liquid coolant over those of gaseous coolant permit the higher I 2 R losses in liquidly cooled coils to be carried away so as to maintain the temperature in the rotor below the critical temperature at which the coil's insulation loses adequate strength and the electrical conductors lose adequate fatigue resistance properties. It can be shown that liquidly cooled rotors can increase generator efficiency substantially over equivalently sized gaseous cooled rotors.
Transmitting liquid coolant to, through, and from rotor coils requires the use of conduits. Conventional manifolding techniques for distribution and collection of the liquid coolant would involve disposing distribution and discharge chambers at axially opposite ends of the rotor. The previously mentioned conduits connect the respective chambers to the heat generating rotor coils. Conventional generator rotor construction utilizes retaining ring structures at both axial ends of a rotor to restrain radial movement of coil end turns in making their turnaround between longitudinal slots situated on opposite circumferential sides of the particular rotor pole. Use of such conduits between the chambers and rotor coils requires securing those conduits along with the insulation which isolates the coils from the chambers, radially beneath the retaining rings. As such, liquid coolant leaks or electrical grounds are difficult to locate and very expensive to correct. Other inconveniences and disadvantages of the end turn retaining rings which are customarily shrunk-fit onto the ends of generator rotors include undesirable bending stresses in the copper rotor coils resulting from cycling deflection of the retaining rings, increased difficulty in bracing the liquid coolant conduits, and increased complexity in assembling and disassembling the end plates which help maintain the retaining ring's round configuration. Such greater complexity results from the requirement that the plates clear the rotor shaft during assembly and disassembly so as to avoid interfering with the conduits and their insulators.
Elimination of generator retaining rings is therefore believed desirable, and is, in fact, disclosed in copending Westinghouse Electric Case No. 44,973, whose Ser. No. is 877,778, and filing date is Feb. 14, 1978. Elimination of such retaining rings and introduction of embedded field winding end turns necessitates development of a cooling scheme which is compatible therewith.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In general, an improved dynamoelectric machine comprising a rotor member having a plurality of intersecting longitudinal and circumferential slots formed on its surface about a plurality of poles, a plurality of electrical coils being receivable in said slots and means for cooling the electrical coils with liquid coolant. The liquid coolant means include coolant distribution and discharge chambers situated on opposite axial ends of the rotor with both chambers being fluidly connected through a plurality of conduits to coolant openings in the electrical coils. Both coolant chambers are electrically insulated from the electrical coils and act as manifolds to the conduits connecting them to the electrical coils' coolant openings. The conduits include an angle of 90° are less to minimize thermally induced stresses incurred therein and have at least a portion thereof disposed in said rotor slots.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The objects and advantages of this invention will be more apparent from reading the following detailed description in connection with the accompanying drawings, in which:
FIGS. 1A through 1D are sectional views of single rotor slots with electrical coils disposed therein;
FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a proposed liquid cooling scheme for dynamoelectric machine rotors;
FIG. 3 is a partial sectional view of a liquid cooling scheme for a rotor of conventional construction;
FIG. 4 is a partial sectional view of the conventional dynamoelectric machine rotor illustrating the areas about the rotor which must be maintained free of obstacles during assembly and disassembly;
FIG. 5 is a partial pictorial illustration of the rotor slot configuration proposed in the present invention;
FIGS. 6A and 6B are partial sectional views of a first embodiment of the present invention;
FIGS. 7A and 7B illustrate a second embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 8 is a schematic representations of the cooling path used in FIGS. 6A, 6B, 7A and 7B;
FIGS. 9A, 9B and 9C illustrate a third embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 10 is a schematic representation of the coolant flow for the invention's configuration illustrated in FIGS. 9A, 9B, and 9C.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring now to the drawings in detail, FIG. 1A illustrates the actual cross-sectional size of a rotor slot in a 46" diameter rotor of a 1700 MVA gas cooled generator. FIG. 1B illustrates the cross-sectional configuration of a rotor slot and conductors disposed therein for a liquid cooled rotor of a 1700 MVA generator with a 46" diameter rotor. In particular, the liquid coolant used in FIGS. 1A and 1B is preferably high purity water. As can be seen in comparing FIGS. 1A and 1B, the slot depth of the water cooled rotor is much less than the slot depth for the gas cooled rotor, and thus permits higher excitation currents to be used before the rotor's magnetic saturation limit is reached. As such, greater generator ratings can be obtained for water cooled rotors than gas cooled rotors of the same size. Passageways or openings 10 in the conductors disposed in the rotor slots transmit liquid coolant therethrough and permit removal of heating losses sustained in those coils.
FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a rotor 12 and the liquid cooling scheme incorporated therein. Liquid coolant enters coolant distribution chamber 14 and is manifolded therefrom through a plurality of conduits 16. Coolant conduits 16 provide fluid communication to and from coolant openings 10 which extend through the electrical coils. Coolant openings 10 are usually integrally disposed within the coils to promote heat transfer between the electrical coils and the liquid coolant flowing therethrough. Coolant discharge chamber 18 is situated at the opposite axial end of rotor 12 from distribution chamber 14 and acts as a manifold for collecting head laden coolant which has exited coolant openings 10 and passed through coolant conduits 16. The heat laden coolant is then transmitted to a stationary discharge chamber 20 which discharges that coolant through conduit 22. Such heat laden coolant may be cooled and recirculated or discharged to waste.
FIG. 3 is a partial sectional view of one end of a generator rotor 12 which utilizes liquid cooling and has retaining rings 24 and 26 which respectively constrain movement of rotor coil end turns 28, coolant conduits 16, and associated insulators 30. Coolant conduits 16 are typically stainless steel and are constructed to have segments which meet at angles of 90 or less degrees so as to be flexible enough to withstand the thermal expansion of the coils and cyclic, rotationally induced deflection of the retaining rings 24 and 26. A major disadvantage, however, of the conventional rotor construction's retaining rings illustrated in FIG. 3 is that access to insulators 30 and associated coolant conduits 16 is obstructed by retaining ring 26 which makes coolant leaks and electrical grounds difficult to locate and expensive to correct. Even when generator rotor 12 is engineered with high care and manufactured with extreme precision, failures such as the previously mentioned ones can occur and must be corrected. Thus, placement of the liquid coolant system radially inside retaining ring 26 could result in time consuming and expensive repairs if such repairs became necessary.
A one piece end plate 32 helps maintain retaining ring 24 in a round configuration even with the skewed loading applied by the end turns which conventionally extend past the axial end of rotor 12. Assembly and disassembly of end plate 32 from rotor 12 requires it to pass axially relative to the rotor and displace a volume situated about the rotor which is indicated as being interference volume 34. As may be seen from a comparison of FIGS. 3 and 4, a portion of volume 34 is coincidental with the space occupied by insulators 30 and coolant conduits 16. Thus, if it is desired to remove end plate 32, insulators 30 and coolant conduits 16 must be disassembled prior thereto.
FIG. 5 is a partial sectional view of rotor 12 having longitudinal slots 36 and circumferential slots 38. Longitudinal slots 36 house the major portion of the electrical coils (not shown) which constitute the field winding of the dynamoelectric machine. Conventional rotor construction permits extension of the electrical coils disposed in longitudinal slots 38 into the axial end regions of rotor 12. The rotor construction illustrated in FIG. 5, however, permits housing the end turns of the field winding electrical coils in circumferential slots 38. Coil retention in longitudinal slots 36 is obtained by use of axial wedges 40 which enclose the radially outer mouth portion of the longitudinal slots 36. The end turns for the construction shown in FIG. 5 are, however, retained in circumferential slots 38 by circumferential wedges 41 rather than retaining rings 24. Circumferential wedges 41 are, by necessity, shorter than axial wedges 40 since circumferential wedges 41 must be inserted at the intersection of longitudinal and circumferential slots 36 and 38, respectively. Utilization of the rotor construction shown in FIG. 5 permits deletion of retaining rings 24 and thus avoids many of the problems encountered in using them in combination with a liquid coolant system.
FIG. 6A is a partial, sectional view of a rotor 12 whose construction is identical with that of FIG. 5. Longitudinal wedges 40 constrain longitudinal coil portions 42 in longitudinal slots 36. Coolant conduits 16 lie radially outside of the embedded end turns 28 and are seen to fluidly connect with the coil portions located at the intersection of the longitudinal and circumferential slots 36 and 38, respectively. Such fluid connection is better seen in FIG. 6B where it can be seen that coolant conduits 16 have three segments, 16a, 16b, and 16c, situated between insulator 30 and the coil's coolant connections. Coolant conduit segments 16a and 16c are axially directed, with it being understood that segment 16c lies within longitudinal slot 36. Coolant conduit segment 16b is arcuate in shape and connects segment 16a to 16c, with the connections therebetween constituting compound angles which are, in one plane, 90° or less so as to permit thermal expansion of the field winding coils without sustaining abnormally high stress levels therein. Conductors 42a, 42b, and 42c are seen in FIG. 6A to constitute the innermost coil structure which surrounds pole 44. In the particular embodiment of FIG. 6A, each coil constitutes three conductors 42a, 42b, and 42c, with conductors 42a and 42c being fluidly connected to coolant conduits 16 at one corner 46a of each coil and conductor 42b being fluidly connected to coolant conduits 16 at the other corner 46b of each adjacent coolant distribution chamber 14.
FIGS. 7A and 7B are similar to FIGS. 6A and 6B with the exception that coolant conduits 16 are situated radially inside end turn coils 28. in FIG. 7B coolant conduit connections to conductors 42a and 42c may be seen at coil corner 46a and coolant conduit connection to conductor 42b occurs at coil corner 46b. While three conductors per coil have been illustrated, it is to be understood that a different number could be utilized with appropriate changes in the conduit distribution being made between the coil corners 46a and 46b so as to equalize the connections therewith as much as possible. It is to be further understood that such coolant connections are provided for each coil on the discharge and distribution ends of the rotor 12.
FIG. 8 is a schematic illustration of a cooling arrangement like that of FIGS. 6A, 6B, 7A, and 7B, except that FIG. 8 is illustrative of four conductors (42a, 42b, 42c, and 42d) per coil, rather than three as illustrated in the previous figures. Coolant enters conductors 42a and 42c at coil corner 46a and also enters conductors 42b and 42d at coil corner 46b. Thus, in the case of FIG. 8, two coolant conduits are connected to each coil corner so as to minimize and equalize the space requirements in each rotor slot for the coolant conduits 16. FIGS. 1C and 1D show the cross-sectional views of longitudinal slots 36 for the cooling system configurations of FIGS. 6A, 6B and 7A, 7B, respectively. In FIGS. 1C and 1D, coolant conduits 16 are seen to be blocked by structure 48 so as to brace and constrain them. FIG. 1C has an additional structure 50 which is rigid and surrounds the coolant conduits 16. Structure 50 prevents deformation of coolant conduits 16 under the high centrifugal loading which can exist during rotor rotation.
FIGS. 9A and 9B are partial sectional views of a third embodiment of a liquidly cooled rotor structure having embedded end turns. Coolant conduits illustrated in FIGS. 9A and 9B enter each of the coils and conductors included therein along the centerline of pole 44 in the longitudinal slot situated there. The coolant conduits for the configuration illustrated in FIGS. 9A and 9B also constitute three segments 16d, 16e and 16f. Segments 16d and 16f are seen to be axially extending with at least a portion of each being in a longitudinal slot 36, while coolant conduit segment 16e is an arcuate portion which connects segments 16d and 16f. Segment 16e lies above the embedded end turns in circumferential slots 38. Crossovers 52 which serially connect coils in adjacent circumferential and longitudinal slots are slightly offset from the centerline of pole 44 where the coolant conduit connections are made. An enlarged partial sectional view of the coolant connections to the embedded end turns 28 is illustrated in FIG. 9C, where it can be seen that two coolant conduits 16 approach pole 44's centerline from each circumferential direction within the circumferential slots 38 radially above the embedded end turns 28. In causing coolant conduits 16 to approach pole 44's centerline from different circumferential directions, a minimum of space is required above the embedded end turns 28 for the coolant conduits 16.
FIG. 10 schematically illustrates the cooling flow pattern utilized in FIGS. 9A and 9B. Coolant enters the circumferential middle 54 of each conductor constituting each end turn 28. Coolant flow path length is, for this embodiment, the same regardless of which circumferential direction is chosen. While equalization of flow path length seems an advantage over the cooling scheme schematicized in FIG. 8, it is to be understood that coolant flow rates in any branch of any of the aforementioned coolant schemes may be regulated by inserting restrictions within or by adjusting the size of the coolant conduits 16 accordingly. Relatively equal coolant flow rates are necessary to provide the same average cooling for all conductors of all coils since relative growth of the conductors due to differential thermal expansion can cause friction, heat, and stress within the conductors.
While generators alone have been discussed, it is to be understood that the present invention may be utilized in any dynamoelectric machine having a field winding distributed on a rotatable shaft. While only the distribution chamber's end of the dynamoelectric machine rotor 12 has been illustrated in the figures, it is to be understood that the rotor construction at the discharge end is substantially the same, and thus, the need for discussion thereof has been obviated.
It will now be apparent that an improved system for cooling dynamoelectric machine rotor coils has been provided in which liquid coolant is utilized to remove heat from the field winding coils and increase the efficiency of the utilizing dynamoelectric machine. Liquid cooling of the rotor's coils permits increased utilizing machine ratings to be obtained when compared with gas cooled rotor coils from machines of the same size. Additionally, the cooling scheme has been shown to be compatible with rotor constructions utilizing embedded end turns 28 rather than retaining rings for constraining the coil end turns 28.
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A system for liquidly cooling rotor coils whose end turns are embedded in the rotor. A distribution chamber and a discharge chamber are arranged on opposite axial ends of the rotor and constitute supply and return manifolds, respectively. The distribution and discharge chambers are fluidly connected to coolant conduits which promote heat transfer to coolant flowing therein from electrical coils disposed in slots formed on the surface of the rotor. The fluid connections include conduits with at least a portion thereof being disposed in longitudinal slots of the rotor. Each of the coolant conduits has at least one 90° bend therein for alleviating conduit stresses imposed by thermal expansion of such conduits. Insulators for the conduits electrically isolate the distribution and discharge chambers from the rotor's electrical coils. Coolant conduits supplying coolant to and receiving coolant from electrical coils near each pole may be disposed in the slots radially inside or outside the coils. For coolant conduits disposed radially outside the coils, rigid channel members are utilized to prevent conduit deformation during rotor rotation.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention lies within the field of static structures of polyhedron form and in the field of joints and connections having articulated members in which there are plural distinct articulation axes and a plurality of translating connections in which the articulated members are lockable at fixed positions. It is a distinct characteristic of the structures in this field of the invention that three or more radiating members are presented in a regular polyhedral connection and that at least two of the arms of the tetrahedron be disengageable from a sleeve joint to fold and collapse in the form of a bundle.
2. Description of the Prior Art
a. Rigid Structures
In the prior art of polyhedral structures, the patent to Alexander Graham Bell, U.S. Pat. No. 770,626, granted Sept. 20, 1904, describes a rigid polyhedral frame structure useful as an aerial vehicle or kite and formed of equal bars united at the corners. In the various figures of the Bell drawings, there are shown single tetrahedral elements, double tetrahedral elements constituting wings in a pair, four winged tetrahedral wing structures, and the like. Also described in this Bell patent are connecting corner pieces which serve as coupling blocks to join the ends of the bars in making compound tetrahedral structures for forming wings consisting of tetrahedral cells.
A comparable rigid tetrahedron shaped structure is shown in the patent to Paul Snibbe, U. S. Pat. No. 3,468,503, which is proposed as a kite with high efficiency lift properties.
In contrast to these closest prior art rigid structures, the present invention is directed to collapsible rod and joint structures and to novel and unique folding methods for erecting and collapsing a tetrahedron structure which is adapted to serve in a new way for games, such as for example, the game of soccer, water pole, basketball, and the like.
b. Folding Structures
James R. Brown, U.S. Pat. No. 2,555,220, discloses a tent frame construction of polyhedron-shape which folds into a compact form. This structure is in common use in photographic tripods, painting easels, etc., and not rigid and has no base connecting arms joining the vertical arm.
c. Joint Structures
Clinton Starbard, U.S. Pat. No. 932,344, discloses joints which are rigid, and therefore permit no folding.
Jack F. Smith, U.S. Pat. No. 2,180,125, discloses the tri-joint which permits no rotation of arms as a hinge.
William Herschaft, U.S. Pat. No. 2,765,580, shows tri-joints which are rigid and thereby does not permit folding of the arms.
Charles Attwood, U.S. Pat. No. 3,270,478, discloses tri-joints which are rigid and permit no folding of the arms.
George L. Kilgore et al, U.S. Pat. No. 2,290,437, discloses a sleeve, but it is not designed to allow arms to rotate in joint-like method.
Arthur E. Fentiman, U.S. Pat. No. 2,976,968, discloses joints, again rigid, and permit no folding of the arms.
d. Distinctions over the Prior Art
In respect to the prior art patents mentioned above, none of the patents, which have been found by the applicant as a result of his study and research of the prior art, show the unique method of folding a collapsible polyhedron, which requires that the vertical arms radiating from the apex pivot and connect to sleeve corner joints at the base of each vertical arm whereby the arms are disengaged at the base joints and collapse in folded condition, these base arms comprising dual sets of arms each folded toward the other with the arms resting in parallel relation and together after being folded.
In certain groups of patents such as Starbard and Bell, rigid joints are employed, and no sleeve structure is contemplated. In other groups of patents, such as Kilgore et al, sleeves are disclosed, but the rod members, which are secured in the sleeve, cannot pivot or rotate and thereafter disengage and fold.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
A collapsible rod and joint structure forming a polyhedron comprising sleeve joints cooperating with corner connection joints at one end of the structure, each of the arms of the polyhedron joining at least two other arms at a common sleeve at a corner of the polyhedron and each arm being foldable in relation to one adjacent arm so as to lie in parallel relation to said arm in the folded condition, the end of the rod, which is detached from the sleeve to fold in such parallel relation, being adapted to be inserted into said sleeve so that pairs of arms folded with each pair in parallel relation can be pivotally moved at the corner joints to erect said polyhedron with the unfolded arms in firmly locked relation in said sleeve joints.
In one form of the invention, the polyhedron is an equilateral tetrahedron uniquely adapted for such ground level or water level games, such as soccer, water polo, ground level basketball, field hockey, etc. The relatively light tetrahedron rests on the ground and the ball enters the opening defined by any three sides to trap the ball and possibly turn over under the force of impact at the rear.
In another form of the invention, the polyhedron may be a tetrahedron having a square base and in this form the structure serves as a toy house, tent part, playhouse frame, roadside sign frame, or a building component.
In still another form of the invention, the polyhedron is in the form of a five sided tent frame having a rectangular base and a roof chord parallel to and displaced from the base, the roof chord being supported by equal side rods defining the front and rear of the tent structure. In this form, the polyhedron of the invention is suitable for a very large number of uses, such as a soccer goal, lacrosse goal, team handball goal, hockey goal, field hockey goal, other goals, tent frame, child's playhouse frame, puzzle, road signal frame, building component, swing set, bicycle rack, horizontal bar, "pitch-back", tennis ball bounce-back, playground "climber" frame, football blocker frame, support element, pet toy, pet house frame, baseball, softball, kickball, backstop, etc.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to provide polyhedron frame structure comprising sleeve joints cooperating with corner connection joints.
Another object of the invention is to provide a novel combination of sleeve joints cooperating with corner connection joints at the ends of arms, each of the arms of the polyhedron joining at least two other arms at a common sleeve at a corner of the polyhedron and each arm being foldable in relation to one adjacent arm so as to lie in parallel relation to said arm in the folded condition, the end of the rod which is detached from the sleeve to fold in such parallel relation being adapted to be inserted into said sleeve so that pairs of arms folded with each pair in parallel relation can be pivotally moved at the corner joints to erect said polyhedron with the unfolded arms in firmly locked relation in said sleeve joints.
A still further object of the invention is to provide new structure to serve as goals for ground level games comprising a collapsible polyhedron made up of sleeve joints cooperating with corner connection joints.
A still further object of the invention is to provide structural supporting devices useful for tent frames, playhouses, roadside signs, and the like formed of a collapsible rod and joint structure forming a polyhedron comprising sleeve joints cooperating with corner connection joints at one end of the structure.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a collapsible frame of the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the frame of FIG. 1 showing the frame in a partially erected position;
FIG. 3 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of the top frame anchor;
FIG. 4 is an enlarged end view of one of the ground engaging anchors, taken on the line 4--4 of FIG. 3;
FIG. 5 is a view, on a larger scale, showing a frame in its collapsed position;
FIG. 6 is a perspective of a modification of the frame having a four sided base and the frame supports having their ends provided with a return bend so that the ground engaging anchors project within the outline of the tent.
FIG. 7 is perspective of an extensible tent frame;
FIG. 8 is an enlarged fragmentary sectional view through one of the frame fittings, taken on the line 8--8 of FIG. 7;
FIG. 9 is a fragmentary perspective view of frame connection showing the supports thereof in an angular position;
FIG. 10 is a fragmentary perspective view showing a modification of a frame rod end connector;
FIG. 11 is a further modification of a frame rod end connector illustrating the end of the free rod assembled to the connector by a flexible latch;
FIG. 12 is a perspective view of the flexible latching member; and
FIGS. 13 through 17 are enlarged fragmentary perspective views of various pivotal rod joints used for assembling a support frame.
FIGS. 18 through 20 are fragmentary perspective views of different forms of apex joints; and,
FIGS. 21 and 22 are fragmentary perspective views of further modifications of the frame anchor.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The collapsible frame 14 illustrated in FIG. 1 is in the shape of a tetrahedron, with the rods serving as the frame elements 16, 18, 20, 22, 24 and 26. The associates sleeve elements and the four corners of the tetrahedron are frame socket 30 which serves as the sleeve for frame elements 16, 18 and 22. Frame socket 32 serves as the sleeve for frame elements 16, 20 and 24. Frame socket 34 serves as the sleeve for frame elements 18, 20 and 26. Frame socket 28 serves as the sleeve for frame elements 22, 26 and 24.
It is an essential feature of the regular tetrahedron shown in FIG. 1, that two of the frame elements for frame sockets 30, 32, 34 be fixed in the socket and the third be foldable in relation to the adjacent arm when in the folded condition, which is illustrated in FIG. 5.
The fixing of two of the frame elements within the frame socket is accomplished by means of a locking wire; the frame elements in the regular tetrahedron are all equal in length and are each formed with an arm at the end which is shown bent in the downward direction in the collapsed view of FIG. 5.
Accordingly and as shown in FIG. 4, the locking of arm 18a of frame element 18 within the inner sleeve 30b of frame socket 30 is accomplished by means of locking wire 31. The locking of arm 22b of frame element 22 within inner sleeve 30c is accomplished by this same means, e.g., by the locking wire 31, so that both arms 18a and 22b are locked by means of the same locking wire 31. Arm 16a, the arm for socket sleeve 30a, can be easily inserted into the sleeve or withdrawn (see FIGS. 2 and 4).
The locking arm 20b, which is rotatable freely as shown in FIG. 2, positions arm 20b within frame socket 34. This positioning is accomplished by pushing the free end of arm 20b in the direction shown by the arrow at the lower right corner of the tetrahedron as illustrated in FIG. 2. The two front corners of FIG. 2 are now in the locked position.
The locking of arm 18b, which is the free end of frame element 18, requires rotation of element 18 to position arm 18b in order to align the arm 18b with the free inner socket of frame socket 34. This free inner socket is shown in FIG. 2 behind the arrow, and the manipulation of arm 18b follows substantially the path of the dotted line behind the arrow. This locks the rear corner of the tetrahedron 14 in FIG. 2.
Thus, the manipulation of the free arm 20b of frame element 20 into right front frame socket 32, that of free arm 16a into left front frame socket 30, that of free arm 18b into rear frame socket 34, fixes and erects the base of the tetrahedron 14.
The apex frame socket 28 differs from each of the base frame sockets 30, 32 and 34 in that all of the inserted arms are locked, e.g., all three arms by means of three arm apex sleeve joints as shown in FIG. 3. Locking wire 29 serves to lock all three arms 22a, 24a and 26a at the very tip of these arms as shown in FIG. 2 and FIG. 3. The inner sleeve construction shown in fragmentary view at the bottom of FIG. 3 provides a separate inner sleeve 28a of the frame socket 28 for secure engagement of of a substantial part of the length of arm 22, and similarly inner sleeve 28b engages with the length of arm 24a and inner sleeve 28c engages with the length of arm 26a.
If the right front corner, left front corner and rear corners are to be dismantled, all that is necessary is to reverse the movement above explained for assembly, e.g. arm 16a is pulled out of frame socket 30, arm 20b is pulled out of frame socket 31 and arm 18b is pulled out of frame socket 34. By rotating frame elements 18 and 22 together, 16 and 24 together and 20 and 26 together, we have the collapsed condition shown in FIG. 5.
In FIGS. 6 - 9 and 15, there are shown views of tent or similar structure frames of rod and sleeve construction under which the rod-like frame elements of the invention may take the shape of tubular or similar structure forms, as for example, frame element 218 or of rod form 450, see FIG. 15. As shown in FIG. 8, tube elements 218 and 220 may be in telescoping engagement with frame element 226 and is useful in setting up a tent or similar construction in accordance with the invention. Tent frame 114 in FIG. 6 is pyramid or rectangular tetrahedron with one apex. Tent frame 214 has a double apex.
The four frame elements for the tetrahedron frame in FIG. 6 are shown in a single connection with single open sleeve apex 446. This apex sleeve 446 shown in greater detail in FIG. 15 is formed of a cruciform body portion with pins 452 between the open sleeve portions defined by the parallel walls in each of the four quadrants. Pins 452 engage into holes in the arm ends of the rods 450 of FIG. 15.
In the specific tent embodiment of FIG. 6, the structural frame elements 116, 118, 120 and 121 form the rectangular base. Frame elements 122, 124, 126 and 127 form the sides and are joined at the top arm portions by the open sleeve apex 446.
Although one form of apex joint 446 is shown in FIG. 6 for the interengagement at the top end of each of the plurality of rod elements or rod elements formed of telescoping tubes as in FIG. 8, it is obvious that the plurality of elements of rod type elements so joined may be greater in number than 4, e.g., for example, five elements as shown by the attachment of rod type members 450 through pins 452 in the modified open sleeve joint connector 446 as shown in FIG. 15. Or as shown in FIG. 14, only three rod elements 450 are joined by pins 452 in the apex open sleeve connector 444. Contrast this shape of connector 444 with one covered top part of the clip or type of corner connector in FIG. 16 which is so easily adapted for the base corners and as shown in FIG. 6.
In the tent-like arrangement of FIG. 7, the tent frame 214 is formed of the frame elements 216, 218, 220 and 222. The sleeve element 220 shown in cross section along section line 8--8 in FIG. 8 is formed of telescoping tube portions 218 and 220. The frame elements are thus rod like in their regidity but each is formed of tubular members capable of being collapsed into minimum space without any sacrifice in rigidity.
The corner joint 228 of the rectangular base part of tent-like frame 214 in FIG. 7 is shown in detail in FIG. 16. This joint 228 has the advantage of easy assembly and disassembly based upon coaction of clip elements 454 with the pin 452 in the open sleeve right angle body of corner joint 448. The two rod ends of the base and the end of the vertical rod each with its clip element 454 to engage a pin permits an easy X, Y, Z co-ordinate type of assembly by simple clip on action as shown in FIG. 16. In instances where the strength requirement is not too rigid, this type of joint is advantageous.
In FIG. 9, wing nut means is shown for providing a two plane change in a frame part of a polyhedron made in accordance with the invention wing nut 234 on both 236 which is disposed in the bore or opening of flattened rod ends 232 at the rod 231.
The identification of a corner joint as compared with an apex joint is based upon the factors of (1) permanency of joint, (2) complexity, (3) joint location, and (4) the unique coaction of the ends of the rod-like member with one of them being capable of withdrawal for knockdown and assembly.
Obviously, the distal projection of the rod from the joint creates the direction and configuration of the frame elements of the polyhedron and the bending of the rod elements near the joint is of importance (see FIGS. 21 and 22) in locating the connector in relation to a corner or apex of the structure.
In FIG. 1, bent arm end 16b is fixed into one type of corner joint and is one of the two arm ends fixed in a single corner joint. All three corner joints of the assembled frame 14 are identified, while only one end of the frame member is withdrawable and the end opposite to 16b, e.g., end 16a is withdrawable. The situation is similar in respect to end 20a in FIG. 2 in a connector of triangular cross section.
However, in the instance of ends 24b and 26b of the rod 24, in FIG. 2, both ends are fixed longitudinally and this fixed relationship defines and creates the vertical relationship, e.g., one end joint is a part of the base and the other constitutes the single vertex or apex. The apex joints are formed at the ends 22a, 24a, and 26a in FIG. 2. In this connection, see the relationship of these ends in FIG. 5, in collapsed condition to see the relationship to the method of folding.
The apex joint and corner joint are more clearly distinguished in polyhedra having more than one type of geometric surface, e.g., triangles and a rectangle, triangles and a square, etc., and this is shown in FIG. 6. The apex joint 446 in FIG. 6 provides a permanent modified open sleeve joint (see FIG. 15 for details) wherein 4 rod-like ends are fixed for pivotal movement only (no rotation). Obviously, this four rod type of joint is in a general class of fixed apex joint as exemplified by the four rod joints in FIG. 20 of different construction.
Obviously, locating an apex joint in the base instead of at the top does not change the joint, but these variations illustrate the spirit and scope of the apex joint formed by fixed rod ends and one removable rod end. The outer shape of the body portion of the apex joint may be changed, while the sleeve portions remain the same, but the rod ends may be bent in different fashions to change the structure. The rod ends may be bent in any manner as long as the distal portions of the rod form the required straight line parts of the frame to create the intended polyhedron.
Although the illustrations in FIGS. 21 and 22 are those of three rod apex joints, lying on the base, the particular bending of the rod ends can work equally as well with three rod apex joints, apex joints of more than three rods, and also corner joints. This bending of the apex and corner joints would usually work in unison.
A six rod apex joint of similar construction to FIG. 17 can also be used as well as a seven rod, eight rod, etc., and this progression will also work with the other type of apex joint, FIGS. 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 18, 19, 20, 21 and 22. The corner joint corresponding in construction with the apex joint will generally be used (example -- FIG. 1 apex with FIG. 11 corner, and a FIG. 15 apex with a FIG. 16 corner).
Also as illustrated in FIGS. 21 and 22, the apex sleeve joint of FIGS. 1, 2 and 3 can also be constructed as a one piece solid similar to that in FIGS. 18, 19 and 20.
In FIGS. 10 and 11 are shown totally enclosed corner joints 330 and 430, which are significantly different in both structure and function than the totally enclosed apex joints 470, 480 and 500 of FIGS. 18, 19 and 20.
The main difference lies in the coaction of the interfitting rod-like member and the totally enclosed body portion of the joint, especially the fixed or removable function for the rod end in the sleeve of the joint, only one of the three rod ends being removable from the sleeve which is assigned to said end.
Thus, in FIG. 10, rod 336, which is shown inwardly bent for sleeve alignment and easy disengagement after assembly, is insertable and detachable from its sleeve part of the three-sleeve body of the joint 330, while the other two rod ends are fixed in longitudinal direction by appropriate retaining means. In FIG. 10, the retaining means constitutes the enlarged end or head of the rod, which protrudes past the edge of the body portion of joint 330 and the clip or spring action provided by the open clip structure designated by reference numerals 334. The clip co-acts with the grooves behind the enlarged head portions at each rod end to permit a simple insertion and a locking action which securely retains the two ends of the permanently inserted rods located at the bottom left end of FIG. 10 during the manufacture of this joint. Although FIG. 10 shows two grooves, only one may be used if desired. These two fixed rods are generally easily rotated for engagement to other joints at the distal ends, and the adjustable other rod end is inserted as the last assembly step. There are frequent instances where one of the fixed rods may be constrained against rotation in order to facilitate assembly and knockdown; for example, the fixed rods may be so twisted if both rotate as to require excessive experimentation in assembling complex many sided polyhedra. To accomplish such constraint, the inner sleeve portion of the clip may be provided with a pinched stop portion or a strong adhesive may be used or a pin may be inserted, etc.
In those cases where a low cost very stable joint is required, the construction of FIG. 11 may be preferred over the clip type apex joint of FIG. 10. The advantage of the clip spring action of the FIG. 10 construction is to make up or compensate for lack of flexibility of the frame as made up by the rod-like members.
The unique characteristics of the rod-like members in FIGS. 11 and 12, in coaction with the solid body of the corner joint 430 in FIG. 11 lie in (a) utilizing screw means as one of the alternate means of fixing the ends of two of the rods, e.g., inter-engagement of threaded portions 432 which are manipulated by means of slats in the protruding heads 434 of these fixed red ends; (b) utilizing a unique latching member 436 constructed as a longated body with a head and threads 439, a slot 438 provided in the head portion, which is formed between the sides of the head, and bevelled finger grip portions 440 at each side of the slot, these portions permitting easy finger manipulation for disassembly. The bevelled edges aid insertion and the cross section functions as a spring clip yielding to the side sleeves pressure during insertion and expanding in the locked position with the offset portion below the inner lower edge of the bevel serving as the inner retaining surface.
In FIGS. 18, 19 and 20 are shown totally enclosed apex joints 470, 480 and 500. These joints each comprise rod-like members which are enclosed within the body of the apex joint. Thus, in apex joint 470, the rod-like body 472 comprises either a solid rod or a telescoping tube. These ends of the rod-like body are fastened securely within the sleeves of the body portion of the apex joint 470 by means of a screw means 474. The encased ends of the rod are bent inwardly to be in line and are adapted for encirclement within the respective sleeve portions of the joint while the remote ends are at the proper angle. Obviously, the screw means 474 serves a principal function as retainer for the inwardly bend end of the rod 472 and this screw means 474 may be replaced by a cap, adhesively fastened, or a tapped fastening means serving the same function.
It is useful to compare structure and function of the totally enclosed apex joints 470, 480 and 500 of FIGS. 18, 19 and 20 with the open sleeve type joints of FIGS. 13, 14 and 15. The illustrated totally enclosed embodiments have body portions of six sides (FIG. 19), 5 sides (FIG 18) and four sides (FIG. 20). The progression may go to three sides (FIG. 4, FIG. 10 and FIG. 11). In short, a common feature which assists in assembling operation for the unsighted, is to touch and recognize the 3, 4, 5 or 6 sides. Obviously, more than 6 sides can be formed to enclose the corresponding number of rod ends in pockets thereof and also this concept applies to corner joints and apex joints. For each enclosed type and number of sleeve joints in the solid body type of joint, there is a corresponding open body type; e.g., compare FIG. 13 and FIG. 3, FIG. 14 and FIG. 3, FIG. 15 and FIG. 20, FIG. 16 and FIG. 11 and so forth.
The benefits and advantages of the invention will be more fully understood in the sections following which describe
1. building of geometric structures
2. construction of utilitarian articles, such as tents, fluorescent reflector, flare housing, or flare support and the like
3. toys, especially kites and gliders and games which require a backstop or a fixed goal such as soccer, water polo, kickball, hockey or ground level basketball.
GEOMETRIC STRUCTURES
Collapsible structures can be achieved in a unique manner, with a single apex joint, the three arm apex of FIGS. 1 or 2 provides the collapsible bundle shown in FIG. 5 and a four sided tetrahrfton results.
The four arm single apex joint of FIG. 6 provides in collapsed condition a similar collapsed bundel as in FIG. 5 and a five sided polyhedron in the assembled position.
The five arm single apex joint of FIGS. 17 or 18 provides a similar collapsed fundle and a six sided polyhedron in the assembled position.
Obviously, one may increase the number of arms which are retained by the apex in polyhedra which are adapted to be similarly collapsed.
Combinations of polyhedra may be assembled. For example, of two polyhedra as in FIG. 7 are placed base to base, a solid cube or parallelopiped, above, one can have a housed shape, e.g., a peaked roof over a box. These shapes are especially useful for tent frames or for green house frames, wherein the covering roof structure consists of a suitable flexible film such as plastic or the like. Obviously, the roof structure is not limited to a two sided or peaked roof, it may have any number of sides to simulate a tower.
TENTS, REFLECTORS AND THE LIKE
By apinting the rod-like elements with fluorescent paint or covering with a fluorescent tape or woven textile sleeve or the like, a reflective flare-light sign or stand can be readily created from the various geometric constructions.
As mentioned above, the embodiment in FIG. 7 is of outstanding value as a tent frame.
Also the pyramids of FIGS. 1 or 2 may be used as a lantern support to hang the lantern from a hook in the apex which can rest on any flat surface.
GAMES AND TOYS
The embodiments of FIGS. 1 and 2 are easily usable as kite frames for various types of fabric coverings.
The open sides adapt the pyramids of FIGS. 1 and 2 as a goal for water polo, (floating wooden or plastic rod-like elements) or for ground level basketball.
The goal would, of course, be fitted with inner net and could also be used in the frame embodiment of FIG. 7.
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A collapsible rod and joint structure forming a polyhedron frame comprising sleeve or sleeve-type open sleeve joints cooperating with corner connection joints at the ends of each arm of the structure. The folding of a polyhedron is accomplished when all of the horizontal base arms joining the vertical arms radiating from the apex joints are each folded on hinged corner joints at the base of each vertical arm to connect to, after disengaging from the corner connection joint on the adjacent vertical arm, are folded so that the arms rest in parallel and together, whereby all dual sets are folded toward each other so that all arms rest in parallel and together.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A pressure rolling nip is formed between any two mutually parallel cylindrical rolls pressed together. A web passed through the nip with the rolls rotating receives pressure rolling. One example is a paper calender having cooperating soft and hard rolls which pressure roll and, therefore, calender a paper web passed through the nip. A paper calender may include many rolls positioned one on top of another to form a stack.
In the following, only the soft roll and its cooperating hard roll which has a steel surface are involved. The soft roll has traditionally been made by a stack of circular paper disks pressed together under high compression to provide a cylindrical roll with a rolling surface that is ground to a smooth cylindrical surface. The soft surface of the paper roll forms the pressure rolling or calendering nip with its cooperating hard roll having the steel surface, the paper web being passed through this nip. If the web has a defect which is imprinted in the soft roll's surface, it may be necessary to regrind the soft roll's surface. This is expensive and, therefore, undesirable.
An an alternative, the soft roll can be a steel roll covered by a polyurethane layer. The polyurethane is applied to the steel roll's surface in liquid form and is cross-linked on this surface to form a compact coating. This kind of soft roll provides an excellent calendering effect on the paper. If during calendering, a web hard spot or doubled web passes through the calendering nip and forms an impression, the polyurethane layer recovers its original shape after one revolution of the roll so that no trace of the impression remains on the roll's surface. Polyurethane has enormous recoverability after deformation.
On the other hand, the polyurethane layer presents a heating problem. The steel surfaced hard roll and the soft polyurethane covered roll must be pressed together with enough force to cause the polyurethane to deform as it passes through the nip because this in cooperation with the hard roll is what provides the calendering action on the paper web passing through the nip. The polyurethane is not perfectly elastic and as it is deformed by the nip pressure and thereafter resiliently recovers, heat is produced in the polyurethane, the degree of heat depending on the extent of the deformation and recovery which is dependent on the nip line pressure. It is possible to cool the polyurethane layer so that such heating does not build up to temperatures causing degradation or possibly destruction of the polyurethane layer. However, if the nip line pressure, the pressure from end to end of the active portion of the nip through which the paper web is calendered, is not a uniform line pressure throughout, localized heating of the poyurethane layer to degrading or possibly destructive temperatures is possible. Such localized overheating cannot occur if the line pressure is uniform from end to end. Heretofore, this uniformity has been difficult to attain.
There is a kind of controlled deflection roll that permits the nip line pressure to be locally varied at a series of zones extending throughout the nip's length. Such a roll comprises a cylindrical steel shell roll which can form one of the two rolls forming the nip. This shell roll encircles a fixedly positioned beam providing an annular space between itself and the inside of the roll's shell. In this space on the nip side of the shell roll a series of fluid-actuated, radially-acting pressure-exerting units extend axially with respect to the shell, each unit being fixed to the beam and slidingly bearing on the shell's inside so as to exert its individual pressure against a localized zone on the inside of the shell. The shell roll, being made of steel which is elastic, can locally flex so as to deflect at each of the zones towards the other roll to thereby vary the line pressure of the nip formed between it and a cooperating roll, individually at the various zones.
An example of such a controlled deflection roll is shown by the Justus Pat. No. 3,119,324. The fluid pressure actuated units are in the form of cylinders containing pistons having rods extending into sliding engagement with the shell's inside. Each unit has its own individual pressurized fluid supply line. If each unit provides the same piston area for its fluid pressure actuation, and if each unit is supplied with the same fluid pressure, it is academically possible to provide a nip line pressure that is uniform from end to end of the nip. However, under practical operating conditions it is not possible to control the various fluid pressures of the various units so that consistently they are precisely the same, a non-uniform nip line pressure sometimes resulting.
The object of the present invention is to more precisely control the nip line pressure of the nip formed between a hard roll and a soft roll of the polyurethane covered type. It is possible that other plastic coverings may be used for the soft roll and which are equivalents in that they may have essentially the quick recovery and heating characteristics of polyurethane.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The above object is attained by the present invention by using the heating characteristics of the polyurethane layer on the soft roll to control the nip line pressure. Using the described kind of controlled deflection roll and with either of the two rolls covered with the polyurethane layer to form the soft roll, the pressure of each of the pressure units inside of the controlled deflection roll's shell roll is controlled in dependence on the surface temperature of the polyurethane layer at each of its zones acted on by the units. At any zone where the layer has a temperature increase, the pressure of the unit at that zone is decreased, and if there is a reduction in the temperature, it is increased.
Normally, the units are of the cylinder and piston type each provided with its own fluid pressure line, the pressure of which can be individually controlled. The polyurethane layer's external temperature can be determined by either a series of probes or a single traveling probe arranged in either case to measure the temperature of the polyurethane at each zone under the control of each of the individually controllable units. Automatic control can be made available by automatic control systems technicians.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The accompanying drawings are schematic and are for use in connection with the following detailed description of the invention,
FIG. 1 being a longitudinal section showing the principles of the invention when the polyurethane layer is on the controlled deflection roll and the layer's temperature is measured by a series of stationary probes, and
FIG. 2 being the same kind of view but in this instance showing the polyurethane layer on the solid steel roll with the temperature measuring being via a traveling probe.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In FIG. 1 the controlled deflection soft roll is shown at 1 and the hard solid steel roll at 2. The hard roll's roll necks 2a rotate in stationary bearings (not shown) and being steel, this roll flexes downwardly like a beam under the rolling pressure applied by the controlled deflection roll.
The controlled deflection roll's internal beam is shown at 3 with its ends projecting and fixedly positioned by suitable means (not shown). The hollow shell roll 4 can move up and down throughout its length relative to the beam 3 because a circumferential space of adequate radial extent is provided between the beam 3 and the inside of the shell roll. This shell roll, made of steel and therefore flexible, has its outside covered with the polyurethane layer 5. The pressure rolling nip formed by the outside of this layer 5 and the surface of the roll 2 is indicated by the arrow 6. A paper web 7, having a thickness too small for clear illustration, is being pressure rolled for calendering through the pressure-rolling nip 6.
Hydraulically actuated pressure-exerting units 9 mounted by the beam 3 are evenly interspaced to form a series extending axially inside of the shell roll and slidingly engaging this inside. These units are shown schematically with the understanding that they can be of the hydraulically-actuated cylinder and piston types acting radially against the shell roll's inside. They normally would engage the inside of the shell roll through lubricated bearing shoes (not shown). Bearings (not shown) are used between the ends of the shell roll and the beam 3 to prevent horizontal movement while permitting vertical motion therebetween.
Each of the units 9 has an individual pressurized hydraulic liquid feed line 10. Each unit by deflection of the steel shell roll in a localized zone at the unit can cause the roll shell to deflect in that zone towards the solid steel roll 2. Therefore, the line pressure of the nip 6 can be changed at any of the zones. Eight of the units 9 are illustrated so in this case there are eight of these zones of roll deflection control.
A series of stationary temperature measuring probes 11 extend along the length of the polyurethane covered roll shell so as to measure the temperature of each of the zones established by the units 9, each probe connecting, such as electrically, by its own individual line 12, with the control system 13. This control system translates the temperature measurement obtained by any one of the probes 11 into the value of the hydraulic pressure fed to the one of the units 9 corresponding to that probe.
In operation, the web 7 is continuously pressure rolled for calendering with the control system 13 initially applying uniform hydraulic pressure to each of the units 9, this continuing as long as the probes measure the same temperature at each of the zones. As calendering continues, the polyurethane layer 5 inevitably begins to heat to non-uniform temperatures lengthwise of the roll 1. At any zone where there is a temperature increase, the control system 13 lowers the pressure applied to the corresponding one of the pressure-applying units 9, thus lowering the nip pressure at that zone. At any zone where there is a temperature decrease, the pressure of the unit 9 at that zone is increased. In the above way the temperature of the polyurethane layer 5 is kept uniform from end to end, and because this temperature is dependent on the nip line pressure, the latter is therefore automatically kept uniform throughout its extent. Localized heating of the polyurethane layer 5 to degrading and possibly destructive temperatures is prevented.
Academically, manual operation is possible. With each of the lines 12 provided with its own temperature measuring readout, and each of the pressure lines 10 manually controlled, an operator can adjust the pressures of the lines 10 as required to obtain uniform temperature readings from all of the probes 11.
In FIG. 2 it is the solid steel roll 22 that is provided with the polyurethane layer 25 while the controlled deflection roll 21 is the one having the uncovered hard steel rolling surface. The stationary series of probes 11 is replaced by a single probe which continuously traverses the length of the layer 25 as indicated by the arrow 26, a trackway 27 being provided for this purpose on which the traveling probe 31 rides. This permits a single line 32 to carry the signal from the probe 31 to the control system 33 which otherwise functions zone-by-zone as described before. In this case also, any person skilled in the control system technology can provide the necessary hardware.
In both of the illustrated cases, the operation would normally be such as to provide a uniform nip line pressure from end to end of the nip 6, at least insofar as applies to the active portion of the nip through which the web passes. By keeping the nip line pressure uniform, localized heating of the polyurethane layer is prevented, or in other words, by keeping the temperature of the polyurethane layer uniform a uniform nip line pressure is obtained.
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Cooperating hard and soft paper calendering rolls have probes for measuring the soft roll's temperature at different zones along its length and units for controlling the nip line pressure in each zone in dependence of the zone's measured temperature.
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[0001] This application claims the benefit under 35 U.S.C.119(e) of U.S. provisional application Ser. No. 61/702,989, filed Sep. 19, 2012.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates to the treatment of wastewater including precipitation of struvite, and more particularly the present invention relates to precipitation of struvite in wastewater by electro-coagulation with a magnesium sacrificial anode.
BACKGROUND
[0003] Uncontrolled struvite (NH 4 MgPO 4 ·6H 2 O) deposition in pipes, on reactor walls and on submerged surfaces of devices (Ben Moussa et at 2006; Le Corre et at 2005; Suzuki et at 2007), significantly increases maintenance costs (Doyle et al 2002). Numerous researchers have shown feasibility of struvite production from anaerobically digested sludge dewatering liquors and from livestock manure (Schuiling and Andrade 1999; Suzuki et al 2005; Suzuki et al 2007; Zeng and Li 2006, Doyle et al 2002) since they are rich in phosphates and ammonia. Struvite precipitates in form of stable white orthorhombic crystals (Le Corre et al 2005)—the precipitation reaction can be expressed as (Zeng and Li 2006):
[0000] Mg 2+ +NH 4 + +HPO 4 2− +6H 2 O→MgNH 4 PO 4 ↓6H 2 O+H + [1]
[0004] Published research (Ben Moussa at al 2006; Doyle et al 2002; Le Corre et al 2005; Stratful et al 2001; Zeng and Li 2006) indicated that the most important factors affecting struvite precipitation were the molar ratio Mg 2+ :NH 4 + :PO 4 3− , pH, substrates saturation as well as the presence of other ions (e.g. Ca 2+ , K + , CO 3 2− ). According to Hao et al. (2008) optimal molar ratio of Mg:N:P was 1.2:3:1. The pH affects saturation index by changing the specification of struvite substrates and other competing precipitates, such as magnesium phosphate or magnesium carbonate. It is generally agreed that struvite precipitation occurs when pH is higher than 7.5 and it rapidly increases until pH 10.5 (Doyle et al. 2002; Zeng and Li 2006). Hao et al. (2008) showed that optimal pH for precipitation of high purity struvite (>90%) was between 7.5 and 9 and dropped to 7.0 to 7.5 when Ca 2+ ions were present. Above pH of 9, or above pH of 7.5 in the presence of calcium, the precipitation of phosphates took place in form of magnesium or calcium phosphates (Hao et al 2008).
[0005] The most popular method of struvite deposition from wastewater is chemical precipitation by dosing magnesium salts and adjusting pH with a base
[0006] (Schuiling and Andrade 1999; Suzuki et al 2007; Zeng and Li 2006) or by stripping CO 2 using aeration (Suzuki et al 2005; Suzuki et al 2007). Among magnesium sources most frequently used are MgCl 2 , MgO and MgSO 4 (Hug and Udert 2013). Other magnesium compounds like Mg(OH) 2 and MgCO 3 are much less suitable due to their low solubility in water (Schuiling and Andrade 1999; Zeng and Li 2006).
[0007] Ben Moussa (2006) and Wang (2010) proposed to eliminate the need for alkalinity dosing using electrolytic cell with inert anodes. In accordance with the overall reaction of oxygen reduction and hydrogen evolution, equations [2] and [3], hydroxide anions are produced on the cathode surface. The process was shown to increase the interfacial pH of cathode by as high as 1.5 units in comparison to the bulk solution (Ben Moussa et al 2006). Thus, struvite deposition can be done in neutral pH of bulk solution (Ben Moussa et al 2006; Wang et al 2010). Ben Moussa et al. 2006 reported that electrochemical methods allowed production of pure struvite. In both cases external magnesium source was dosed.
[0000] O 2 +2H 2 O+4e − →4HO − [2]
[0000] 2H 2 O+2e − →H 2 ↑+2HO −
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] Struvite precipitation using magnesium sacrificial anode as the only source of magnesium is presented. High-purity magnesium alloy cast anode was found to be very effective in recovery of high-quality struvite from water solutions and from supernatant of fermented waste activated sludge (WAS) from a high-purity oxygen wastewater treatment plant. Struvite purity was strongly dependent on the pH and the electric current density. Optimum pH of the solution was in the broad range between 7.5 and 9.3, with struvite purities exceeding 90%. Increasing current density resulted in elevated struvite purities. No upper limits were observed in the studied current range of 50 mA to 200 mA. Phosphorus removal rate was proportional to the current density and comparable for tests with water solutions and the supernatant from fermented sludge. The highest P-removal rate achieved was 4.0 mg PO 4 —P cm −2 h −1 at electric current density of 45 A m −2 . Initial substrate concentrations affected the rate of phosphorus removal. The precipitated struvite accumulated in bulk liquid with significant portions attached to the anode surface from which regular detachment occurred.
[0009] The objective of this study was to assess the suitability of struvite precipitation from the supernatant of fermented waste activated sludge (WAS). The waste activated sludge in the experimental embodiments described herein were obtained from a high purity oxygen reactor at the South End Water Pollution Control Centre in Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada, using a sacrificial magnesium anode as the sole source of magnesium. Specific objectives were to determine the impact of solution pH and electric current on purity of the produced struvite and the phosphorus removal ratio.
[0010] According to one aspect of the invention there is provided a method of precipitating struvite in wastewater, the method comprising:
[0011] providing a plurality of electrodes in contact with the wastewater in which at least one electrode comprises a sacrificial anode comprising magnesium; and
[0012] applying a current across the electrodes so as to precipitate the struvite by electro-coagulation.
[0013] Preferably the sacrificial anode consists substantially entirely of magnesium, for example the sacrificial anode may have a magnesium purity of approximately 99%.
[0014] Preferably the sacrificial anode is the only magnesium added to the wastewater.
[0015] The wastewater being treated can include treated wastewater, raw wastewater, livestock manure, or digested municipal sludge concentrates for example.
[0016] When biologically treating the wastewater, the method preferably also includes maintaining a current density of the current applied to the sacrificial anode below a prescribed threshold which is detrimental to the biological treatment.
[0017] When the objective is to remove phosphorous from the wastewater the method may include increasing a magnitude of the current being applied in response to a measured concentration of phosphorous in an effluent from the treatment chamber exceeding a prescribed phosphorous limit.
[0018] One embodiment of the invention will now be described in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0019] FIG. 1 illustrates XRD spectra for precipitate produced in tests T 2 -T 7 and spectrum for pure struvite (NH4MgPO4.6H2O) according to International Centre for Diffraction Data.
[0020] FIG. 2 illustrates struvite purity and PO4-P removal rate as a function of bulk solution pH at I=50 mA.
[0021] FIG. 3 illustrates struvite purity and PO4-P removal rate as a function of electric current at pH of 7.5.
[0022] FIG. 4 illustrates combined profiles of ammonia and phosphate concentrations for tests T 8 -T 12 .
[0023] FIG. 5 illustrates ammonia and phosphate concentrations profiles for test T 13 .
[0024] FIG. 6 illustrates soluble P and pH profiles in struvite precipitation tests with fermented sludge supernatant; pH was not controlled; electric current was set to 50, 100 and 200 mA in consecutive tests; two test conducted on sludge fermented for 2d and one test on sludge fermented for 3d.
[0025] FIG. 7 illustrates soluble P and ammonia N removed in struvite precipitation test wherein WAS was after 3d fermentation, pH was not controlled, and electric current was 50 mA.
[0026] FIG. 8 is a schematic representation of an exemplary wastewater treatment system for precipitating struvite.
[0027] In the drawings like characters of reference indicate corresponding parts in the different figures.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0028] Turning initially to FIG. 8 , a wastewater treatment system 10 according to the present invention is schematically represented. The system 10 includes a suitable vessel 12 for containing a batch of wastewater to be treated therein. The vessel 12 includes a wastewater inlet 14 for introducing wastewater into the vessel therethrough and a wastewater outlet 16 from which the treated wastewater is arranged to be discharged.
[0029] A plurality of electrodes 18 are supported in the vessel for contact with the wastewater to be treated in the vessel. The electrodes 18 are connected to a suitable power supply 20 which is arranged to apply a current between the electrodes across the wastewater being treated. At least one of the electrodes 18 is a sacrificial magnesium electrode as described in the following.
[0030] Additionally the system 10 can be provided with a pH probe 22 for monitoring pH in the wastewater being treated. Additional sensors 24 may be provided in communication with the wastewater being treated or the already treated wastewater in the effluent in the wastewater outlet for monitoring the effectiveness of the treatment.
[0000] Material and methods
[0031] Both the synthetic pure water solution and the WAS supernatant tests were conducted in a 1 L reactor equipped with a set of two magnesium electrodes, pH probe (Accumet 13-620-108A by Fisher Scientific) and a magnetic stirrer. The electrodes were shaped as 2 mm thick rectangular plates with an active surface area of 44 cm 2 and were made of high purity alloy AZ91 HP. Direct current was supplied to electrodes by KEPCO BOP 100-2D. Water deionized in Elix® Water Purification system (Milipore) with electro conductivity EC of 0.08±0.01 μS cm −1 was used for preparation of synthetic solutions. Conductivity measurements during tests were done with Accumet 13-620-165 electrode connected to Accumet XL50 meter by Fisher Scientific.
Impact of pH and Electric Current on Struvite Purity and Phosphorus Removal Rate
[0032] Three-hour batch tests were conducted. The value of pH was continuously adjusted with 0.02N HCl solution dosed by Fisher Scientific Mini Variable-Flow Peristaltic Pump controlled by Eutech alpha pH700 controller. Solution for all tests contained 6.49 g Na 2 HPO 4 .7H 2 O and 2.48 g NH 4 Cl, which accounts for 1:1.9 molar ratio of P:N. Conductivity of electrolyte was adjusted to 10 mS cm −1 by dosing NaCl.
[0033] Four tests (T 1 through T 4 ) were run with electric current of 50 mA and pH set points of 6.5, 7.5, 8.5 and 9.5. Three tests (T 5 through T 7 ) were run with pH set point of 7.5 and with the electric current of 100, 150 and 200 mA.
[0034] During the tests 6 mL solution samples were grabbed every 30 min. To assess the nutrient removal rate phosphorus and ammonia in the samples were determined by flow injection analysis FIA (QuikChem8500 by Lachat Instruments).
Impact of Initial Substrate Concentration on Phosphorous Removal Rate
[0035] Five three-hour tests (T 8 -T 12 ) were conducted at different initial ammonia and phosphate concentrations as summarized in the following Table 1. Applied electric current and pH set point (power source and pH control as in previous tests) were the same for all five tests, 100 mA and 7.5 respectively. As in all other tests, 6 mL grab samples were collected every 30 min, filtered and analyzed for ammonia nitrogen and phosphate using FIA.
[0036] The following Table 1 summarizes initial ammonia and phosphate concentrations, pH set point and EC in tests T 8 through T 12 .
[0000]
Bulk
Current,
Ammonia,
Phosphate,
N:P,
Test
pH
mA
mg N/L
mg P/L
mol:mol
T8
7.5
100
490
548
1.98
T9
7.5
100
378
418
2.00
T10
7.5
100
286
313
2.02
T11
7.5
100
194
214
2.00
T12
7.5
100
98
105
2.05
[0037] An additional seven-hour test T 13 was conducted to access phosphorus removal rate at the elevated N:P concentration ratio. Initial concentrations of ammonia nitrogen and phosphate were 482 mg N/L and 554 mg P/L (N:P molar ratio 1.92), respectively. In order to keep ammonia concentration at a high level throughout the test, 10 mL of 30.6 g NH 4 Cl/L (which accounts for 80 mg N) solution was dosed manually to the reaction beaker every two hours.
[0000] Phosphorus Removal from Fermented Waste Activated Sludge
[0038] Sludge used in the study was waste activated sludge (WAS) originated from South End Water Pollution Control Centre (SEWPCC) in Winnipeg. SEWPCC is high purity oxygen plant (HPO) without nutrient removal. The sludge was collected via return activated sludge (RAS) sampling tap. The sludge was sampled at the same time in the morning during a sludge pumping phase to ensure as much consistency as possible. Sludge was fermented for 48 to 72 h in a 4 L Nalgene batch reactors with low speed impeller mixer. After fermentation the sludge was decanted using IEC Multi centrifuge by Thermo at 6500 RPM. Sludge characteristic is presented in Table S1 (in Supplementary Material).
[0039] Three 3-hour tests of struvite precipitation were conducted on the supernatant of fermented sludge. The reactor setup was as in the previous tests. The value of pH was not controlled and the impressed current was set at 50 mA, 100 mA and 200 mA (current density CD of 11.4 A m −2 , 22.7 A m −2 and 45.4 A m −2 ) in consecutive tests. During the tests 6 mL solution samples were grabbed every 10 to 15 min for FIA analysis of ammonia and phosphates.
Precipitate Analysis
[0040] At the end of tests T 1 -T 7 , the precipitate was harvested by filtration of treated solution on glass fiber filters (Whatman 934-AH by GE Healthcare UK Ltd) and dried at room temperature for 48 h. Due to frequent detachment of the precipitate from the surface of the anode harvested samples were mixture of the precipitate from the bulk solution and from the anode. After homogenization of samples, X-ray diffraction (XRD) spectra were collected using a Siemens D5000 powder diffractometer using Cu Kα 1 radiation and operated at 40 kV and 40 mA. The XRD analysis was not conducted on the sample from test T 1 due to the insufficient amount of precipitate. Remaining samples were digested in 2% nitric acid for 24 h at 40° C. The magnesium, sodium and phosphorus content of digested samples were assessed by inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectroscopy analysis (Vista-MPX CCD Simultaneous ICP-OES analyzer by Varian). Digested samples after pH adjustment to were also analysed using FIA to determine the concentrations of ammonium and phosphate. Standard deviation of phosphate results from ICP-OES and FIA analyses did not exceed 2.5%.
Struvite Purity Calculation
[0041] Most of the common struvite mineral impurities do not contain nitrogen, i.e. Mg(OH) 2 , MgHPO 4 , Mg 3 (PO 4 ) 2 ; MgKPO 4 , CaHPO 4 , Ca 5 (PO 4 ) 3 OH (Hao et al 2008; Le Corre et al 2005; Zeng and Li 2006). Thus, for purity quantification it was assumed that each mole of ammonium stands for one mole of struvite. The struvite purity SP was calculated as per equation [4].
[0000] SP=[NH 4 —N] prec .[NH 4 —N] struv −1 =[NH 4 −N]prec··(57 mg g −1 ) −1 [4]
[0042] where [NH 4 —N] prec is the measured concentration of the ammonium nitrogen in the precipitate and [NH 4 —N] struv the theoretical content of the nitrogen in the pure struvite (57 mg N g −1 ).
[0043] Precipitates may also contain magnesium ammonium phosphates (MAP) with different hydration levels than struvite. Dittmarite for instance is MAP monohydrate and its molecular weight is 37% lower than struvite and theoretical content of the nitrogen in pure dittmarite is 90 mg g −1 . Since many of the MAP hydrates may exist simultaneously and it is not possible to quantify all of them in the mixture (Sarkar 1991), the assumption was made that in the ambient room temperature and humidity all MAP is hexahydrate (struvite). Even though that this approach may result in purities values higher than 100% authors find this method suitable for engineering use.
[0044] The following Table 2 summarizes the characteristics of the sludge used for the phosphorous removal tests.
[0000]
Standard
Units
Value
deviation
Raw WAS
VS
g L −1
6.94
0.20
TS
g L −1
9.30
0.85
TP
mg L −1
163
18
mg TP/g
mg g −1
23.43
3.6
VS
PO 4 —P
mg PO 4 —P L −1
15.1
1.2
tCOD
g L −1
10.74
0.24
sCOD
mg L −1
56.50
1.50
pH
6.53
0.11
Fermented WAS supernatant
PO 4 —P
mg L −1
56.1
4.2
NH 4 —N
mg L −1
113.8
28
pH
—
7.65
0.40
EC
mS cm −1
1.8
0.2
[0045] The following Table 3 summarizes Molar ratios N:P:Mg in precipitates from tests T 1 to T 7 .
[0000]
Molar ratio in precipitate
Test
bulk pH
current, mA
N:P:Mg
T1
6.5
50
1:1.15:2.36
T2
7.5
50
1:1.16:1.44
T3
8.5
50
1:1.11:1.28
T4
9.5
50
1:1.14:1.57
T2
7.5
50
1:1.16:1.44
T5
7.5
100
1:1.12:1.29
T6
7.5
150
1:1.09:1.30
T7
7.5
200
1:1.05:1.12
Results and Discussion
[0046] Impact of pH and Electric Current on Struvite Purity and Phosphorus Removal rate
[0047] XRD spectra of precipitates from tests T 2 -T 7 , presented in FIG. 1 , demonstrated high similarity in the position of peaks and relative peaks values to spectrum of struvite standard. That indicated high purity of produced struvite. The molar ratios N:P:Mg in precipitate presented in Tab. S 2 (Supplementary Materials) were calculated based on results of ICP and FIA analysis conducted on digested precipitate samples. Molar concentration of N was lower than P and Mg in all samples. This is in agreement with expectations, since most of struvite impurities, e.g. Mg(OH) 2 , MgHPO 4 , Mg 3 (PO 4 ) 2; and when other ions are present e.g. MgKPO 4 , CaHPO 4 , Ca 5 (PO 4 ) 3 OH, do not contain ammonium ions (Hao et al 2008; Le Corre et al 2005; Zeng and Li 2006). Thus, for purity quantification it was assumed that each mole of ammonium stands for one mole of struvite.
[0048] Purities calculated for tests T 1 -T 14 , where the current was constant at 50 mA and the pH was changed in consecutive steps from 6.5 to 9.5 ( FIG. 2 ), indicate that optimum pH for struvite precipitation is in the vicinity of 8.5. High struvite purity above 90% was achieved in whole range of pH from 7.5 to 9.3. There are few reports of struvite precipitation at pH below 7 (Doyle et al 2002; Zeng and Li 2006), however in this study, even at pH of 6.5 the purity at 76% was still relatively high. The increase of pH from 6.5 to 7.5 resulted in an over three-fold increase of phosphorus removal rate, from 0.25 to 0.82 mg PO 4 —P cm −2 h −1 ( FIG. 2 ). Further increase of pH resulted only in a 5% increase of P removal rate and reached plateau at 0.86 mg PO 4 —P cm −2 h −1 at pH of 8.5. Thus, increasing the solution pH above 8.5 was not beneficial for the quantity or for the quality of produced struvite.
[0049] It was shown that struvite purity increased with increased values of applied electric current ( FIG. 3 ). The current increase from 50 mA to 200 mA resulted in a 13% increase of struvite purity at pH of 7.5. According to the Faraday's laws of electrolysis, mass of magnesium released from the anode is proportional to the delivered charge. Theoretical magnesium release can be calculated using the following equation.
[0000] m t =A·I·t ( n·F) − , [g] 8 5]
[0050] where m t is theoretical magnesium release [g], A is atomic weight of magnesium (24.3 g mol −1 ), I is electric current [A], t is time elapsed [s], n is magnesium valence (2) and F is Faraday constant (96,485 C mol −1 ).
[0051] However observed magnesium release can be even higher due to: (a) the loss of metal by spalling (detachment of metal chunks), (b) self-corrosion, (c) the formation of meta-stable monovalent magnesium ions and (d) charge wastage due to hydrogen evolution (Kim et al 2000; Andrei et al 2003). Hug and Udert (2013) reported observed magnesium release to be up to 220% higher than theoretical. Stratful et al (2001) identified magnesium concentration as the main factor limiting struvite precipitation. Thus, correlation between the purity and the current observed in the present study may be explained by the aforementioned higher magnesium release rate at higher current, which elevated the Mg:P molar concentration ratio in the vicinity of the anode.
[0052] The phosphorus removal rate was established to be proportional to the electric current in the studied current range ( FIG. 3 ). Phosphorus removal rate from the synthetic solution of 4.0 mg PO 4 —P cm −2 h −1 was achieved at a current density of 45.5 A m −2 , which is comparable with 3.7 mg PO 4 —P cm −2 h −1 at 55 A m −2 reported by Hug and Udert (2013). Based on the results it seems that the higher the current the better is the overall system efficiency. However, to establish an optimum operation current two major factors should be considered: (a) local electric power and struvite prices and (b) impact of current density on biomass if coupled with biological treatment. Wei et al (2011) discovered that electric current density of 6.2 A m −2 does not significantly affect biomass viability for at least 4 hours. They did find though that the current density of 24.7 m −2 decreased live cell count by 29%.
[0053] Cycles of deposition crust build-up and self-detachment on the surface of the anode were observed. Cycle time decreased when impressed current increased. On the surface of the cathode only a thin, white film-like layer was deposited. Therefore, no electrodes scraping was required.
[0000] Impact of Initial Substrate Concentration on Phosphorus Removal rate
[0054] Tests T 8 to T 12 , presented in FIG. 4 indicate that the phosphorus removal rate decreased with initial concentrations of ammonia and phosphate in the solution. Phosphorus removal rate deteriorated from 2.00 mg PO 4 —P cm −2 h −1 in test T 8 to 0.57 mg PO 4 —P cm −2 h −1 in test T 12 (initial concentrations presented in Tab.1). This is in agreement with the expected decrease of struvite precipitation due to lower supersaturation of solution.
[0055] Tests T 8 -T 12 were conducted with initial N:P mass concentration ratio close to 1. In practice, the mass concentration of phosphorus (PO 4 —P) is much smaller than mass concentration of ammonium nitrogen, e.g. liquor from sludge dewatering at wastewater treatment plants. Thus, concentration of ammonium nitrogen in test T 13 was kept at elevated level throughout the test by dosing ammonium chloride. In T 13 ( FIG. 5 ) it was shown that it is possible to obtain high phosphorus removal rates in lower phosphorus concentration range, i.e. an average of 1.38 mg PO 4 —P cm −2 h −1 , at concentration of phosphorus between 95 and 35 mg PO 4 —P L −1 . This meant that the decrease of phosphorus removal rate due to lower concentration of phosphorus may have been offset by higher N:P molar concentration ratio.
[0000] Phosphorus Removal from Fermented Waste Activated Sludge
[0056] Tests performed on SEWPCC WAS fermented for 2-days and for 3-days showed high phosphorus removal rates, strongly dependent on applied electric current (EC). At 200 mA maximum removal rate was 3.95 mg PO 4 —P cm −2 h −1 , and at 50 mA 1.45 mg PO 4 —P cm −2 h −1 . The results are comparable to those achieved in tests with synthetic solutions 4.00 mg PO 4 —P cm −2 h −1 in T 7 (pH of 7.5 and EC of 200 mA) and 0.82 mg PO 4 —P cm −2 h −1 in T 2 (pH of 7.5 and EC of 50 mA). The presented method was capable of reducing phosphorus to very low levels, i.e. 1.3 mg PO 4 —P L −1 at applied current of 200 mA or 2.4 mg PO 4 —P L −1 at 50 mA. That translated to P removal efficiencies in the range of 95 to 98% at relatively low initial P concentrations of 56 mg PO 4 —P L −1 . For comparison, fluidized bed struvite precipitation processes have been shown to successfully remove only 70% of P from digester supernatant at concentrations of 40 mg PO 4 —P L −1 and achieve up to 90% removal at PO 4 concentrations of 70 mg P L −1 with sufficient Mg addition and pH control (Britton et al 2005). In this research, even at the lowest tested electric current, the almost complete removal of soluble P required not more than 1:45 hours ( FIG. 6 ).
[0057] In addition, phosphorus and ammonia were removed in molar ratio close to 1:1. That suggests precipitation of high-purity struvite. Results from tests with the highest initial ammonia concentration (153 mg L −1 ) are presented in Fig. S 1 (Supplementary Material).
Conclusions
[0058] Electrolytic magnesium dissolution was shown to be an effective method of high-purity struvite precipitation and phosphorus removal. The method proved to be very effective in phosphorus removal from fermented waste activated sludge supernatant, achieving removal efficiency of 98% with required hydraulic residence time of under 2 h.
[0059] The highest struvite purity was obtained at pH 8.5. Purities higher than 90% were obtained in pH range between 7.5 and 9.3. Although struvite was produced in the whole pH range (6.5-9.5) studied, precipitation at pH 6.5 was inefficient. The increase of applied electric current resulted in an increase of struvite purity and in proportional increase of phosphorus removal.
[0060] High phosphorus removal rate of 4.0 mg PO4—P cm-2 h-1 was attained at electric current density of 45 A m-2. The rate depended strongly on initial concentration of ammonia and phosphate in the solution, decreasing when concentrations decreased. The impact of low phosphorus concentration may be offset by increasing the N:P molar concentration ratio. However, the range of current density of 45 A m-2 might inhibit bacteria growth.
[0061] Since the proposed method does not require any chemical dosing, does not have any harmful by-products and can produce high purity struvite at relatively low pH of 7.5, it can provide an alternative to chemical and biological phosphorus removal processes in water and wastewater treatment systems. Unlike traditional chemical coagulation or precipitation with aluminium sacrificial anodes, this method allowed actual phosphorus removal and direct recovery as struvite.
REFERENCES
[0062] The following references are referred to in the preceding by author and date and are incorporated herein by reference.
[0063] Andrei, M., Di Gabriele, F., Bonora, P. L., Scantlebury, D., 2003. Corrosion behaviour of magnesium sacrificial anodes in tap water. Materials and Corrosion 54 (1), 5-11.
[0064] Bellezze, T., Fratesi, R., 2010. Assessing the efficiency of galvanic cathodic protection inside domestic boilers by means of local probes. Corrosion Science 52 (9), 3023-3032.
[0065] Britton, A., Koch, F., Mavinic, D., Adnan, A., Oldham, W. and Udala, B., 2005. Pilot-scale struvite recovery from anaerobic digester supernatant at an enhanced biological phosphorus removal wastewater treatment plant. Journal of Environmental Engineering and Science 4,265-277.
[0066] Le Corre, K., Valsami-Jones, E., Hobbs, P., Parsons, S., 2005. Impact of calcium on struvite crystal size, shape and purity. Journal of Crystal Growth 283 (3-4), 514-522.
[0067] Doyle, J., Oldring, K., Churchley, J., Parsons, S., 2002. Struvite formation and the fouling propensity of different materials. Water Research 36 (16), 3971-8.
[0068] Hao, X.-D., Wang, C.-C., Lan, L., Van Loosdrecht, M. C. M., 2008. Struvite formation, analytical methods and effects of pH and Ca2+. Water Science and Technology 58 (8), 1687-92.
[0069] Hug, A., Udert, K. M., 2013. Struvite precipitation from urine with electrochemical magnesium dosage. Water Research 47(1), 289-299.
[0070] Kim, J., Joo, J., Koo, S., 2000. Development of high-driving potential and high-efficiency Mg-based sacrificial anodes for cathodic protection. Journal of Materials Science Letters 19,477-479.
[0071] Ben Moussa, S., Maurin, G., Gabrielli, C., Ben Amor, M., 2006. Electrochemical Precipitation of Struvite. Electrochemical and Solid-State Letters 9 (6), 97-101.
[0072] Parthiban, G. T., Parthiban, T., Ravi, R., Saraswathy, V., Palaniswamy, N., Sivan, V., 2008. Cathodic protection of steel in concrete using magnesium alloy anode. Corrosion Science 50 (12), 3329-3335.
[0073] Sarkar, A. K., 1991. Hydration/dehydration characteristics of struvite and dittmarite pertaining to magnesium ammonium phosphate cement systems. Journal of Materials Science 26,2514-2518.
[0074] Schuiling, R. D., Andrade, A., 1999. Recovery of Struvite from Calf Manure. Environmental Technology 20,765-768.
[0075] Sharifi, B., Mojtahedi, M., Goodarzi, M., Vandati Khaki, J., 2009. Effect of alkaline electrolysis conditions on current efficiency and morphology of zinc powder. Hydrometallurgy 99,72-76.
[0076] Stratful, I., Scrimshaw, M. D., Lester, J. N., 2001. Conditions influencing the precipitation of magnesium ammonium phosphate. Water Research 35 (17), 4191-9.
[0077] Suzuki, K., Tanaka, Y., Kuroda, K., Hanajima, D., Fukumoto, Y., 2005. Recovery of phosphorous from swine wastewater through crystallization. Bioresource Technology\96 (14), 1544-50.
[0078] Suzuki, K., Tanaka, Y., Kuroda, K., Hanajima, D., Fukumoto, Y., Yasuda, T., Waki, M., 2007. Removal and recovery of phosphorous from swine wastewater by demonstration crystallization reactor and struvite accumulation device. Bioresource Technology 98 (8), 1573-8.
[0079] Wang, C.-C., Hao, X.-D., Guo, G.-S., Van Loosdrecht, M. C. M., 2010. Formation of pure struvite at neutral pH by electrochemical deposition. Chemical Engineering Journal 159 (1-3), 280-283.
[0080] Wei, V., Elektorowicz, M., Oleszkiewicz, J. A, 2011. Influence of electric current on bacterial viability in wastewater treatment. Water Research 45 (16), 5058-62.
[0081] Zeng, L., Li, X., 2006. Nutrient removal from anaerobically digested cattle manure by struvite precipitation. Journal of Environmental Engineering and Science 5,285-294.
[0082] Hug and Uder (2013) presented struvite precipitation from source-separated urine dosing magnesium by electrolytical dissolution. Phosphorus removal rate of 3.7 mg P cm −2 h −1 at an impressed current density of 55A m −2 was achieved in a sequencing batch reactor process with a 2 hours cycle. Struvite production cost with electrochemical magnesium dosing at 4.45 kg −1 was shown to be competitive with dosing of MgCl 2 and MgSO 4 . The results were published after the present study was completed and both research teams were unaware of each other's work.
[0083] Since various modifications can be made in my invention as herein above described, and many apparently widely different embodiments of same made within the spirit and scope of the claims without department from such spirit and scope, it is intended that all matter contained in the accompanying specification shall be interpreted as illustrative only and not in a limiting sense.
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A method precipitating struvite in wastewater uses a magnesium sacrificial anode as the only source of magnesium. A high-purity magnesium alloy cast anode was found to be very effective in recovery of high-quality struvite from water solutions and from supernatant of fermented waste activated sludge (WAS) from a high-purity oxygen wastewater treatment plant. Struvite purity was strongly dependent on the pH and the electric current density. Optimum pH of the solution was in the broad range between 7.5 and 9.3, with struvite purities exceeding 90%. The precipitated struvite accumulated in bulk liquid with significant portions attached to the anode surface from which regular detachment occurred.
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REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims priority to Provisional U.S. Patent Application No. 61/271,607, file on Jul. 23, 2009, the entire content of which are incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to crossover valve systems for a split-cycle engine and corresponding methods for controlling such systems, and in particular, to systems offering effective solutions to large opening differential pressure force.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
A split four-stroke cycle internal combustion engine is described in, but not limited by, U.S. Pat. Nos. 6,543,225, 6,952,923 and 6,986,329. It includes at least one power piston and a corresponding expansion or power cylinder, and at least one compression piston and a corresponding compression cylinder. The power piston reciprocates through a power stroke and an exhaust stroke of a four-stroke cycle, while the compression piston reciprocates through an intake stroke and a compression stroke. A pressure chamber or crossover passage interconnects the compression and power cylinders, with one or more crossover inlet valves providing substantially one-way gas flow from the compression cylinder to the crossover passage, and one or more crossover outlet valves providing gas flow communication between the crossover passage and the power cylinder. In this patent application, crossover valves refer only to the crossover outlet, not inlet, valves. The engine further includes intake and exhaust valves on the compression and power cylinders, respectively. According to the referenced patents and other related developments, the split-cycle engine potentially offers many advantages in fuel efficiency, especially when integrated with an additional air or gas storage tank interconnected with the crossover passage, which makes it possible to operate the engine as an air hybrid engine. Relative to an electrical hybrid engine, an air hybrid engine can potentially offer as much, if not more, fuel economy benefits at much lower manufacturing and waste disposal costs.
To achieve the potential benefits, the air or air-fuel mixture in the crossover passage has to be maintained, for the entire four stroke cycle, at a predetermined firing condition pressure, e.g. approximately 18.6 bar (or 270 psi) per U.S. Pat. No. 6,543,225. The pressure may reach over 50 bar (735 psi) or higher, per U.S. Pat. No. 6,952,923, U.S. Pat. No. 6,986,329, a brochure entitled “Scuderi Air Hybrid Engine” distributed at SAE 2006 Congress by the Scuderi Group, LLC, and the May 2006 issue of European Automotive Design. Illustrated in graph 14 of FIG. 1 are, per US Patent Publication US2009/0038598-A 1, dynamic pressure profiles at the downstream end of the crossover passage and inside the power cylinder of a certain split-cycle engine. The ignition happens around 18 degrees ATDC (After Top Dead Center of the power cylinder). The crossover valve (XV) opens and closes at −5 degrees ATDC (or 5 degrees before TDC or BTDC) and 25 degrees ATDC, respectively, which presents a narrow opening window. Similarly tight timing is also presented in U.S. Pat. No. 6,952,923. Opening the crossover valve at or near TDC, when the power cylinder volume is at its minimum, helps reduce re-compression of the gas in the power cylinder and improves the efficiency. By opening several degrees before TDC, instead of exactly at or after TDC, it helps expand the valve opening window.
To seal against a persistently high pressure in the crossover passage, a practical crossover valve is most likely a poppet or disk valve with an outwardly (i.e. away from the power cylinder, instead of into it) opening motion as suggested in U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,970. Outward valve design is routinely implemented for applications with a high-pressure manifold, for example various compressor exhaust valves as illustrated in U.S. Pat. No. 4,253,805 and SAE Paper 2005-01-1884. In addition, outward opening design is desirable to deal with interference between an engine valve and the piston for any design with small combustion chamber as articulated in U.S. Pat. No. 6,952,923 (Column 14-Line 63 and Column 22-Line 33), especially when the compression ratio is greater than 80 to 1 as claimed by U.S. Pat. No. 6,952,923 (claim 3), which leaves practically no combustion chamber around TDC. Outward design is therefore further illustrated in figures in U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,970, No. 7,421,987 and No. 7,636,984 and in US Patent Applications 2008/0054205-A 1, 2009/0038598-A 1, 2009/0038599-A 1, 2009/0039300-A 1, 2009/0133648-A 1 and 2009/0044778-A 1.
When closed, the valve disk or head is pressured against the valve seat under the crossover passage pressure. To open the valve, an actuator has to provide a large opening force to overcome the pressure force on the valve head as well as the inertia. The opening pressure force is caused by the opening differential pressure dPo, which in FIG. 1 is about 35 bars. The differential pressure falls dramatically once the crossover valve opens because of a substantial pressure-equalization between the crossover passage and the power cylinder or a rapid rise in the power cylinder pressure. Similar trends in dynamic pressure profile and magnitude are found in U.S. Pat. No. 6,543,225. The pressure may reach over 50 bar (735 psi) or higher, per U.S. Pat. No. 6,952,923, U.S. Pat. No. 6,986,329, a brochure entitled “Scuderi Air Hybrid Engine” distributed at SAE 2006 Congress by the Scuderi Group, LLC, and the May 2006 issue of European Automotive Design.
For an engine valve, the flow area is approximately equal to the product of its perimeter and the valve lift. The opening force has to overcome, in addition to the spring preload if any, the pressure force that is equal to the differential pressure on the valve times the valve head area. The flow area and the opening pressure force are thus proportional to the diameter and the diameter to the second power, respectively. For higher power and better efficiency, it is a good practice to maximize the diameter or perimeter of intake valves, or crossover valves in split-cycle engines. This also entails two or more crossover valves to achieve reasonable total flow area while minimizing the pressure force. U.S. Pat. No. 6,952,923 discloses one design with four 13-mm crossover valves and another design with two 18.4-mm crossover valves, resulting in on each valve an opening force of 464 N and 931 N, respectively, under an opening differential pressure dPo of 35 bars. The opening differential pressure force in a conventional engine of the same volume displacement is typically 400 N for an exhaust valve and much lower for an intake valve. The design with four 13-mm crossover valves has a more tolerable opening force, but it adds too much structure complexity and cost penalty because of a large number of the valves involved. The design with two 18.4-mm crossover valves presents large opening force, challenging the corresponding valve actuator in areas of functional capability, durability, size, power consumption, etc. It is even a greater challenge if one desires lower flow resistance and thus larger valve diameter, considering that a conventional engine of the same volume displacement may have two 32-mm intake valves. A 32-mm crossover valve would have an opening force of 2815 N, challenging for any actuator, under a differential pressure of 35 bars.
Various efforts have been made to overcome the large opening force on a crossover valve. In U.S. Pat. No. 7,421,987 and US Patent Application 2008/0054205-A 1, one uses a combination of a spring bias force and a hydraulic force.
In U.S. Pat. No. 7,636,984 and US Patent Application 2009/0044778-A 1, one uses a pneumatic booster or pressure balance mechanism that entails at least one pneumatic chamber (in addition to or other than the crossover passage itself) or one pneumatic piston (in addition to or other than the crossover valve head itself) or both to counter the differential pressure.
In summary, a crossover valve actuator has to deal with large opening force while providing reasonable gas flow area.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Briefly stated, in one aspect of the invention, one preferred embodiment of the crossover valve system for a split-cycle engine having a power cylinder and a crossover passage comprises first and second crossover valves, each valve opening outwardly away from the power cylinder and providing fluid communication between the power cylinder and the crossover passage, with the diameter of the second crossover valve being larger than the diameter of the first crossover valve; and an actuation mechanism operative to open the first crossover valve, then the second crossover valve after a predetermined delay.
In operation, one is able to use a substantially smaller opening force to open, against a large initial differential pressure between the crossover passage and the power cylinder, the first crossover valve because of its smaller diameter and thus a smaller cross-section area. The second crossover valve, with a larger diameter and thus a larger cross-section area, opens also with a smaller opening force at a later time when the differential pressure between the crossover passage and the power cylinder has been substantially reduced because of the fluid flow through the first crossover valve.
In another embodiment, the actuation mechanism further includes a camshaft operably connected with first and second cams; the first cam operably drives the first crossover valve, and has a first-cam lobe extending from a first-crossover-valve open position to a first-crossover-valve close position for a first-crossover-valve duration; the second cam operably drives the second crossover valve, and has a second-cam lobe extending from a second-crossover-valve open position to a second-crossover-valve close position for a second-crossover-valve duration; and the second-crossover-valve open position has a predetermined delay relative to the first-crossover-valve open position, whereby providing time differential in the opening actions of the first and second crossover valves.
In another embodiment, the actuation mechanism further includes first and second valve actuators driving the first and second crossover valves, respectively, whereby providing independent actuation to the crossover valves. One is able to drive the first and second crossover valves using different lift profiles, including time delay feature, through a controller.
In another embodiment, the ratio of the diameter of the second crossover valve to the diameter of the first crossover valve is greater than 1.83, whereby achieving more than 50% force reduction.
In another embodiment, the first crossover valve opens between 10 degrees before the top-dead-center and 3 degrees before the top-dead-center; and the second crossover valve opens between 2 degrees before the top dead center and 7 degrees after the top dead center, when a substantial reduction in the differential pressure has been achieved because of the flow through the first crossover valve.
The present invention provides significant advantages over and/or supplemental benefits to the prevailing crossover valve systems or actuators, which use two crossover valves of the same diameter and the same opening timing and thus entail significant size or diameter needed for the valve perimeter-related flow capacity, resulting in a significant cross-section area and thus a large initial opening force. By adopting differentiation in valve diameter and opening timing for two, or if desired two groups of, crossover valves, the present invention is able to reduce the opening force at each of the two valves, without reduction in overall flow area or capacity. The smaller crossover valve opens first against a large initial differential pressure between the crossover passage and the power cylinder. Its opening force is smaller however because of its smaller cross-section area. The larger crossover valve opens later when the differential pressure is much reduced after filling the power cylinder for a certain period of time through the port of the smaller crossover valve, resulting in a smaller opening force even with a larger cross-section area. The opening force reduction via the present invention may be sufficient to resolve practical design issues associated with crossover valves, which present a great engineering challenge because of their exposure to a large differential pressure. At minimum, the opening force reduction via this invention will greatly help other engineering efforts to resolve this challenge.
The present invention, together with further objects and advantages, will be best understood by reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a graph showing prior art pressure profiles, and ignition and crossover valve timing per US Patent Application 2009/0038598-A 1;
FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of one preferred embodiment of the crossover valve system;
FIG. 3 is a graph showing two valve opening events per current invention;
FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of another preferred embodiment, featuring another way of placing the return springs; and
FIG. 5 is a schematic illustration of another preferred embodiment, featuring versatility of the actuation mechanism.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring now to FIG. 2 , a preferred embodiment of the invention provides a crossover valve system 18 . The system 18 comprises a first crossover valve 20 of a smaller diameter D 1 and a second crossover valve 32 of a larger diameter D 2 .
The crossover valve system 18 is part of a split cycle engine, the entirety of which is not shown in FIG. 2 , especially but not limited to those disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 6,543,225, No. 6,952,923, and No. 6,986,329 and US Patent Applications 2009/0038598-A 1, 2009/0039300-A 1, and 2009/0044778-A 1. The split-cycle engine includes a crankshaft revolving about a crankshaft axis; at least one compression piston slideably received within a corresponding compression cylinder and operably connected to the crankshaft such that the compression piston reciprocates through an intake stroke and a compression stroke during a single rotation of the crankshaft or a thermodynamic cycle; at least one power piston slideably received within a corresponding power cylinder 16 and operably connected to the crankshaft such that the power piston reciprocates through an expansion or power stroke and an exhaust stroke during a single rotation of the crankshaft or a thermodynamic cycle; a crossover passage 15 interconnecting the compression cylinder and the power cylinder 16 ; one or more compression-cylinder intake valves supplying fresh gas into the compression cylinder; one or more power-cylinder exhaust valves dispelling exhaust gas out of the power cylinder; one or more crossover inlet valves providing gas flow communication between the compression cylinder and the crossover passage 15 ; and one or more crossover outlet valves, or simply called crossover valves in this application, providing gas flow communication between the crossover passage 15 and the power cylinder 16 . With the first crossover valve 20 and the second crossover valve 32 in FIG. 2 , it is possible to reduce the valve actuation force significantly, or to increase the gas flow area significantly, or both.
Although in its singular form of the noun, the crossover passage 15 may include more than one passage or distinguishable volume even for a single pair of the compression cylinder and power cylinder to achieve other functional advantages. For example, the crossover passage 15 may include two branches or conduits (not shown in FIG. 2 ), each of which connects one crossover valve 20 or 32 with its corresponding crossover inlet valve (not shown in FIG. 2 ) situated between the compression cylinder and the crossover passage, or at the inlet of the crossover passage. In an air hybrid application, the crossover passage is also connected with at least one air or gas storage system, not shown in FIG. 2 .
The first crossover valve 20 includes a first-crossover-valve head 22 and a first-crossover-valve stem 24 . The first-crossover-valve stem 24 is slideably supported by a first-crossover-valve guide 38 . The first-crossover-valve head 22 includes a first-crossover-valve first surface 28 and a first-crossover-valve second surface 30 , which are exposed to the crossover passage 15 and the power cylinder 16 , respectively. When the first crossover valve 20 closes as shown in FIG. 2 , the first-crossover-valve head 22 is in contact with a first-crossover-valve seat 26 , sealing off the fluid communication between the crossover passage 15 and the power cylinder 16 . The diameter D 1 used in this application should be considered as that of the sealing line or contact line between the head 22 and the seat 26 . The same convention applies to other engine valve diameters.
Other than its larger diameter D 2 , the second crossover valve 32 has essentially the same structure features as the first crossover valve 20 does. It includes a second-crossover-valve first surface 35 and a second-crossover-valve second surface 36 exposed to the crossover passage 15 and the power cylinder 16 , respectively.
The two crossover valves 20 and 32 are actuated by an actuation mechanism 19 that includes a first valve spring 46 , a second valve spring 52 , and a camshaft 58 fitted with a first cam 54 and a second cam 56 .
The first crossover valve 20 is operably connected with the first valve spring 46 through a first spring retainer 44 mounted at one end of the first-crossover-valve stem 24 , distal to the first crossover valve 20 . The first valve spring 46 is further constrained by a spring support 48 , which is stationary relative to the engine structure. The first crossover valve 20 is operably connected with the first cam 54 through a first rocker arm 40 pivoting around a first pivot 41 , and a first fitting 42 mounted next to the first spring retainer 44 on the first-crossover-valve stem 24 . Optionally, the first spring retainer 44 and the first fitting 42 are integrated into a single structure element (not shown in FIG. 2 ). In a substantially the same way as shown in FIG. 2 , the second crossover valve 32 is operably connected with the second valve spring 52 and the second cam 56 .
The first cam 54 has a first-cam lobe 60 extending from the first-crossover-valve open (XV 1 O) position to the first-crossover-valve close (XV 1 C) position for a first-crossover-valve duration (XV 1 D). The second cam 56 has a second-cam lobe 62 extending from the second-crossover-valve open (XV 2 O) position to the second-crossover-valve close (XV 2 C) position for a second-crossover-valve duration (XV 2 D). The second-cam lobe 62 has a rotational or angular delay d relative to the first-cam lobe 60 . In FIG. 2 , the first-cam lobe 60 just comes into contact with the first rocker arm 40 at the first-crossover-valve open (XV 1 O) position, and the second-cam lobe 62 is still a clockwise delay d away from rotating into contact with a second rocker arm 50 .
In operation, as the camshaft 58 and thus the first and second cams 54 and 56 rotate clockwise from the position shown in FIG. 2 , the first-cam lobe 60 lifts up and opens the first crossover valve 20 , via the first rocker arm 40 for a duration of XV 1 D. After a delay d from the position shown in FIG. 2 , the second-cam lobe 62 lifts up and opens the second crossover valve 32 for a duration of XV 2 D. The crossover valves 20 and 32 do not have to close at the same time, i.e., their close positions XV 1 C and XV 2 C do not have to be identical in the angular or phase position.
Alternatively, the actuation mechanism 19 may adopt other forms of rocker arms not shown in FIG. 2 , or no rocker arms at all, for example, using a direct acting design not shown in FIG. 2 .
Referring now to FIG. 3 , a graph 64 features identical pressure profiles as the graph 14 does in FIG. 1 . However, instead of only one valve opening event, involving likely two valves, and associated opening differential pressure dPo at a crank angle of −5 degrees in FIG. 1 , the operation in FIG. 3 includes two valve opening events, with the first and second crossover valves opening at crank angles of −5 degrees ATDC (XV 1 O) and +3 degrees ATDC (XV 2 O), respectively. Their respective opening differential pressures are dP 1 and dP 2 , with dP 2 being much smaller than dP 1 . Both crossover valves close at the same crank angle of 25 degrees (XV 1 C and XV 2 C), which is not mandatory. The values of dP 1 in FIG. 3 and dPo in FIG. 1 are generally equal, and the value or dP 2 is likely to be more than what is depicted in FIG. 3 considering that only a small crossover valve opens between −5 degrees and +3 degrees, resulting in a slower pressure equalization. Nonetheless, the value of dP 2 is still substantially smaller than that of dP 1 .
The valve opening positions XV 1 O and XV 2 O are not limited to −5 degrees ATDC and +3 degrees ATDC, respectively, shown in FIG. 3 . In general, both XV 1 O and XV 2 O should be as close to TDC as possible for pumping efficiency; XV 1 O and XV 2 O should be sufficiently ahead of valve closing events XV 1 C and XV 2 C, respectively, for easier design of the actuation mechanism; and there should be enough delay between XV 2 O and XV 1 O to achieve necessary pressure rise in the power cylinder at XV 2 O. Considering all these and other factors, preferably, −10 degrees ATDC<XV 1 O<−3 degrees ATDC, and −2 degrees ATDC<XV 2 O<7 degrees ATDC. Expressed alternatively, XV 1 O is between 10 degrees BTDC and 3 degrees BTDC, and XV 2 O is between 2 degrees BTDC and 7 degrees ATDC.
As discussed in the Background of the Invention, the flow area and the opening force for an engine valve or disk valve are proportional to the diameter and the diameter to the second power, respectively. Let the baseline or prior art design have two crossover valves of the same diameter Do; let them open at the same time against the differential pressure dPo; let D 1 and D 2 the respective diameters of the first and second crossover valves of this invention; let the first and second crossover valves open against the differential pressures dP 1 and dP 2 , respectively; then the opening pressure force on each of the prior art crossover valves, Fo, is estimated to be
Fo= (3.14/4)* Do^ 2*dP o,
the opening pressure force on the first crossover valve 20 , F 1 , is estimated to be
F 1=(3.14/4)* D 1^2*dP1,
and the opening pressure force on the second crossover valve 32 , F 2 , is estimated to be
F 2=(3.14/4)* D 2^2*dP2.
If a force ratio Rf=F 1 /Fo, and let dP 1 =dPo, then
Rf=F 1/ Fo= ( D 1/ Do )^2 (1)
That is the force ratio Rf is equal to the diameter ratio D 1 /Do to the second power. With Equation (1), one is able to estimate the pressure force reduction for a given reduction in the diameter of the first crossover valve 20 relative to that of the prior art crossover valve. For example, 30% and 50% reductions in diameter results in 50% and 75% reductions, respectively, in the pressure force on the first crossover valve, i.e., achieving Rf values of 0.5 and 0.25.
If, for example, the diameter Do of each of the two prior art crossover valves is equal to 18.4 mm as in U.S. Pat. No. 6,952,923, a 30% reduction in diameter results in a D 1 of 12.9 mm and a reduction of the pressure force from a challenging 931 N to a much lower value of 466 N.
Let Lo the lift of the prior art crossover valve, and let L 1 and L 2 the lifts of the first and second crossover valves 20 and 32 , respectively, then the flow area of each of the two prior art crossover valves, Afo, is estimated to be
Afo= 3.14 *Do*Lo,
the flow area of the first crossover valve 20 , Af 1 , is estimated to be
Af 1=3.14 *D 1 *L 1,
and the flow area of the second crossover valve 32 , Af 2 , is estimated to be
Af 2=3.14 *D 2 *L 2.
If the total flow area remains the same or 2*Afo=Af 1 +Af 2 , and Lo=L 1 =L 2 , then
2 *Do=D 1+ D 2,
assuming the opening delay d to have a limited value, and if further keeping dP 1 =dPo, then
D 2 /D 1=2/sqrt( Rf )−1 (2)
where the symbol sqrt means “square root of.” Or
D 2 /Do= 2−sqrt( Rf ) (3)
After achieving the desired force reduction on the first crossover valve by reducing D 1 per Equation (1), one may use either Equation (2) or (3) to estimate necessary diameter D 2 for the second crossover valve 32 to achieve the same total flow area.
Using the same example above and referencing parameters from U.S. Pat. No. 6,952,923, with a 30% reduction in D 1 from 18.4 mm to 12.9 mm and a 50% reduction in F 1 from 931 N to 466 N, one estimates D 2 /D 1 to be 1.83 or D 2 /Do to be 1.3, which gives D 2 =24 mm.
For a general problem with a given set of design constraints, including the total flow area requirement, one obtains from Equation (2) that D 2 /D 1 should be greater than 1.24 if one tries to achieve a significant force reduction, say greater than 20% reduction, i.e., Rf<0.8. Therefore, D 2 /D 1 is preferably greater than 1.24 for more than 20% force reduction, and greater than 1.83 for more than 50% force reduction.
If let F 2 =F 1 , then
dP2/dP1=( D 1/ D 2)^2 (4)
and if further with the total flow area remaining the same (i.e., 2*Afo=Af 1 +Af 2 ), Lo=L 1 =L 2 , and dP 1 =dPo, then
dP2/dP1= Rf /(2−sqrt( Rf ))^2 (5)
After achieving force reduction and flow area guarantee earlier, Equation (4) or (5) provides the value of the differential pressure dP 2 at or below which the second crossover valve 32 will experience no higher differential pressure force than the first crossover valve 20 does.
Again using the same example above and referencing parameters from U.S. Pat. No. 6,952,923, with D 1 =12.9 mm and D 2 =24 mm, or Rf=0.5, one derives dP 2 /dP 1 =0.3. If dP 1 =35 bar, then dP 2 =10.5 bar. As long as a 24-mm second crossover valve opens against a differential pressure dP 2 at or less than 10.5 bar, it experiences a pressure force no higher than 466 N.
In the above example, the goal of the design exercise is to reduce the valve driving force. The same design principle can be used to increase flow area or reduce flow resistance. If the cam system is able to handle 931 N differential pressure force, then one may choose to have Rf=1, or D 1 =Do. If F 2 =F 1 =931 N, dP 1 =35 bar, and dP 2 =10.5 bar, then, per Equation (4), D 2 /D 1 =sqrt(35/10.5)=1.83. With D 2 =1.83*18.4=33.6 mm and (Af 1 +Af 2 )/(2*Afo)=(D 2 +D 1 )/(2*Do)=(33.6+18.4)/(2*18.4)=1.41, one is able to achieve roughly 41% increase in flow area, thus much less flow resistance and better efficiency for the engine.
FIG. 4 depicts an alternative embodiment of the invention that features some variation in the actuation mechanism 66 . The valve springs 46 and 52 are relocated inside the crossover passage 15 and directly above and pressing the crossover valve first surfaces 28 and 35 . This arrangement has the potential to reduce package size in vertical direction. The actuation mechanism 66 retains the ability to produce a delay d between the first and second cams 54 and 56 , one key feature of the invention.
Refer now to FIG. 5 , which is a drawing of yet another alternative embodiment of the invention. Its actuation mechanism 68 includes a controller 70 and first and second valve actuators 72 and 74 . The first and second valve actuators 72 and 74 drive the first and second crossover valves 20 and 32 , respectively. The controller 70 provides first and second lift profiles 76 and 78 for the first and second valve actuators 72 and 74 , respectively. The lift profiles 76 and 78 can be either in crankshaft angle domain or in time domain. The first and second crossover valves 20 and 32 open at XV 1 O and XV 2 O, respectively, with XV 2 O being later than XV 1 O by a delay d. The opening points XV 1 O and XV 2 O are generally around TDC (not shown in FIG. 5 ). Preferably, −10 degrees ATDC<XV 1 O<−3 degrees ATDC, and −2 degrees ATDC<XV 2 O<7 degrees ATDC, with ATDC being “After TDC;” or XV 1 O is between 10 degrees BTDC and 3 degrees BTDC, and XV 2 O is between 2 degrees BTDC and 7 degrees ATDC, with BTDC being “Before TDC.” One may purposely provide a steeper slope on the opening ramp 77 of the first lift profile, as depicted in FIG. 5 , so that the first crossover valve 20 opens up faster, resulting in a faster filling and pressurization of the power cylinder 16 and thus more significant differential pressure reduction for easier opening of the second crossover valve 32 .
The actuators 72 and 74 can be of a mechanical, electrical, fluid, magnetic, or piezoelectric type, or of a mixed type.
In an air hybrid application, the controller 70 controls the actuators 72 and 74 to keep the crossover valves 20 and 32 closed when the power cylinders are not to be activated, for example, during the regenerative braking mode. In this situation, the crossover valves should have no lift at all. Similarly in a cam-drive system as shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 , a cam profile switch mechanism, not shown in FIGS. 2 and 4 , can be integrated to run a flat profile so that the crossover valves 20 and 32 are kept closed during the regenerative braking mode. This switch mechanism can be of a mechanical, electrical, fluid, magnetic, or piezoelectric type, or of a mixed type. There are also various other control strategies for different modes of the air hybrid operation. Therefore, the lift profiles 76 and 78 in FIG. 5 and the cam lobe designs and valve events in FIGS. 2-4 should be understood as those only when there is a need to open the crossover valves 20 and 32 for the expansion and exhaust cycles, e.g., during the cruising mode of an air hybrid application.
In all the above descriptions, the first and second valve springs 46 and 52 are each identified or illustrated, for convenience, as a single mechanical coil spring. When needed for strength, durability or packaging, however each or any one of them may include a combination of two or more springs. In the case of mechanical coil springs, they can be nested concentrically, for example. They may also be pneumatic springs.
Also, in many illustrations and descriptions so far, the application of the invention is defaulted to be in crossover valve control, and it is not limited so. The invention can be applied to other situations where an outward valve experiences a large pressure in the associated manifold.
Although the present invention has been described with reference to the preferred embodiments, those skilled in the art will recognize that changes may be made in form and detail without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention. As such, it is intended that the foregoing detailed description be regarded as illustrative rather than limiting and that it is the appended claims, including all equivalents thereof, which are intended to define the scope of this invention.
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Crossover valve systems and corresponding methods offer an effective means to overcome large opening pressure force, or provide reasonable gas flow area, or both. In an exemplary embodiment, a crossover valve system for a split-cycle engine having a power cylinder and a crossover passage comprises first and second crossover valves, each valve opening outwardly away from the power cylinder and providing fluid communication between the power cylinder and the crossover passage, with the diameter of the second crossover valve being larger than the diameter of the first crossover valve; and an actuation mechanism operative to open the first crossover valve, then the second crossover valve after a predetermined delay to allow a certain rise in the pressure inside the power cylinder, resulting in much smaller differential pressure forces across the crossover valves, larger flow areas, or both.
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This invention relates to scroll machines, and more particularly to a scroll compressor having an improved crank pin drive bearing.
A common type scroll compressor comprises non-orbiting and orbiting scroll members having interfitting spiral vanes, the flanks of the vane on one member being in sealing contact with the flanks of the vane on the other member. The vanes define moving fluid containing pockets which changes in volume as one scroll member orbits with respect to the other scroll member.
Orbital movement is generally provided by an elongated axial crankshaft journaled adjacent its opposite ends for rotation in respective bearings of the compressor. One end commonly has an eccentric crank pin disposed in a drive bearing mounted in a hub on the orbiting scroll member, whereby rotation of the crank causes the orbiting scroll member to orbit with respect to the non-orbiting scroll member. In a radially compliant drive a bushing may be provided between the crank pin and hub bearing. As loading increases, due to inertia and compressed gas forces, the crankshaft tends to deflect or bend relative to its at-rest condition, which can result in the eccentric crank pin becoming misaligned with its bearing, thereby causing point contact rather than line or area contact in the bearing. Such loading is undesirable because it prevents proper lubrication and significantly increases the possibility of damaging wear.
In accordance with this invention there is provided a crank pin bearing arrangement which assures that at least normal line or area contact is provided between all loaded bearing surfaces disposed between the crank pin and the orbiting scroll under all normal operating conditions. Advantages of the present arrangement include elimination of point contact between driving and driven members with an attendant reduction of wear, and a reduction in the tendency of deflection of the crank pin causing tilting of the drive bearing relative to the orbiting scroll member. Another significant advantage of the arrangement of the present invention is a reduction in power consumption under normal operating conditions.
Other advantages and features will become apparent from the following specification taken in connection with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a fragmentary vertical section view of a scroll compressor having an improved drive bearing arrangement in accordance with this invention;
FIG. 2 is a diagrammatic view showing in grossly exaggerated form the deflection of a scroll compressor crankshaft embodying the principals of the present invention under load;
FIG. 3 is a top view of the drive bearing arrangement of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a sectional view taken along line 4--4 in FIG. 3 showing the drive bushing only;
FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line 5--5 in FIG. 3 showing the drive bushing only;
FIG. 6 is an enlarged view from the left side of a portion of the apparatus of FIG. 1 showing in exaggerated form the crank pin and bearing in a static or at rest condition;
FIG. 7 is an enlarged view from the left side of a portion of the apparatus of FIG. 1 showing in exaggerated form the crank pin under normal operating conditions;
FIG. 8 shows an alternate embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 9 is a view similar to FIG. 5 showing another embodiment of the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Although the principals of the present invention may be applied to many different types of machines driven by a journalled crankshaft having a crank pin at one end, for exemplary purposes the present invention is disclosed herein embodied in a hermetic scroll-type compressor 10 which is particularly suited to the compression of refrigerant for air conditioning and refrigeration machines. A machine of this specific type is disclosed in assignee's copending application for Pat. Ser. No. 899,003, filed Aug. 22, 1986 entitled Scroll-Type Machine, the disclosure of which is expressly incorporated herein by reference.
Scroll compressor 10 includes a shell 12 having at its lower end a lubricating oil sump (not shown), a vertically disposed crankshaft 14 having its opposite end portions rotatably journalled for rotation, respectively, in an upper bearing 16 and in a complementary lower bearing (not specifically shown), a scroll assembly including a non-orbiting scroll member 20 and an orbiting scroll member 22, a motor 23 for rotatably driving the crankshaft, and an eccentric crank pin 24 extending from the upper end of the crankshaft for driving the orbiting scroll. The usual oil feed passage 26 extends axially eccentrically through the crankshaft to lubricate the respective parts of the machine from the sump. For a greater understanding of these details of construction refer to the above-referenced application for patent.
Non-orbiting scroll member 20 has a spiral wrap 28. Orbiting scroll member 22 includes an end plate 30 having a cylindrical hub 32 provided with a cylindrical bearing journal 34 extending downwardly from one side and a spiral wrap 36 upstanding from the other side, scroll wraps 28 and 36 interfitting within one another in the usual manner. A compressor body 38 is secured to the shell and supports orbiting scroll member 22 on a thrust surface 39. It also includes an annular chamber 40 which receives hub 32.
A generally cylindrical drive bushing 42 (which provides radial compliance as set forth in the above-referenced application for patent) is journalled in hub 32 for diving the orbital scroll, the bushing having an outer periphery 48 rotatably engaging journal 34 and including a flat portion 50, an axial notch 52 axially aligned with flat portion 50, and a central bore 54. Bore 54 is generally cylindrical and oval in cross-section and in accordance with this invention includes an axial flat driven surface 56 which is disposed in a plane canted or tilted a small acute angle "C" with respect to the center axis of peripheral wall 48, rather than parallel thereto as in the prior design disclosed in the above-referenced patent application. Crank pin 24 is generally cylindrical in cross-section and has an axial flat driving surface 58 adapted to drivingly engage flat surface 56. There is clearance between the remainder of crank pin 24 and bore 54 to permit surfaces 56 and 58 to slide with respect to one another to provide radial compliance to the drive.
It should be appreciated that the inclined flat surface could alternatively be on the crank pin flat 58, as shown in FIG. 8, or the same result can also be obtained by generating the bushing outside diameter (i.e. surface 48) about a slightly canted axis with respect to the center axis of bore 54 and flat 58, as shown in FIG. 9.
Lubrication for the scroll assembly is provided by a radial passage 60 which receives oil from passage 26 and supplies it to upper bearing 16, and an annular groove 62 which receives oil from passage 26 via passages (not shown) in compressor body 38 to lubricate the orbiting scroll thrust surface. Further, oil is pumped by passage 26 to the top of the crank pin from which it is thrown radially outwardly by centrifugal force and collected in notch 52, from which it flows downwardly into the clearance space between crank pin 24 and bore 54 and between bore 34 and flat surface 50.
The significance of having one of the driving/driven flats acutely angled is best understood with reference to FIGS. 2, 6 and 7. When the compressor reaches its normal operating condition, the driving load on the crank pin, caused primarily by the radial separating forces created by the compressed gas and indicated at "L", causes the crankshaft to bend as shown in exaggerated form, whereby the end portions of the crankshaft will be at an acute angle relative to its normal center axis when in its at-rest condition, indicated at "A". In this condition, if the angle of canting is properly chosen crank pin flat 58 will fully engage bushing flat 56 and bushing 42 will be properly aligned. Angle "C" can be calculated or can be chosen emperically by increasing it progressively from 0° until compressor power consumption for the desired operating point has minimized. It is usually a very small angle, in the order of 0.125° to .50° in one compressor in which the concept has been tested.
Similar canting of the main crankshaft bearings is not believed necessary, even though they will be similarly misaligned, because both of them are disposed in cooler and easier to lubricate zones of the compressor and have larger bearing areas.
While it will be apparent that the preferred embodiments of the invention disclosed are well calculated to provide the advantages above stated, it will be appreciated that the invention is susceptible to modification, variation and change without departing from the proper scope or fair meaning of the subjoined claims.
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A scroll machine having an eccentric crank pin on a cranshaft disposed nonrotatably in the bore of a drive busing for driving the orbiting scroll of the compressor. A flat on the crank pin drivingly engages a flat in the bore, one flat being at an acute angle to the normal cranksahft axis so that when the crankshaft deflects under normal loads the flats come into better contact with one another to reduce unwanted wear. Several other embodiments are also disclosed.
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TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present invention relates to the use of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and pharmaceutically acceptable salts, specifically relates to compound antibacterial drugs comprising N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and various antibiotics, and the use of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine in the manufacture of compound antibacterial drugs.
BACKGROUND ART
[0002] Since the antibiotics were invented as a powerful weapon against the infections of pathogenic microorganisms, millions people are not threaten by such infections. However, with the lapse of time, the kind and dose of antibiotics increase gradually for combating widely occurred drug-resistant bacteria, which results in little effect on treating drug-resistant bacteria and hospital infections, while this causes various mutations of bacteria, including bacterial cryptic growth cells (CGC) as proposed in the present invention that is a new adequate form of bacteria in unadvantageous environments. Bacterial mutations result in changing normal bacterial flora into conditioned pathogenic bacteria, cause dysbacteriosis and hospital infections. The generation and colonization of bacterial CGC are closely related with irritable bowel syndrome and functional disorder of intestine, and these were confirmed in clinical investigations.
[0003] Even since a long time ago, bacteria are deemed as unicellular organism, and each bacterium independently performs life action, i.e., interaction usually does not occur between each other. However, researches in recent years indicate that bacterial single cell is different from bacterial population, in particular, as for interaction between bacteria and other organisms, the effects caused by bacteria actually are effects caused by bacterial colony as a whole, which acts like multicellular organism (Shapiro, J. A., “Bacteria as multicellular organism”, Scientific American, 1988, 256: 82-89). According to the further study by the inventors of the present invention, bacteria may generate wave-like bacterial colonial pattern and exhibit organized vital activity phenomena under appropriate culturing conditions. This phenomena is interesting for discovering bacterial biology, and the inventors of the present invention name this phenomena as “bio-wave” (Xu Qiwang, et al., Population, cycle and wave of microorganism growth, Ziran Zazhi ( Chinese Journal of Nature ), 1992, 15(3):195-197), and studied it (Liu Junkang, et al., Study on bio-wave mechanism, Zhongguo Weishengtaixue Zazhi ( Chinese Journal of Microecology ), 1994, 6(6):4046; Xu Qiwang, et al., Study on bio-wave non-equilibriumn mechanism, Xibei Daxue Xuebao ( Journal of Northwest University ) (Natura Science Edition), 1997, 27 (Supplement): 320-325).
[0004] During the inventor's study on bio-wave theory, it was found that bacterial colony in waveform was in the alternative state of promotion and inhibition of bacterial growth. In the inhibition part of bacterial growth, bacteria did not divide and had a slender shape and a low metabolism level, but had strong action capability, which is called as “cryptic growth cell” (CGC) (Deng Guohong, et al., Observation of acyclic change of Bacillus pyocyaneus living in water, Disan Junyidaxue Xuebao ( ACTA Academiae Medicinae Militaris Tertiae ), 1997, 19(3): 197-201). In the further study on human pathology and physiology, it was found that bacteria abundantly changed into CGCs in the environment comprising antibacterial substances, and bacteria in the form of cryptic growth cells were very insensitive to antibiotics, and even a large amount of antibiotics did kill them (Deng Guohong, Effects of antibacterial drugs on bacterial CGCs, Daziran Tansuo ( Discovery of Nature ), 1999, 18(69): 67-68). Once antibiotics were eliminated or concentration thereof decreased to a level lower than MIC, bacteria adapted the environmental change and appeared corresponding changes, i.e., bacteria broke quickly to form individual cells that aggregated together to form bacterial colony. Experimental study indicated that antibiotics could induce the formation of CGCs of Gram-positive or Gram-negative bacteria, such as E. coli proteus valgaris, salmonella , and Dysentery bacilli, and in vivo tests of both animal and human had proven that this effect was consistent with that of in vitro tests (Wang Zhenwei, et al., Observation on bio-spin of cryptic growth cells, Zhongguo Gonggong Weisheng ( China Public Health ), 2000, 16(5): 1-3; Liu Junkang et al., Turbulence under the microscope, Journal of Biological Physics, 2000, 00(1): 1-7).
[0005] The bacterial CGCs concerned in the present invention, whether they are formed by any bacterium, cause damage on human body. It had been disclosed that bacteria in slender shape occurred in different ecology environments had a low level of physiological metabolism and a changed toxicity, and caused damages on organism greatly different from the damages caused by bacteria in vegetative form (Guo Gang, Huang Chunji, et al., Comparative study on antibiotic Sub-MICs induced slender bacteria and cryptic growth cells, Zhonghua Liuxingbingxue Zazhi ( Chinese Journal of Epidemiology ), 1996, 17(3-C)). However, this difference did not draw any attention. The conversion of bacteria to cryptic growth cells leads a gradually increasing dose of antibiotics, while the effects thereof decreases gradually, so that the possibility of misdiagnosis and drug abuse increases, which may cause the aggravation of disease and even the delay of treatment and may lead to a large number of drug adverse reactions.
[0006] According to the inventors' long period study, it is proven that bacterial CGCs are caused by the contact with chemical substances, especially the wide use of antibiotics that result in the CGC change of bacteria in intestinal tract. It is disclosed that chronic diarrhea, chronic gastrointestinal dysfunction, especially irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) that greatly affect human, are caused by CGC directly or indirectly (Xu Qiwang, Cryptic growth cell pathogenesis of irritable bowel syndrome, Kexue ( Science Journal of China ), 1998,10: 59-61).
[0007] During the inventors' study on bio-wave theory, it is found that this wave has inherent regulatory mechanism and the bio-wave can be regulated by chemical substances. By purification and identification, one of such substances is N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, and its promoting wave function has been confirmed (Huang Hui, et al., Experimental analysis of bacterial bio-wave regulating factor, Disan Junyidaxue Xuebao ( ACTA Academiae Medicinae Militaris Tertiae ), 1999, 21(3): 178-180).
[0008] N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (2-acetylamino-2-deoxy-D-glucose; N-acetyl-D-(+)-glucosamine; GlcNAc; CAS No. 7512-17-6) is a known compound of the following formula.
[0009] It is disclosed that N-acetyl-D-glucosamine is used in the treatment of diseases such as pericementitis (WO91/02530A1), intestinal inflammation (WO99/53929A1), cornea disease (JP10-287570A2), hypertrophy of the prostate (U.S. Pat. No. 5,116,615), etc., in the preparation of vaccines for preventing and treating microorganism infections (W097/18790A3), and in cosmetology (JP59-013708A2), shampoo preparation (JP2-11505A2), etc. In recent years, the inventors deeply studied its wave-promoting function and filed the Chinese patent application (CN1156027A) that relates to its use as new drug for the treatment of IBS and the Chinese patent application (Chinese patent application number: 01104884.0) that relates to its use as therapeutic agent against bacterial colonization. However, it is not reported yet that N-acetyl-D-glucosamine can be used for the treatment of antibiotics induced bacterial CGC and diseases caused thereby, and it is not reported that N-acetyl-D-glucosamine is applied to bacteria in order to enhance antibiotic effects.
DISCLOSURE OF THE INVENTION
[0010] When the inventors studied the promoting wave function of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine, we have surprisingly found that N-acetyl-D-glucosamine effectively prevented the conversion of bacteria into cryptic growth cells in the presence of antibiotics, so that the effects of various antibiotics were improved significantly. Thereby, the present invention is achieved.
[0011] In other words, the present invention relates to the antibacterial use of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. Concretely, the present invention relates to compound antibacterial drugs comprising N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and antibiotics and to the use of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine in the manufacture of compound antibacterial drugs. The present invention relates to the use of compositions comprising N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and antibiotics in the manufacture of a medicament for preventing or treating irritable bowel syndrome, in vivo dysbacteriosis, functional disorder of intestine, etc.
[0012] In addition, the present invention relates to a method for enhancing therapeutic effect of antibiotics comprising administering a therapeutically effective amount of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and a therapeutically effective amount of antibiotics to a patient in need, and to a method for the treatment of diseases caused by bacterial infections or pathogenic proliferation that can be treated by antibiotics comprising administering a therapeutically effective amount of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and a therapeutically effective amount of antibiotics to a patient in need.
[0013] The present invention further relates to a method for preventing or treating irritable bowel syndrome, in vivo dysbacteriosis, functional disorder of intestine, etc. comprising administering a therapeutically effective amount of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and a therapeutically effective amount of antibiotics to a patient in need.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0014] The present invention is illustrated as follows in detail.
[0015] In the drugs/compositions of the present invention that comprise N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and antibiotics, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine has the following formula.
[0016] The physical/chemical parameters of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine are as follows:
[0017] Molecular formula: C 8 H 15 NO 6
[0018] Molecular weight: 221.21 (precise molecular weight: 221.2096)
[0019] Melting point: 201-204° C.
[0020] N-acetyl-D-glucosamine can be from various sources. As for its preparation, it is usually prepared by chemical synthesis or semi-synthesis in China and foreign countries, and it is sometime prepared directly according known methods. For example, W097/31121 discloses a method for preparing N-acetyl-D-glucosamine from chitin polysaccharide by enzyme method; JP6-3273493A has discloses a method comprising partially hydrolyzing chitin polysaccharide to obtain N-acetyl-chitose, and then treating it with an enzyme to obtain N-acetyl-D-glucosamine.
[0021] In the drugs/compositions of the present invention that comprise N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and antibiotics, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine can be in the form of freebase or pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof. The pharmaceutically acceptable salts of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine are, for instance, the salts formed with inorganic acids, such as hydrochloride, hydrobromide, borate, phosphate, sulfate, hydrosulfate and hydrophosphate, and the salts formed with organic acids, such as citrate, benzoate, ascorbate, methyl sulfate, naphthalene-2-sulfonate, picrate, fimarate, maleate, malonate, oxalate, succinate, acetate, tartrate, mesylate, tosylate, isethionate, α-ketoglutarate, α-glyceryl phosphate and glucose-1-phosphate and so on. The said freebase or pharmaceutically acceptable salts are prepared according to known methods or commercially available from markets.
[0022] In the drugs and compositions of the present invention that comprise N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and antibiotics, antibiotics refer to substances that can be applied to human or other mammalians and exhibit chemically therapeutic effects against microorganisms such as bacteria, mycoplasma, chlamydia, etc. The sources of antibiotics of the present invention are not limited, and they can be from fermentation, semi-synthesis or fill-synthesis. For example, they can be antibiotics obtained by fermentation of microorganisms (molds, antinomycetes, etc.) that produce antibiotics, or semi-synthetic antibiotics obtained by modifying structure of antibiotics from fermentation that have the same or similar parent cores, or fill-synthetic antibiotics having structure similar to conventional antibiotics, or various total synthetic chemotherapeutic drugs such as quinolones tat conventionally are deemed as antibiotics.
[0023] Once the antibiotics of the present invention induce bacteria to generate CGCs when they are applied to bacteria, they can be used in the compositions/drugs of the present invention.
[0024] In the present invention, the usable antibiotics include, but are not limited to: aminoglycoside antibiotics, penicillin group antibiotics, cephalosporin group antibiotics, β-lactam antibiotics other than penicillins and cephalosporins, chloramphenicol group antibiotics, lincomycin group antibiotics, macrolide group antibiotics, quinolones, tetracyclines, etc.
[0025] The aminoglycoside antibiotics of the present invention are antibiotics having aminoglycoside structure. For example, they are, but not limited to streptomycin (UI), kanamycin, amikacin, etc., which are produced by streptomycetes or by semi-synthesis based thereon, or gentamycin, sagamicin, etc. which are produced by micromonosporaceae.
[0026] The penicillin group antibiotics of the present invention refer to natural or semi-synthetic antibiotic monomers having penicillin acid parent cores structure (II) or various pharmaceutically acceptable salts thereof For example, they are, but not limited to natural penicillins, such as penicillin G, penicillin V, etc.; and semi-synthetic penicillins, such as ampicillin, carbenicillin, amoxicillin, etc.
[0027] The cephalosporin group antibiotics of the present invention refer to synthetic, semi-synthetic or natural antibiotics having cephalosporanic acid (IV) or oxacephem (V) parent cores. For example, they are, but not limited to cefalexin, cefradine, cefaclor, cefiroxime, cefotaxime, latamoxef, etc.
[0028] The β-lactam antibiotics other than penicillins and cephalosporins of the present invention refer to synthetic, semi-synthetic or natural antibiotics having β-lactam ring structure (VI) but not having penicillin or cephalosporin structure. For example, they are, but not limited to nocardicin, thiomycin and imipenem having carbapenem structure (VII); sulbactam, tazobactam, sultamicillin (ampicillin+sulbactam); clavulanic acid having oxapenam structure (IX), etc.
[0029] The chloramphenicol group antibiotics of the present invention refer to synthetic, semi-synthetic or natural antibiotics or derivatives thereof having a structure similar with chloramphenicol (X). For example, they are, but not limited to chloramphenicol, chloramphenicol succinate, thiamphenicol, etc.
[0030] The lincomycin group antibiotics of the present invention refer to antibiotics having a structure of lincomycin (XI) or analogs or derivatives thereof For example, they are, but not limited to lincomycin, chlindamycin, etc.
[0031] The macrolide group antibiotics of the present invention refer to, but are not limited to macrolides, such as erythromycin, spiramycin (XII), roxithromycin, azithromycin, etc., and derivatives thereof, such as salts, esters, etc.
[0032] The quinolones of the present invention are synthetic chemotherapeutic drugs and do not belong to antibiotic field, but for conciseness, the present invention considers them as antibiotics according to their drug actions, and does not distinguish them in the description. Quinolones include, but are not limited to norfloxacin, ofloxacin and ciprofloxacin having nalidixic acid parent cores (XIII); enoxacin having quinoline carboxylic acid parent cores (XIV); and pipemidic acid having pyridinopyrimidine carboxylic acid parent cores (XV).
[0033] The tetracyclines of the present invention refer to natural, semi-synthetic or synthetic antibiotics that are produced by actinomycete, etc. and have phenanthrene basic framework. For example, they are, but not limited to tetracycline (XVI), aureomycin, terramycin, etc.
[0034] Bacteria that can be induced by antibiotics to generate CGCs include, but are not limited to enteric gram-negative bacillus, including pathogenic bacteria and indigenous flora, anaerobic and amphoteric bacteria.
[0035] Although the present invention does not stand on any known theory, the mechanism that the combination of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and antibiotics in the present invention enhances drug action is deemed as follows:
[0036] Antibiotics bring about effects by reacting with bacteria. When bacteria convert into CGCs, they do not react with antibiotics, so that antibiotics are ineffective. N-acetyl-D-glucosamine reverts the cryptic growth cells to bacteria in vegetative form that are sensitive to antibiotics, so that the drug action of antibiotics is enhanced.
[0037] When the compound preparations of the present invention comprise N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and antibiotics simultaneously, the dosages and proportions of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and antibiotics depend on the kind of antibiotics. Specifically, since N-acetyl-D-glucosamine has antibiotic synergetic effect, the dosage of antibiotic may be its conventional dosage of less than its conventional dosage. For example, the dosage of antibiotic may be reduced to 50% or less of its conventional dosage. N-acetyl-D-glucosamine is nontoxic, so that its dosage is not specifically limited. For example, the daily dosage of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine may range from 100 mg to 10 g. Specifically:
[0038] In case that N-acetyl-D-glucosamine combines with aminoglycoside antibiotics, the ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to aminoglycoside antibiotics ranges from 1:1.6 to 1:5. For example, compound streptomycin injection may have an adult dose of 1 g/day by intravenous drop or intramuscular injection. Compound kanamycin injection may have a dose of 300 mg/day, once per 8 hours, by intramuscular injection. Compound gentamycin injection may have a dose of 90-300 mg/day, once per 8 hours, by intramuscular injection or intravenous drop. The above doses are based on antibiotics (similarly hereinafter).
[0039] When N-acetyl-D-glucosamine combines with macrolide group antibiotics, the ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to macrolide group antibiotics ranges from 1:5 to 1:30. For example, compound spiramycin is formulated according to the ratio to form capsules, and has a dose of 2-3 g/day, once per 8 hours, by oral administration.
[0040] When N-acetyl-D-glucosamine combines with quinolones, the ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to quinolones ranges from 1:1 to 1:15. For example, compound norfloxacin is formulated to form capsules, and has a dose of 1200 mg/day, once per 8 hours, by oral administration. Compound ciprofloxacin capsule has a dose of 1200 mg/day, once per 8 hours, by oral administration; or compound ciprofloxacin injection has a dose of 200 mg/day, once or twice per day, by intravenous drop.
[0041] When N-acetyl-D-glucosamine combines with lincomycin group antibiotics, the ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to lincomycin group antibiotics ranges from 1:2.5 to 1:10. For example, capsule formulated with powders may have a dose of 0.6-1.8 g/day; or it is formulated to form injection for intravenous drop.
[0042] When N-acetyl-D-glucosamine combines with chloramphenicol group antibiotics, the ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to chloramphenicol group antibiotics ranges from 1:2.5 to 1:10. Sugar coated tablet or syrup formulated with powders may have a dose of 25-50 mg/kg by oral administration; or it is formulated as an injection having a dose of 1-2 g/day, 24 times per day, for intramuscular injection or intravenous drop.
[0043] When N-acetyl-D-glucosamine combines with tetracyclines, the ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to tetracyclines ranges from 1:1 to 1:30. Capsule or sugar coated tablet may have a dose of 1-2 g/day by oral administration; or it is formulated as an injection having a dose of 1-1.5 g/day for intravenous drop.
[0044] When N-acetyl-D-glucosamine combines with cephalosporin group antibiotics, the ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to cephalosporin group antibiotics ranges from 1:2.6 to 1:5. For example, an injection obtained by mixing N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and cefuiroxime may have a dose of 1.5-6 g/day, twice per day, by intravenous drop or intramuscular injection; and an injection obtained by mixing N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and cefotaxime may have a dose of 2 g/day, twice per day, by intravenous drop or intramuscular injection.
[0045] When N-acetyl-D-glucosamine combines with penicillin group antibiotics, the ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to penicillin group antibiotics ranges from 1:1 to 1:30. For example, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine is mixed with ampicillin to form a capsule having a dose of 50-100 mg/kg/day for oral administration, or to form an injection having a dose of 100-200 mg/kg/day for intravenous drop or intramuscular injection; and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine is mixed with carbenicillin to form an injection having a dose of 4-8 g/day, 4 times per day, for intravenous drop or intramuscular injection.
[0046] When N-acetyl-D-glucosamine combines with other β-lactam antibiotics, the ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to other β-lactam antibiotics ranges from 1:8 to 1:50. For example, N-acetyl-D-glucosamine is mixed with cefoxitin to form an injection having a dose of 8-10 g/day for intravenous drop or intramuscular injection; and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine is mixed with ampicillin-sulbactam to form an injection having a dose of 1.5-6 g/day, 2-3 times per day, for intravenous drop or intramuscular injection.
[0047] It should be understood that when N-acetyl-D-glucosamine combines with an antibiotic, they are formulated to form a compound preparation so that they are used simultaneously, or are formulated separately and are administered simultaneously or one after the other. For example, the antibiotic is administered firstly, and then N-acetyl-D-glucosamine is administered after a while; or N-acetyl-D-glucosamine is administered firstly, and then the antibiotic is administered. There is no restriction on this aspect.
[0048] The following experimental examples are to illustrate the effects of combinations of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and antibiotics in the present invention for combating CGC and for prevention and treatment of dysbacteriosis in intestinal tract, irritable bowel syndrome, etc.
[0049] The antibiotics used hereinafter were all commercial products, and were purchased from the Pharmacy of Xinan Hospital, The Third Military Medical University.
TEST EXAMPLE 1
[0050] Tests of inducing E. coli CGC by using compound antibacterial agents comprising aminoglycoside and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine in different ratios
[0051] E. coli (No. 33310, purchased from Chengdu Institute of Biological Products, the Ministry of Public Health) was used in the tests. Grid design was performed by using antibiotic with different concentrations and N-acetyl-D-glucosamine having an amount of from 10 mg to 300 mg. Streak plates were conducted separately, and K-B method was employed for drugs. Colonies at marginal part of drug inhibition zone were picked and were observed under microscope. If cell length was more than 50 μm and cell number was more than 5 in each visual field, it was deemed as CGC positive and was marked with “+”; while if cell length was not greater than 50 μm and cell number was within the range from 0 to 4 in each visual field, it was deemed as CGC negative and was marked with “−”. At this time, the ratio of two substances was called “effective ratio”. The results are shown in Table 1-1 to 1-9.
TABLE 1-1 Aminoglycoside was selected from kanamycin and gentamycin and had an amount of from 50 mg to 500 mg. Aminoglycosides (mg) Compound (I) (mg) 50 100 150 200 300 400 500 10 − + + + + + + 50 − − + + + + + 100 − − − + + + + 150 − − − − + + + 200 − − − − − + + 250 − − − − − − + 300 − − − − − − − Conclusion: the effective ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to aminoglycoside in the compound antibacterial agent for preventing the formation of E. coli CGC is from 1:1.6 to 1:5.
[0052]
TABLE 1-2
The macrolide group antibiotic was selected from spiramycin and had
an amount of from 300 mg to 1500 mg.
Macrolides(mg)
Compound (I) (mg)
300
500
700
900
1100
1300
1500
10
−
+
+
+
+
+
+
50
−
−
+
+
+
+
+
100
−
−
−
+
+
+
+
150
−
−
−
−
+
+
+
200
−
−
−
−
−
+
+
250
−
−
−
−
−
−
+
300
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
Conclusion: the effective ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to macrolide in the compound antibacterial agent for preventing the formation of E. coli CGC is from 1:5 to 1:30.
[0053]
TABLE 1-3
The quinoline was selected from ciprofloxacin and norfloxacin and
had an amount of from 150 mg to 600 mg.
Quinolines (mg)
Compound (I) (mg)
150
200
300
400
500
550
600
10
−
+
+
+
+
+
+
50
−
−
+
+
+
+
+
100
−
−
−
+
+
+
+
150
−
−
−
−
+
+
+
200
−
−
−
−
−
+
+
250
−
−
−
−
−
−
+
300
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
Conclusion: the effective ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to quinolines in the compound antibacterial agent for preventing the formation of E. coli CGC was from 1:2 to 1:15.
[0054]
TABLE 1-4
The lincomycin group antibiotics were selected from lincomycin, and
had an amount of from 100 mg to 700 mg.
Lincomycin (mg)
Compound (I) (mg)
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
10
−
+
+
+
+
+
+
50
−
−
+
+
+
+
+
100
−
−
−
+
+
+
+
150
−
−
−
−
+
+
+
200
−
−
−
−
−
+
+
250
−
−
−
−
−
−
+
300
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
Conclusion: the effective ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to lincomycin in the compound antibacterial agent for preventing the formation of E. coli CGC was from 1:2.5 to 1:10.
[0055]
TABLE 1-5
Chloramphenicol had an amount of from 100 mg to 700 mg.
Chloramphenical (mg)
Compound (I) (mg)
100
200
300
400
500
600
700
10
−
+
+
+
+
+
+
50
−
−
+
+
+
+
+
100
−
−
−
+
+
+
+
150
−
−
−
−
+
+
+
200
−
−
−
−
−
+
+
250
−
−
−
−
−
−
+
300
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
Conclusion: the effective ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to chloramphenical in the compound antibacterial agent for preventing the formation of E. coli CGC was from 1:2.5 to 1:10.
[0056]
TABLE 1-6
Tetracyclines were selected from tetracycline and had an amount of
from 10 mg to 300 mg.
Tetracyclines (mg)
Compound (I) (mg)
10
50
100
150
200
250
300
10
−
+
+
+
+
+
+
50
−
−
+
+
+
+
+
100
−
−
−
+
+
+
+
150
−
−
−
−
+
+
+
200
−
−
−
−
−
+
+
250
−
−
−
−
−
−
+
300
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
Conclusion: the effective ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to tetracyclines in the compound antibacterial agent for preventing the formation of E. coli CGC was from 1:1 to 1:30.
[0057]
TABLE 1-7
The cephalosporin group antibiotics were selected from cefuroxime
and cefotaxime, and had an amount of from 50 mg to 800 mg.
Cephalosporin (mg)
Compound (I) (mg)
50
100
200
300
450
650
800
10
−
+
+
+
+
+
+
50
−
−
+
+
+
+
+
100
−
−
−
+
+
+
+
150
−
−
−
−
+
+
+
200
−
−
−
−
−
+
+
250
−
−
−
−
−
−
+
300
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
Conclusion: the effective ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to cephalosporin group antibiotics in the compound antibacterial agent for preventing the formation of E. coli CGC was from 1:2.6 to 1:5.
[0058]
TABLE 1-8
The penicillin group antibiotics were selected from ampicillin and
carbenicillin, and had an amount of from 10 mg to 300 mg.
Compound of
β-lactam antibiotics (mg)
formula (I) (mg)
10
50
100
150
200
250
300
10
−
+
+
+
+
+
+
50
−
−
+
+
+
+
+
100
−
−
−
+
+
+
+
150
−
−
−
−
+
+
+
200
−
−
−
−
−
+
+
250
−
−
−
−
−
−
+
300
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
Conclusion: the effective ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to β-lactam antibiotics in the compound antibacterial agent for preventing the formation of E. coli CGC was from 1:1 to 1:30.
[0059]
TABLE 1-9
The other β-lactam antibiotics were selected from cefoxitin and
ampicillin-sulbactam, and had an amount of from 500 mg to 2500 mg.
Compound of
Other β-lactam antibiotics (mg)
formula (I) (mg)
500
800
1200
1500
1800
2000
2500
10
−
+
+
+
+
+
+
50
−
−
+
+
+
+
+
100
−
−
−
+
+
+
+
150
−
−
−
−
+
+
+
200
−
−
−
−
−
+
+
250
−
−
−
−
−
−
+
300
−
−
−
−
−
−
−
Conclusion: the effective ratio of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine to other β-lactam antibiotics in the compound antibacterial agent for preventing the formation of E. coli CGC was from 1:8 to 1:50.
TEST EXAMPLE 2
[0060] Effects tests of compound preparation comprising N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and antibiotics for preventing the formation of bacterial CGC in vitro.
[0061] The tests were carried out in vitro, wherein gram-negative amphimicrodes, gram-negative anaerobes and gram-positive aerobes were separately coated on streak plates, test drugs and control drugs were separately dissolved with same volume of sterile water for injection, 10 μl of each drug was used for preparing drug-sensitive paper, K-B method was employed in the tests of drugs, and the inhibition situations of CGC formation were observed. The results of the tests were shown in Table 2-1 to Table 2-9.
TABLE 2-1 The compound injection was prepared by using 100 mg of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and 300 mg of kanamycin (an aminoglycoside) of Example 1, and the control drug was kanamycin with the same dose. Compound Name of bacterium preparation Kanamycin Gram-negative E. coli — + amphimicrobes Salmonella — + Shigella — + Klebsiella — + Bacillus proteus — + Citro Bacter — + Gram-negative Bacteroides fragilis — + anaerobes Bacteroides melanogenicus — + Clostridium difficile — + Nucleic Acid Bacter — + Gram- Diphtheroid bacillus — + positive Listeria — + aerobes Bacillus cereus — + All above bacteria were identified to know their genus. Conclusion: in comparison with aminoglycoside alone, the compound antibacterial agent of the combination of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and aminoglycoside effectively prevented common bacteria in digestive tract from converting into CGC in vitro.
[0062]
TABLE 2-2
The compound preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and
macrolide group antibiotic of Example 1 was prepared by
mixing powders (100 mg of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine,
900 mg of spiramycin powder), and the control drug
was 900 mg of spiramycin.
Compound
Name of bacterium
preparation
Spiramycin
Gram-negative
E. coli
—
+
amphimicrobes
Salmonella
—
+
Shigella
—
+
Klebsiella
—
+
Bacillus proteus
—
+
Citro Bacter
—
+
Gram-negative
Bacteroides fragilis
—
+
anaerobes
Bacteroides melanogenicus
—
+
Clostridium difficile
—
+
Nucleic Acid Bacter
—
+
Gram-
Diphtheroid bacillus
—
+
positive
Listeria
—
+
aerobes
Bacillus cereus
—
+
Conclusion: in comparison with macrolide group antibiotic alone, the compound antibacterial agent of the combination of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and macrolide group antibiotic effectively prevented common bacteria in digestive tract from converting into CGC in vitro.
[0063]
TABLE 2-3
The compound preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine
and quinoline of Example 1 was prepared by mixing
100 mg of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and 400 mg of
norfloxacin, and the control drug was norfloxacin
with the same dose.
Compound
Name of bacterium
preparation
Norfloxacin
Gram-negative
E. coli
—
+
amphimicrobes
Salmonella
—
+
Shigella
—
+
Klebsiella
—
+
Bacillus proteus
—
+
Citro Bacter
—
+
Gram-negative
Bacteroides fragilis
—
+
anaerobes
Bacteroides melanogenicus
—
+
Clostridium difficile
—
+
Nucleic Acid Bacter
—
+
Gram-
Diphtheroid bacillus
—
+
positive
Listeria
—
+
aerobes
Bacillus cereus
—
+
Conclusion: in comparison with quinoline alone, the compound antibacterial agent of the combination of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and quinoline effectively prevented common bacteria in digestive tract from converting into CGC in vitro.
[0064]
TABLE 2-4
The compound preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine
(100 mg) and lincomycin (400 mg) of Example 1 was
prepared, and the control drug was lincomycin (400 mg).
Compound
Name of bacterium
preparation
Lincomycin
Gram-negative
E. coli
—
+
amphimicrobes
Salmonella
—
+
Shigella
—
+
Klebsiella
—
+
Bacillus proteus
—
+
Citro Bacter
—
+
Gram-negative
Bacteroides fragilis
—
+
anaerobes
Bacteroides melanogenicus
—
+
Clostridium difficile
—
+
Nucleic Acid Bacter
—
+
Gram-
Diphtheroid bacillus
—
+
positive
Listeria
—
+
aerobes
Bacillus cereus
—
+
Conclusion: in comparison with lincomycin alone, the compound antibacterial agent of the combination of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and lincomycin effectively prevented common bacteria in digestive tract from converting into CGC in vitro.
[0065]
TABLE 2-5
The compound preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine
(100 mg) and chloramphenicol (400 mg) of Example 1
was prepared, and the control drug was
chloramphenicol (400 mg).
Compound
Name of bacterium
preparation
Chloramphenicol
Gram-negative
E. coli
—
+
amphimicrobes
Salmonella
—
+
Shigella
—
+
Klebsiella
—
+
Bacillus proteus
—
+
Citro Bacter
—
+
Gram-negative
Bacteroides fragilis
—
+
anaerobes
Bacteroides
—
+
melanogenicus
Clostridium difficile
—
+
Nucleic Acid Bacter
—
+
Gram-
Diphtheroid bacillus
—
+
positive
Listeria
—
+
aerobes
Bacillus cereus
—
+
Conclusion: in comparison with chloramphenicol alone, the compound antibacterial agent of the combination of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and chloramphenicol effectively prevented common bacteria in digestive tract from converting into CGC in vitro.
[0066]
TABLE 2-6
The compound preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (50 mg)
and tetracycline (150 mg) of Example 1 was prepared, and
the control drug was tetracycline (150 mg).
Compound
Name of bacterium
preparation
Tetracyclin
Gram-negative
E. coli
—
+
amphimicrobes
Salmonella
—
+
Shigella
—
+
Klebsiella
—
+
Bacillus proteus
—
+
Citro Bacter
—
+
Gram-negative
Bacteroides fragilis
—
+
anaerobes
Bacteroides melanogenicus
—
+
Clostridium difficile
—
+
Nucleic Acid Bacter
—
+
Gram-
Diphtheroid bacillus
—
+
positive
Listeria
—
+
aerobes
Bacillus cereus
—
+
Conclusion: in comparison with tetracycline alone, the compound antibacterial agent of the combination of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and tetracycline effectively prevented common bacteria in digestive tract from converting into CGC in vitro.
[0067]
TABLE 2-7
The compound preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and
cephalosporin group antibiotics of Example 1 was prepared
by mixing 100 mg of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and 300 mg
of cefuroxime, and the control drug was 300 mg of cefuroxime.
Compound
Name of bacterium
preparation
Cefuroxime
Gram-negative
E. coli
—
+
amphimicrobes
Salmonella
—
+
Shigella
—
+
Klebsiella
—
+
Bacillus proteus
—
+
Citro Bacter
—
+
Gram-negative
Bacteroides fragilis
—
+
anaerobes
Bacteroides melanogenicus
—
+
Clostridium difficile
—
+
Nucleic Acid Bacter
—
+
Gram-
Diphtheroid bacillus
—
+
positive
Listeria
—
+
aerobes
Bacillus cereus
—
+
Conclusion: in comparison with cephalosporin group antibiotics alone, the compound antibacterial agent of the combination of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and cephalosporin group antibiotics effectively prevented common bacteria in digestive tract from converting into CGC in vitro.
[0068]
TABLE 2-8
The compound preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and
penicillin group antibiotics of Example 1 was prepared by
mixing 150 mg of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and 150 mg of
ampicillin, and the control drug was ampicillin.
Compound
Name of bacterium
preparation
Ampicillin
Gram-negative
E. coli
—
+
amphimicrobes
Salmonella
—
+
Shigella
—
+
Klebsiella
—
+
Bacillus proteus
—
+
Citro Bacter
—
+
Gram-negative
Bacteroides fragilis
—
+
anaerobes
Bacteroides melanogenicus
—
+
Clostridium difficile
—
+
Nucleic Acid Bacter
—
+
Gram-
Diphtheroid bacillus
—
+
positive
Listeria
—
+
aerobes
Bacillus cereus
—
+
Conclusion: in comparison with β-lactam antibiotics alone, the compound antibacterial agent of the combination of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and β-lactam antibiotics effectively prevented common bacteria in digestive tract from converting into CGC in vitro.
[0069]
TABLE 2-9
The compound preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and
other β-lactam antibiotics of Example 1 was prepared by
mixing 100 mg of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and 1500 mg of
ampicillin-sulbactam, and the control drug was
ampicillin-sulbactam.
Compound
Name of bacterium
preparation
Spiramycin
Gram-negative
E. coli
—
+
amphimicrobes
Salmonella
—
+
Shigella
—
+
Klebsiella
—
+
Bacillus proteus
—
+
Citro Bacter
—
+
Gram-negative
Bacteroides fragilis
—
+
anaerobes
Bacteroides melanogenicus
—
+
Clostridium difficile
—
+
Nucleic Acid Bacter
—
+
Gram-
Diphtheroid bacillus
—
+
positive
Listeria
—
+
aerobes
Bacillus cereus
—
+
Conclusion: in comparison with other β-lactam antibiotics alone, the compound antibacterial agent of the combination of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and other β-lactam antibiotics effectively prevented common bacteria in digestive tract from converting into CGC in vitro.
TEST EXAMPLE 3
[0070] Effect tests of compound antibacterial preparation comprising N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and antibiotics for preventing the formation of CGC in vivo
[0071] Wistar rats were used in the tests. In vivo tests of using compound preparation comprising N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and antibiotics with effective proportions to treat rats infected and not infected by Bacillus typhi murium were conducted by experimental observation (the proportions of drugs were given in the following examples, and the dosage forms were those abovementioned). Equivalent amount of antibiotics without N-acetyl-D-glucosamine was used as control. The dose for rats was 6.5 times as high as the dose for human (dosage for per kilogram, as abovementioned). Rats were grouped randomly, and each group had 15 rats.
[0072] Rats were intramuscularly or orally administered with effective dose for a consecutive week. Two stool CGC detections were conducted per day, and intestinal mucosa CGC colonization detection was conducted on the 7th day in order to determine the coincidence relation with the stool CGCs. It is positive if stool has CGC and intestinal mucosa has CGC colonization; on the contrary, it is negative. The expression manner is that the total number of animals is denominator and the number of positive animals is numerator. The results are as follows.
TEST EXAMPLE 3-1
Aminoglycoside Antibiotics
[0073] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (100 mg)+kanamycin (200 mg)
[0074] Conclusion: the positive rates of stool CGC and intestinal mucosa CGC of rats infected or not by Bacillus typhi murium which were administered with an effective dose of a compound antibacterial agent of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and aminoglycosides were 0 (0/15), while all CGC positive rates of infected rats and not infected rats which were administered with only kanamycin were 100% (15/15). The stool CGC positive results were coincident with the intestinal mucosa CGC colonization positive results. This indicates that the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and aminoglycosides is capable of effectively preventing the formation of CGC in vivo.
TEST EXAMPLE 3-2
Macrolide Group Antibiotic
[0075] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (100 mg)+spiramycin (900 mg)
[0076] Conclusion: the positive rates of stool CGC and intestinal mucosa CGC of rats infected or not by Bacillus typhi murium which were administered with an effective dose of a compound antibacterial agent of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and macrolide group antibiotic were 0 (0/15), while all CGC positive rates of infected rats and not infected rats which were administered with only spiramycin were 100% (15/15). The stool CGC positive results were coincident with the intestinal mucosa CGC colonization positive results. This indicates that the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and macrolide group antibiotic is capable of effectively preventing the formation of CGC in vivo.
TEST EXAMPLE 3-3
Quinolines
[0077] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (100 mg)+ciprofloxacin (500 mg)
[0078] Conclusion: the positive rates of stool CGC and intestinal mucosa CGC of rats infected or not by Bacillus typhi murium which were administered with an effective dose of a compound antibacterial agent of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and quinoline were 0 (0/15), while all CGC positive rates of infected rats and not infected rats which were administered with only ciprofloxacin were 100% (15/15). The stool CGC positive results were coincident with the intestinal mucosa CGC colonization positive results. This indicates that the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and quinolines is capable of effectively preventing the formation of CGC in vivo.
TEST EXAMPLE 34
Lincomycin Group Antibiotics
[0079] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (100 mg)+lincomycin (400 mg)
[0080] Conclusion: the positive rates of stool CGC and intestinal mucosa CGC of rats infected or not by Bacillus typhi murium which were administered with an effective dose of a compound antibacterial agent of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and lincomycin group antibiotics were 0 (0/15), while all CGC positive rates of infected rats and not infected rats which were administered with only lincomycin were 100% (15/15). The stool CGC positive results were coincident with the intestinal mucosa CGC colonization positive results. This indicates that the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and lincomycin group antibiotics is capable of effectively preventing the formation of CGC in vivo.
TEST EXAMPLE 3-5
Chloramphenicol Group Antibiotics
[0081] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (100 mg)+chloramphenical (400 mg)
[0082] Conclusion: the positive rates of stool CGC and intestinal mucosa CGC of rats infected or not by Bacillus typhi murium which were administered with an effective dose of a compound antibacterial agent of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and chloramphenicol group antibiotics were 0 (0/15), while all CGC positive rates of infected rats and not infected rats which were administered with only chloramphenicol were 100% (15/15). The stool CGC positive results were coincident with the intestinal mucosa CGC colonization positive results. This indicates that the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and chloramphenicol group antibiotics is capable of effectively preventing the formation of CGC in vivo.
TEST EXAMPLE 3-6
Tetracycline Group Antibiotics
[0083] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (150 mg)+tetracycline (150 mg)
[0084] Conclusion: the positive rates of stool CGC and intestinal mucosa CGC of rats infected or not by Bacillus typhi murium which were administered with an effective dose of a compound antibacterial agent of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and tetracycline group antibiotics were 0 (0/15), while all CGC positive rates of infected rats and not infected rats which were administered with only tetracycline were 100% (15/15). The stool CGC positive results were coincident with the intestinal mucosa CGC colonization positive results. This indicates that the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and tetracycline group antibiotics is capable of effectively preventing the formation of CGC in vivo.
TEST EXAMPLE 3-7
Cephalosporin Group Antibiotics
[0085] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (100 mg)+cefuroxime (300 mg)
[0086] Conclusion: the positive rates of stool CGC and intestinal mucosa CGC of rats infected or not by Bacillus typhi murium which were administered with an effective dose of a compound antibacterial agent of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and cephalosporin group antibiotics were 0 (0/15), while all CGC positive rates of infected rats and not infected rats which were administered with only cefliroxime were 100% (15/15). The stool CGC positive results were coincident with the intestinal mucosa CGC colonization positive results. This indicates that the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and cephalosporin group antibiotics is capable of effectively preventing the formation of CGC in vivo.
TEST EXAMPLE 3-8
Penicillin Group Antibiotics
[0087] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (100 mg)+ampicillin (200 mg)
[0088] Conclusion: the positive rates of stool CGC and intestinal mucosa CGC of rats infected or not by Bacillus typhi murium which were administered with an effective dose of a compound antibacterial agent of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and penicillin group antibiotics were 0 (0/15), while all CGC positive rates of infected rats and not infected rats which were administered with only ampicillin were 100% (15/15). The stool CGC positive results were coincident with the intestinal mucosa CGC colonization positive results. This indicates that the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and penicillin group antibiotics is capable of effectively preventing the formation of CGC in vivo.
TEST EXAMPLE 3-9
Other β-lactam Antibiotics
[0089] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine (100 mg)+cefoxitin (150 mg)
[0090] Conclusion: the positive rates of stool CGC and intestinal mucosa CGC of rats infected or not by Bacillus typhi murium which were administered with an effective dose of a compound antibacterial agent of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and other β-lactam antibiotics were 0 (0/15), while all CGC positive rates of infected rats and not infected rats which were administered with only cefoxitin were 100% (15/15). The stool CGC positive results were coincident with the intestinal mucosa CGC colonization positive results. This indicates that the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and other β-lactam antibiotics is capable of effectively preventing the formation of CGC in vivo.
TEST EXAMPLE 4
[0091] Experimental observation of effects of compound preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and antibiotics for preventing dysbacteriosis caused by bacterial CGC
[0092] Each control group had 15 rats and was administered with only kanamycin, gentamycin, spiramycin, ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, lincomycin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, cefuroxime, cefotaxime, ampicillin, carbenicillin, cefoxitin or ampicillin-sulbactam in an effective dosage respectively, twice per day, for consecutive 15 days, and the intestinal flora results were detected. Test groups were separately administered with an effective dosage of compound preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and kanamycin, gentamycin, spiramycin, ciprofloxacin, norfloxacin, lincomycin, chloramphenicol, tetracycline, cefuroxime, cefotaxime, ampicillin, carbenicillin, cefoxitin or ampicillin-sulbactam for consecutive 15 days, and the intestinal flora results were detected was well. The results showed that the kinds of indigenous flora in intestinal tract of rats in control groups were reduced from 12 to 5, the ratio of gram-positive bacillus to negative bacteria was changed, and the stool water content increased from average 45% to 60% (diarrhea), while these did not appear in the rats of test groups. Conclusion: the compound preparations do not cause dysbacteriosis so that the occurrence of dysbacteriosis is avoided.
TEST EXAMPLE 5
[0093] Effect tests of compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and antibiotics for effectively preventing irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) caused by bacterial CGC
[0094] 60 rats were randomly divided into test groups and control group, and each group had 30 rats. The rats of test groups were administered with an effective dosage of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and antibiotics, while the rats of control group were administered with only an effective dosage of antibiotics. The rats of test groups were administered with an effective dosage of a compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and aminoglycoside by intramuscular injection for consecutive 10 days. The rat stools were observed during the period of administration and within 1 week after drug withdrawal in order to determine whether CGC existed. CGC was not detected in rat stools after one week from drug withdrawal. On this basis, the rats were subjected to stimulations such as electric stimulation, intragastric administration with fructus zanthoxyli water, cold, constraint etc. in order to induce IBS, and the incidence rates of IBS of two groups were observed.
TEST EXAMPLE 5-1
Aminoglycoside Antibiotics
[0095] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine+kananycin, control: kanamycin
[0096] Results: a large amount of CGCs appeared in the stools of the rats of control groups, and CGCs were still present in the rat stools after one week of drug withdrawal, while CGC was not detected in the stools of rats of test groups. As to the incidence rate of IBS in rats subjected to electric stimulation, intragastric administration with fructus zanthoxyli water, cold, constraint etc., it was 0 (0/30) for the rats of test groups, while it was 33% (10/30), 33% (10/30) and 33% (10/30) respectively for the rats of control groups.
[0097] Conclusion: the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and aminoglycosides is capable of effectively preventing the occurrence of irritable bowel syndrome.
TEST EXAMPLE 5-2
Macrolide Group Antibiotic
[0098] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine+spiramycin, control: spiramycin
[0099] Results: a large amount of CGCs appeared in the stools of the rats of control groups, and CGCs were still present in the rat stools after one week of drug withdrawal, while CGC was not detected in the stools of rats of test groups. As to the incidence rate of BS in rats subjected to electric stimulation, intragastric administration with fructus zanthoxyli water, cold, constraint etc., it was 0 (0/30) for the rats of test groups, while it was 33% (10/30), 33% (10/30) and 33% (10/30) respectively for the rats of control groups.
[0100] Conclusion: the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and macrolide group antibiotic is capable of effectively preventing the occurrence of irritable bowel syndrome.
TEST EXAMPLE 5-3
Quinolines
[0101] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine+ciprofloxacin, control: ciprofloxacin
[0102] Results: a large amount of CGCs appeared in the stools of the rats of control groups, and CGCs were still present in the rat stools after one week of drug withdrawal, while CGC was not detected in the stools of rats of test groups. As to the incidence rate of IBS in rats subjected to electric stimulation, intragastric administration with fructus zanthoxyli water, cold, constraint etc., it was 0 (0/30) for the rats of test groups, while it was 33% (10/30), 33% (10/30) and 33% (10/30) respectively for the rats of control groups.
[0103] Conclusion: the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and quinolines is capable of effectively preventing the occurrence of irritable bowel syndrome.
TEST EXAMPLE 5-4
Lincomycin Group Antibiotics
[0104] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine +lincomycin, control: lincomycin
[0105] Results: a large amount of CGCs appeared in the stools of the rats of control groups, and CGCs were still present in the rat stools after one week of drug withdrawal, while CGC was not detected in the stools of rats of test groups. As to the incidence rate of IBS in rats subjected to electric stimulation, intragastric administration with fructus zanthoxyli water, cold, constraint etc., it was 0 (0/30) for the rats of test groups, while it was 33% (10/30), 33% (10/30) and 33% (10/30) respectively for the rats of control groups.
[0106] Conclusion: the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and lincomycin group antibiotic is capable of effectively preventing the occurrence of irritable bowel syndrome.
TEST EXAMPLE 5-5
Chloramphenicol Group Antibiotics
[0107] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine+chloramphenicol, control: chloramphenicol
[0108] Results: a large amount of CGCs appeared in the stools of the rats of control groups, and CGCs were still present in the rat stools after one week of drug withdrawal, while CGC was not detected in the stools of rats of test groups. As to the incidence rate of IBS in rats subjected to electric stimulation, intragastric administration with fructus zanthoxyli water, cold, constraint etc., it was 0 (0/30) for the rats of test groups, while it was 33% (10/30), 33% (10/30) and 33% (10/30) respectively for the rats of control groups.
[0109] Conclusion: the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and chloramphenicol group antibiotic is capable of effectively preventing the occurrence of irritable bowel syndrome.
TEST EXAMPLE 5-6
Tetracycline Group Antibiotics
[0110] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine+tetracycline, control: tetracycline
[0111] Results: a large amount of CGCs appeared in the stools of the rats of control groups, and COGCs were still present in the rat stools after one week of drug withdrawal, while CGC was not detected in the stools of rats of test groups. As to the incidence rate of IBS in rats subjected to electric stimulation, intragastric administration with fructus zanthoxyli water, cold, constraint etc., it was 0 (0/30) for the rats of test groups, while it was 33% (10/30), 33% (10/30) and 33% (10/30) respectively for the rats of control groups.
[0112] Conclusion: the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and tetracycline group antibiotic is capable of effectively preventing the occurrence of irritable bowel syndrome.
TEST EXAMPLE 5-7
Cephalosporin Group Antibiotics
[0113] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine +cefuiroxime, control: cefliroxime
[0114] Results: a large amount of CGCs appeared in the stools of the rats of control groups, and CGCs were still present in the rat stools after one week of drug withdrawal, while CGC was not detected in the stools of rats of test groups. As to the incidence rate of IBS in rats subjected to electric stimulation, intragastric administration with fructus zanthoxyli water, cold, constraint etc., it was 0 (0/30) for the rats of test groups, while it was 33% (10/30), 33% (10/30) and 33% (10/30) respectively for the rats of control groups.
[0115] Conclusion: the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and cephalosporin group antibiotic is capable of effectively preventing the occurrence of irritable bowel syndrome.
TEST EXAMPLE 5-8
Penicillin Group Antibiotics
[0116] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine+ampicillin, control: ampicillin
[0117] Results: a large amount of CGCs appeared in the stools of the rats of control groups, and CGCs were still present in the rat stools after one week of drug withdrawal, while CGC was not detected in the stools of rats of test groups. As to the incidence rate of IBS in rats subjected to electric stimulation, intragastric administration with fructus zanthoxyli water, cold, constraint etc., it was 0 (0/30) for the rats of test groups, while it was 33% (10/30), 33% (10/30) and 33% (10/30) respectively for the rats of control groups.
[0118] Conclusion: the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and penicillin group antibiotic is capable of effectively preventing the occurrence of irritable bowel syndrome.
TEST EXAMPLE 5-9
Other β-Lactam Antibiotics
[0119] Drug: N-acetyl-D-glucosamine+cefoxitin, control: cefoxitin
[0120] Results: a large amount of CGCs appeared in the stools of the rats of control groups, and CGCs were still present in the rat stools after one week of drug withdrawal, while CGC was not detected in the stools of rats of test groups. As to the incidence rate of IBS in rats subjected to electric stimulation, intragastric administration with fructus zanthoxyli water, cold, constraint etc., it was 0 (0/30) for the rats of test groups, while it was 33% (10/30), 33% (10/30) and 33% (10/30) respectively for the rats of control groups.
[0121] Conclusion: the compound antibacterial preparation of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and other β-lactam antibiotic is capable of effectively preventing the occurrence of irritable bowel syndrome.
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The use of the combination of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and antibiotics for the preparation of antibacterial drugs is disclosed. In the therapies of infections with antibiotics, the pathogens may be changed into slender shaped forms called cryptic growth cells (CGCs), CGCs can colonize and thereby physiological drug resistance arises. In the meantime, normal bacteria colonies in the body may be also changed into CGCs upon administration of antibiotics. These changes result in complications after the therapies, such as disorder of bacteria colonies in the body, disorder of GI functions and other chronic diseases. The combination of antibiotics and N-acetyl-D-aminoglycosamine can prevent of CGC, and the complications after antibiotics therapy.
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This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 44,345, filed May 31, 1979, now abandoned.
BACKGROUND AND SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention comprises an improvement of the subject matter of copending application Ser. No. 945,237, filed Sept. 25, 1978, and relates to a positive displacement rotary vane pump of the reversible type which automatically provides unidirectional discharge flow, regardless of direction of rotation. Reversible pumps are useful in many applications, such as for oil pumps for lubricating three-phase powered refrigeration compressors, which are run in clockwise or counterclockwise directions because the start-up of such compressors can result in rotation in either direction.
Rotary pumps adapted to provide unidirectional flow regardless of direction of rotation of the pump are known in the art. For example, U.S. patents disclosing reversible rotary vane pumps include U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,722,595 and 3,985,473. Other pumps providing unidirectional output include gear pumps, such as disclosed in U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,151,482; 3,165,066; 3,208,392; and 3,343,494. And a reversible shear pump is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,039,677.
It is an object of the present invention to provide an improved reversible, unitary flow pump, and particularly one which reliably has relatively few parts and can be economically constructed and maintained. A further object is to provide a rotary pump having improved automatic valve means comprising a single porting/valve plate for providing unidirectional output regardless of direction of rotation. A related object concerns the provision of such a pump which does not require inlet valving.
These and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will be apparent from the following description and appended claims, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a vertical sectional view of a reversible fluid pump of the present invention in operative association with a compressor (partially shown);
FIG. 2 is a sectional view taken along line 2--2 of FIG. 1 illustrating the pumping chamber of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a sectional view taken along line 3--3 of FIG. 1 showing the valve plate of the present invention in a counterclockwise position to accommodate one direction of rotation;
FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 but showing the valve plate in a clockwise position to accommodate rotation in the opposite direction;
FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along line 5--5 of FIG. 1;
FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 2 illustrating a single vane embodiment of the present invention; and
FIG. 7 is a detailed view similar to FIG. 1 showing the single vane embodiment illustrated in FIG. 6.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The present invention relates to a novel rotary vane pump of the positive displacement type which provides a unidirectional output regardless of the direction of rotation of the shaft driving the pump. The pump features a single inlet port which is used for both directions of rotation. The pump also features an output valve means comprising a single outlet port in a movable valve plate, with the outlet port being aligned in a first position for one rotational direction and being aligned in a second position for the opposite rotational direction.
Now referring to the drawing, where like numbers refer to like parts in the various figures, a reversible pump 1 of the present invention is shown in FIG. 1. Pump 1 is shown in operative association with a refrigeration compressor 2 (such as one of the general type disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 2,298,749) and has the function of supplying lubricating oil to bore 4 in compressor crankshaft 6. Lubricating oil is supplied to the various other parts of compressor 2 from bore 4 in a conventional manner. For example, one end of crankshaft 6 is lubricated by means of lubricating passage 8. Of course, it will be appreciated that pump 1 is suitable for other uses, which are all contemplated to be within the broad scope of this invention.
One of the advantages attendant to the present invention is that pump 1 comprises relatively few basic parts, and hence can be economically manufactured, assembled and maintained. The basic parts of pump 1 are a pump housing 10 which, in conjunction with a housing cover 12, encloses an impeller 14 having rotary vanes 16 and 18 slidably mounted thereon, a movable valve plate 20, an inlet tube 23, and a thrust washer 25 for biasing the valve plate 20 and impeller 14 against one another. The terms "axially", "radially", and "transversely" as used herein are with reference to the common axis of rotation of impeller 14 and compressor crankshaft 6, indicated at a in FIG. 1.
Pump housing 10 may be of any desired external configuration consistent with the use of pump 1. As shown in FIG. 1, pump housing 10 is mounted at the end of refrigeration compressor 2 and has a mounting surface 24 of a configuration adapted to fit upon the corresponding surfaces of compressor 2. It will be appreciated that other configurations adapted to fit other compressors or other apparatus are consistent with the present invention. In the particular embodiment of the present invention shown in FIG. 1, a conventional annular gasket 26 and O-ring 28 and gasket 30 are sealably disposed between pump housing 10 and compressor 2, between a flange 32 on tube 23 and housing 10, and between housing cover 12 and housing 10, respectively.
Pump housing 10 has centered on axis a a bore 42 in which the end of crankshaft 6 is disposed and an enlarged circular cylindrical bore 46 communicating therewith and centered on eccentric axis b, and a transverse shoulder 44 therebetween. Impeller 14, which has vanes 16 and 18 mounted thereon, and valve plate 20 are disposed within bore 46. Impeller 14 is rotatably driven by compressor crankshaft 6, which fits coaxially over a reduced diameter cylindrical end portion 34 of impeller 14. Relative rotation between crankshaft 6 and impeller 14 is prevented by a pin 36 which extends transversely through compressor crankshaft 6 and fits into notches 38 in end portion 34.
As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2, shoulder 44 and eccentric bore 46 of valve housing 10 cooperate with inner face 50 of movable valve plate 20 and outer peripheral surface 54 of impeller 14 to define a pumping cavity 52. Pumping cavity 52 is divided into two rotating pumping chambers 56 and 58 by means of opposed vanes 16 and 18 which are slidably carried in radially outwardly extending slots 60 and 62 in impeller 14. Vanes 16 and 18 are biased radially outwardly against the surface of bore 56 by a compression spring 64 which fits over reduced end portions 66 and 68 of vanes 16 and 18. Thus, outer ends 70 and 72 of vanes 16 and 18 are maintained in continuous sealing engagement with the wall of bore 46.
The flow of fluid into and out of pumping cavity 52 is provided by means of an inlet port 74 communicating with cavity 52 through shoulder 44, and outlet port 76 in movable valve plate 20. Inlet tube 23 extends from oil reservoir or sump 82 into housing 10 where it communicates with inlet port 74. The lower end of tube 23 is in fluid communication with oil in sump 82.
Movable valve plate 20 is adapted for limited rotational movement in response to the frictional force exerted on face 50 by outer face 84 of impeller 14 when rotating in a clockwise or counterclockwise direction. Rotation of movable valve plate 20 in both directions is limited by suitable stop means, such as a pin 85 which extends into a channel 86 having ends 88 and 90 and located at the periphery of movable valve plate 20. Thrust washer 25 operates between cover 12 and valve plate 20 to cause the latter to be spaced from cover 12 and biased against impeller 14 to create the friction necessary to cause the impeller to give limited rotation to the valve plate 20. As best seen in FIGS. 1 and 5, thrust washer 25 has a plurality of radially outwardly extending legs, the ends of which engage valve plate 20, and in the center an outwardly projecting boss which engages cover 12.
At this point, it will be noted that the relative sizes of the friction bearing surfaces between impeller 14 and movable valve plate 20 on the one hand and movable valve plate 20 (via thrust washer 25) and cover 12 on the other hand ensure a positive actuating movement of the valve plate. In particular, as can best be seen from FIG. 1, the contact area between inner face 50 of movable valve plate 20 and face 84 of impeller 14 is substantially greater, and at a greater radius from axis a, than the area of thrust washer 25 which abuts against the inside surface 13 of the cover 12 (as well as that of any other frictional surfaces resisting such movement). Consequently, it will be appreciated that the frictional driving force applied by impeller 14 to the inner face 50 of movable valve plate 20 will easily overcome the frictional resistance to such movement. Accordingly, positive actuating movement of valve plate 20 is ensured.
Outlet port 76 comprises a recessed area in the inner face 50 of valve plate 20 consisting of an arcuate portion 98 at the periphery of the valve plate which communicates with a channel 104 that extends radially inwardly to a central depression 106. The arcuate portion 98 of outlet port 76 serves to provide a discharge zone of sufficient length to obtain efficient pumping. The central depression 106 of outlet port 76 in turn is aligned with a central bore 110 through impeller 14, which communicates with bore 4 of compressor crankshaft 6 and hence the lubrication network of compressor 2. Bore 110 also acts as a bearing support for impeller 14, which has the advantage that the pump can be tested independently of the compressor.
A further appreciation of the present invention will be obtained from the following description of the operation of pump 1. In accordance with the invention, upon rotation of compressor crankshaft 6, say in a counterclockwise direction as viewed from the left in FIG. 1, impeller 14 will be similarly driven. Friction between face 84 of impeller 14 and face 50 of movable valve plate 20 will rotate valve plate 20 in its counterclockwise position shown in FIG. 4, with stop pin 85 abutting against end 88 of groove 86. Continued counterclockwise rotation of impeller 14 causes oil to be pumped from reservoir 82 into pumping cavity 52 and out through recessed outlet port 76, via arcuate portion 98, of channel 104, central depression 106, bore 108, bore 110 and into port 4 of crankshaft 6, in the following manner.
Referring to FIG. 2 it can be seen that vanes 16 and 18 divide pumping cavity 52 into two rotating pumping chambers 56 and 58, each of which is of increasing and decreasing volume as impeller 14 rotates. In FIG. 2, vane 16 is shown at inlet port 74 and pumping chambers 56 and 58 are shown as being of equal volume. The discharge zone indicated at Y is the one provided by recessed outlet port 76 when valve plate 20 is in its counterclockwise position illustrated in FIG. 4. Similarly, the discharge zone X is provided by recessed outlet port 76 when valve plate 20 is in its clockwise position illustrated in FIG. 3. As impeller 14 and vane 16 rotate past inlet port 74 in the counterclockwise direction, as viewed in FIGS. 3 and 4 (clockwise as viewed in FIG. 2), pumping chamber 56 will decrease in size and pumping chamber 58 will increase in size with the result that fluid will be pulled into pumping chamber 58 from oil reservoir 82 through inlet port 74 until vane 16 reaches discharge zone Y, at which point pumping chamber 58 will be of maximum volume. Further rotation of impeller 14 will cause pumping chamber 58 to decrease in volume, forcing fluid out through recessed outlet port 76. Although fluid will also be discharged through inlet port 74, probably because of the dynamics of the system, this does not seem to seriously hinder successful operation of the pump. Upon further rotation of impeller 14, vane 18 will pass inlet port 74 and thereafter all the remaining fluid in chamber 56 will be pumped out through recessed outlet port 76, this cycle continuing until vane 18 has passed the arcuate portion 98 of outlet port 76 (zone Y). Between this position (the trailing vane having just passed the discharge port) and the position in which the leading vane passes the inlet port 74, rotation of the impeller causes a vacuum to be created in chamber 58, so that when the inlet port 74 is opened a substantial pressure differential exists to accelerate fluid induction. The pumping processes of pumping chambers 56 and 58 are identical (merely 180° out of phase), so that two discharge cycles will occur each revolution of impeller 14. The construction of pump 1 allows use of a single inlet port, which is one of the unique and desirable features of the present invention because of the simplicity it provides.
As can be readily visualized, upon rotation of compressor crankshaft 6 in the opposite direction, valve plate 20 will be rotated approximately 270° to its clockwise position illustrated in FIG. 3 and fluid will be pumped outwardly through recessed outlet port 76 in an analagous fashion.
Turning now to FIGS. 6 and 7, an alternative embodiment of the reversible pump 1 of the present invention is shown utilizing a one-piece vane impeller 14'. In particular, impeller 14' in this embodiment utilizes a single rotary vane 17 mounted thereon which extends radially across the diameter of eccentric bore 46 so that the outer ends thereof 70' and 72' maintain a continuous sealing engagement with the wall of bore 46 as impeller 14' is rotated. In addition, the one-piece rotary vane 17 has a reduced cross-sectional central portion 19 which permits the flow of fluid from the central depression 106 of outlet port 76 in movable valve plate 20 past rotary vane 17 and into bore 110 of impeller 14' and port 4 of crankshaft 6. It will be appreciated that in all other respects, operation of impeller 14' of this embodiment is the same as that described for the operation of impeller 14.
Thus, there is disclosed in the above description and in the drawings an improved reversible pump which fully and effectively accomplishes the objectives thereof. However, it will be apparent that variations and modifications of the disclosed embodiments may be made without departing from the principles of the invention or the scope of the appended claims.
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A reversible positive displacement rotary fluid pump comprising a rotor with either dual sliding vanes or a single vane defining pumping cavities of increasing and decreasing volume and having a single non-valved inlet for both directions of rotation, outlet flow being controlled by a valve plate rotatable to one of two positions, as determined by the direction of rotation of the pump.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The invention is concerned with the structure of a time division speech path switch which is used in a time division exchange system. (It will be called "C switch" in the description which follows.) Due to its facilities of both highway switching and time switching, any one of nk number of speech paths provided by k number of input highways, each having n number of multiplexing speech paths, can be connected without blocking to any one of nk number of speech paths included in k output highways, each having n number of multiplexing speech paths, in an arbitrary combination.
The structure of a C switch shown in FIG. 1 has been well known. In FIG. 1, the numeral 1 stands for a speech path memory, 2 stands for a holding memory. Each of the memories has a capacity of nk words for storing nk speech paths. A counter denoted by 3 is able to count from 0 to nk-1 and circulates with a clock whose period is 1/nk. (The frame period of time division multiplexing is chosen as a unit time.) A multiplexer circuit, denoted by 4, multiplexes the speech paths provided k input highways 6-1, 6-2, --- 6-k, onto a single input secondary high way denoted by 8. A de-multiplexer circuit 5 distributes the speech path provided by a single output secondary highway, denoted by 9, to k output highways 7-1, 7-2, --- 7-k. Counter 3 is synchronously operated with the multiple frame frequency of the input secondary highway 8. That is, when a signal of i'th speech path is coming into input secondary highway 8, counter 3 indicates i. with this as an address, the signal is written into a word of speech path memory 1 whose address is given by i. At the same time, a word, whose address is i, of holding memory 2 is read out and the content j is obtained. Then, a word with address j of speech path memory 1 is read out, and the read out information is sent out on the output secondary highway 9 as a signal in its i'th speech path. Meanwhile, a word with address j of holding memory 2 contains i (not shown in FIG. 1). When counter 3 indicates j, in the same way as explained above, a signal of j'th speech path of input secondary highway 8 is written into a word with address j of speech path memory 1, and the content stored in a word with address i of speech path memory 1 is read out and sent to output secondary highway 9 as a signal in its j'th speech path. In this way, signals are exchanged between input secondary highway 8 and output secondary highway 9 concerning their i'th and j'th speech paths. There is a one-to-one correspondence between the speech paths of input secondary highway 8 and those of input highways 6-1, 6-2, --- 6-k. The same is true also between the speech paths of output secondary highway 9 and those of output highways 7-1, 7-2, --- 7-k. The fact that any two speech paths can be exchanged between input secondary highway 8 and output secondary highway 9 means that any exchange can be realized between speech paths of all the input highways and those of all the output highways.
The well known C switch structure described above, however, has a drawback that it requires very high speed memory circuitry for both speech path memory 1 and holding memory 2. That is, as is obvious from the above explanation, speech path memory 1 must be accessed 2nk times for read-in and read-out during one frame period of time division multiplexing (for example, 125 μs. in a PCM system) and holding memory 2 must be accessed nk times per frame period for read-out. This means the maximum speed of a memory element determines the capacity (=number of speech paths, i.e., nk) of a C switch of this type. In other work, the capacity of a C switch is limited by the operational speed of a memory.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object, therefore, of the present invention to overcome the disadvantages and limitations of a prior time division speech path switch by providing a new and improved speech path switch.
It is also an object of the present invention to provide a time division speech path switch which may have a large capacity that is not limited by the operational speed of memory circuitry.
The above and other objects are attained by a time division speech path switch in which any speech path, in a plurality of input highways, can be connected to any desired speech path, in a plurality of output highways, without blocking the invention comprises a speech path memory group having a plurality of speech path memories corresponding to each output highways. The speech path memory group is provided for each input highway. The number of the speech path memories are equal to the number of corresponding output highways. Each of said speech path memory has the capacity to store at least one frame of information for an input highway. A holding memory is provided at each output highway. The holding memory stores information concerning the speech path on an input highway to be read out onto a speech path of an output highway to which the holding memory is coupled. An input highway information is stored simultaneously in all of the speech path memories in the speech path memory group. A switched output signal is read out of one of the speech path memories, according to content of said holding memory.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The foregoing and other objects, features, and attendant advantages of the present invention will be better understood by means of the following description and accompanying drawings wherein;
FIG. 1 is a block diagram of a prior time division speech path switch,
FIG. 2 is a block diagram of a time division speech path switch according to the present invention,
FIG. 3 shows structure of a word of a holding memory,
FIGS. 4A-4B are a block diagrams of another embodiment of a time division speech path switch according to the present invention, and
FIG. 5 is an operational time chart showing the operation of the apparatus of FIGS. 4A-4B.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of the invention. In FIG. 2, each of 20-1, 20-2, --- 20-k stands for an input highway. Each of 22-1-1, 22-1-2, --- 22-1-k, 22-2-1, 22-2-2, --- 22-2-k, ---, 22-k-1, 22-k-2, --- 22-k-k stands for a speech path memory that has a memory capacity of n words for storing the n speech paths of the time division multiplexing in an input highway. In this structure each of the k speech path memories is grouped. The number k is the same as the number of output highways. Each speech path memory has the same memory capacity. Each of 23-1, 23-2, --- 23-k stands for an input counter that counts a clock with a period of 1/n and circulates from 0 to n-1 synchronously with the frame phase of the associated input highway. Speech path information appearing on an input highway is written into its speech path memories as follows. Take input highway 20-1 as an example. Each piece of speech path information of input highway 20-1 is sent to its k speech path memories 22-1-1, 22-1-2, --- 22-1-k simultaneously and it is written respectively at a common address indicated by the content of input counter 23-1. This process of writing is quite the same for the rest of input highways 20-2, --- 20-k. Thus a word having the same address in each of the k speech path memories of an input higway contains the same contents.
Each of 24-1, 24-2, --- 24-k stands for a holding memory. Each of 25-1, 25-1, --- 25-k stands for an output counter. Each of 26-1, 26-2, --- 26-k stands for a distribution circuit. Each of output highways 21-1, 21-1, --- 21-k is equipped with a holding memory, an output counter and a distribution circuit individually. Each output counter, with a clock having a period of 1/n, circulates from 0 to n-1 independently of one another. The value, that each output counter indicates, is a speech path number to be sent out on the associated output highway. Each work of any of holding memories 24-1, 24-2, --- 24-k corresponds to each speech path of the associated output highway. The contents comprises information A that indicates an input highway, and information B that indicates a speech path of the input highway as shown in FIG. 3.
As an example, the output operation from speech path group 22-1-1, 22-2-1, --- 22-k-1 to output highway 21-1 will be explained. Output operations to other output highways 21-2, --- 21-k are the same.
First, the contents of output counter 25-1 is sent to holding memory 24-1 as an address. The contents of a work having the address of holding memory 24-1 is read out and is sent to the distribution circuit 26-1. Upon receiving it, the distribution circuit 26-1 tests its input highway indication information, i.e., A, and selects one of the speech path memories 22-1-1, 22-2-1, --- 22-k-1 that is specified by A and sends B, the speech path indication information, to it. For example, when the value of A is 2, B is sent to speech path memory 22-2-1 and the content of a word whose address is B of speech path memory 22-2-1 is read out to output highway 21-1. Each piece of speech path information coming to an input highway is written one by one into its speech path memories at an address indicated by its input counter. An output highway receives each piece of speech path information read out from a speech path memory at an address indicated by means of its holding memory. This means a speech path of an input highway is transfered to a speech path of an output highway using the same principle as that of the C switch shown in FIG. 1.
In the structure shown in FIG. 2 of this invention, each of input highways 20-1, 20-2, --- 20-k is each equipped with speech path memory groups 22-1-1, 22-1-2, 22-1-k; 22-2-1, 22-2-2, --- 22-2-k; --- 22-k-1, 22-k-2, --- 22-k-k. Each piece of speech path information appearing on an input highway is stored simultaneously into its k speech path memories with redundancy. Therefore, it is obvious that any speech path of an input highway can be connected without blocking any speech path of an output highway and this switch of FIG. 2 is equal to the conventional C switch shown in FIG. 1 from a switching capability point of view. in the structure shown in FIG. 1, however, the speech path memory must be accessed 2nk times for read-in and read-out per frame period of time division multiplexing, and the holding memory must be accessed nk times for read-out during the same period of time. In the structure shown in FIG. 2 of this invention, each speech path memory is required to be accessed 2n times per frame period for read-in and read-out and each holding memory is required to be accessed n times per frame period for read-out. That is, the memory element's speed requirement is reduced by a factor of 1/k where k is the number of speech path memories that are connected to each of the input highways in parallel.
In the structure shown in FIG. 2, each input highway requires a number equal to the number of output highways (=k) of speech path memories. In order to reduce the number of speech path memories connected in parallel to an input highway, the following structure is effective. FIG. 4 shows a switch structure where all the output highways are divided into a number of groups and output highways belonging to a group share speech path memories in each speech path memory group. Let's explain the switching operation performed in the structure shown in FIG. 4 in detail.
In FIG. 4, each of 40-1, 40-2, --- 40-k stands for an input highway corresponding to each of 20-1, 20-2, --- 20-k shown in FIG. 2. Each of 41-1-1, 41-1-2, --- 41-1-L', --- 41-L-1, 41-L-2, --- 41-L-L', stands for an output highway corresponding to each of 21-1, 21-2, --- 21-k shown in FIG. 2. Here, all the output highways are divided into L groups, each of which contains L' output highways. That is LL'=k. Terminals denoted by W, R 1 , R 2 , --- R L , respectively will be energized by a pulse according to the time chart shown in FIG. 5. First, consider the input operation which takes place in a period when terminal W is energized by a pulse.
Each of speech path memory groups 42-1-1, 42-1-2, --- 42-1-L; 42-2-1, 42-2-2, --- 42-2-L; --- 42-k-1, 42-k-2, --- 42-k-L which is connected to each of the input highways, corresponds to each fo the speech path memory groups 22-1-1, 22-1-2, --- 22-1-k; 22-2-1, 22-2-2, --- 22-2-k; --- 22-k-1, 22-k-2, --- 22-k-k, in FIG. 2. In FIG. 4, each speech path memory group connected to each input highway contains L speech path memories in place of k, where L is the number of all the output highway groups. Each speech path memory has a capacity of n words where n is the number of time division multiplexing speech paths of each input highway. Each of 43-1, 43-2, 43-k stands for an input counter that counts a clock having a period of 1/n, and is synchronous with the frame phase of its input highway and circulates from 0 to n-1. When terminal W is energized by a pulse, gate circuits 47-1, 47-2, --- 47-k open simultaneously and the contents of input counters 43-1, 43-2, --- 43-k are sent, as address information, to their speech path memory groups 42-1-1, 42-1-2, --- 42-1-L; 42-2-1, 42-2-2, --- 42-2-L; --- 42-k-1, 42-k-2, --- 42-k-L, and a piece of speech path information appearing on any of k input highway 40-1, 40-2, --- 40-k is written into, in parallel, its associated speech path memories at a common address sent from its input counter. The input operation explained above is carried out in the quite same way as that of the switch structure shown in FIG. 2.
The output operation will be explained where output highway group 41-1-1, 41-1-2, --- 41-1-L' is taken as an example. Explanation is quite the same for any other output highway group.
When terminals R 1 , R 2 , --- R L 1 , are energized by a pulse, the corresponding output highways 41-1-1, 41-1-2, --- 41-1-L' are in their output periods respectively. That is, the output operation is performed individually for each output highway. Each of 44-1-1, 44-1-2, --- 44-1-L' stands for a holding memory, each of 45-1-1, 45-1-2, --- 45-1-L' stands for an output counter. Each output highway is connected with a holding memory and an output counter individually. Each output counter, with a clock having a period of 1/n, circulates from 0 to n-1 independently of one another. The value of each output counter indicates a speech path number that is required by its output highway at that moment. Each work of each of holding memories 44-1-1, 44-1-2, --- 44-1-L' corresponds to each speech path of its output highway whose content comprises information A that indicates an input highway and information B that indicates a speech path of the input highway, as shown in FIG. 3.
As an example, an explanation of the operation will follow which takes place in an output period of output highway 41-1-1 when terminal R 1 is energized by a pulse. When terminal R 1 is energized by a pulse, gate 49-1-1 opens and the content of output counter 45-1-1 is sent to holding memory 44-1-1 as address information. The content of the addressed word of the holding memory is read out and sent to distribution circuit 46-1. Upon receiving it, the distribution circuit 46-1 tests its input highway indication information A and sends its speech path indication information B to its speech path memory of the input highway indicated. For example, when the value of A is 2, speech path indication information B is sent to speech path memory 42-2-1, and the speech path memory is accessed at the address indicated by B for read-out. The information read out appears on common information bus 50-1. As terminal R 1 has been energized by the pulse and gate 48-1-1 is kept opening, the read out information is sent out on output highway 41-1-1. A piece of speech path information appearing on an input highway in a clock period is written into its speech path memories at an address indicated by its input counter. The holding memory of an output highway provides an address of a speech path memory that takes out a piece of speech path information required by a speech path of the output highway. Thus, speech path switching between input highways and output highways is carried out with the same principle as that of the conventional switch shown in FIG. 1. As explained above, when terminal R 1 is energized by a pulse, the content of a word with a particular address of a particular speech path memory chosen from among speech path memories 42-1-1, 42-2-1, --- 42-k-1, that is, the information contained in a particular speech path of a particular input highway, can be taken out to a speech path indicated by output counter 45-1-1 of output highway 41-1-1. When any one of terminals R 2 , --- R L' , is energized by a pulse, the output operation that takes place is explained in the same way.
As is easily seen, any speech path included in all of the k input highways can be switched to any speech path included in a group of output highways 41-1-1, 41-1-2, --- 41-1-L' via a group of speech path memories 42-1-1, 42-2-1, --- 42-k-1. Concerning any other group of output highways, speech path switching between all of the k input highways and the output highways is carried out without blocking in the same way. Therefore, the switch structure shown in FIG. 4 is equivalent to the conventional switch structure shown in FIG. 1 from a switching capability point of view.
In the structure shown in FIG. 4, the memory speed requirements are given as follows.
n(L'+1) memory operations are required per frame period for a speech path memory, and n memory operations per frame period for a holding memory. That is to say, comparing with the conventional switch shown in FIG. 1, the memory speed requirements are reduced by a factor of (L'+1)/2k for a speech path memory and that of 1/k for a holding memory. Comparing with the switch structure shown in FIG. 2, though the speed requirement for a speech path memory increases by a factor of (L'+1)/2, the number of speech path memories required in this structure is reduced by a factor of 1/L'.
One of the advantages of this invention is that the speed of a speech path memory or a holding memory that is a major element of a switch, can be chosen independently of the total number of its input highways or its output highways (which is k in the structure shown in FIG. 2 and LL' in the structure shown in FIG. 4).
Accordingly, a technical problem of the conventional switch that the maximum speed of its memory elements limits its maximum capacity (a total number of speech paths that can be accommodated in a switch) is solved by the invention where, in principle, any large capacity can be realized by increasing the number of memories connected in parallel.
If a certain capacity is given, a switch with the capacity realized by the invention can use lower speed memories compared with the conventional switch with the same capacity. That is, a switch of the conventional type that is required to use ECL elements with high operational speed and low degree of integration due to their high heat dissipation can be replaced by a switch of this invention where MOS LSI elements with very high degree of integration because of their negligible small heat dissipation can be used. Thus, the invention provides compact, low cost switch structure as compared with those of the conventional type.
From the foregoing it will now be apparent that a new and improved time division speech path switch has been found. It should be understood of course that the embodiments discloses are merely illustrative and are not intended to limit the scope of the invention. Reference should be made to the appended claims, therefore, rather than the specification as indicating the scope of the invention.
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A time division speech path switch for an electronic exchange system has a plurality of speech path memories for each input highway, and an input highway information is stored simultaneously in all of said speech path memories. The number of said input highway memories is equal to number of output highways, and each speech path memory can store at least one frame information of an input highway. A holding memory is provided at each output highway. A switched output signal is read out of one of said speech path memories according to content of the holding memory coupled with the output highway. According to the invention which has a plurality of input speech path memories and a plurality of holding memories, instead of a single speech path memory and a single holding memory of a prior art, an operational speed of a speech path memory and a holding memory may be slow as compared with that of a prior art. And, a large capacity of exchange system may be designed by using a low speed memory device.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to mobile terminal devices having a push type e-mail reception feature. It also relates to dual use terminals i.e. terminals that can be used in a work environment as well as in a private environment. More specifically the present invention relates to a method to provide more readily a clear separation between private and job life, in a highly integrated mobile communication device, wherein push type email delivery is controlled to meet specific demands of users of mobile terminal devices who might be interested in receiving such push type emails only during working hours or other predetermined periods of time.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Although push type e-mails have already been generally implemented, such an implementation does not encompass any simple activation/deactivation thereof. During the next couple of years, however, push type e-mail has to be improved. Most office workers are receiving tens of e-mails every day. Depending on the company policy, end-users may use enterprise paid mobile devices in free time as well.
Usually most of the users do not want to receive work-related e-mails in free time and vice versa. Thus, an easy e-mail reception activation and deactivation is desirable to help employees to control better boundaries between work and free time.
It is further desirable to provide an easy, simple and intuitive implementation of the activation and de-activation of the reception of push type e-mail.
It is further desirable to have a method to provide a simple and easy implementation of said e-mail reception feature.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
According to a first aspect of the present invention, there is a method provided for controlling the handling of push type e-mails on a mobile terminal device. The mobile terminal device comprises at least one user profile regarding the handling of push type e-mails. The user profile is a concept wherein a number of operation parameters can be changed simultaneously by single user input. The method comprises determining the status of said user profile, and controlling the handling of push type e-mails according to said determined user profile status.
By determining the status of said user profile regarding the handling of push type e-mails, an actually activated user profile or the status of push type e-mail parameters can be determined. This status determination can be performed automatically e.g. in intervals. This status determination can be performed only when the status is changed e.g. by received user input.
By controlling the handling of push type e-mails according to said determined user profile status, the receipt of push type e-mails can be prevented, received push type e-mails can be filtered out or stored in a hidden manner, with or without notifying the user. In this embodiment, the terminal device itself can e.g. stop or re-activate the receipt of push type e-mails if a respective user profile is detected or selected by a user. This may be regarded as a terminal based solution of user profile based push e-mail control.
In another embodiment of the present invention, said controlling of the handling of push type e-mails comprises sending a notification about the handling of push type e-mails to a push type e-mail server of a mobile communication network, wherein said notification is performed according to said determined user profile.
By sending a notification to a server, the device itself can transfer the task to handle push type e-mails to the server. This may be regarded as a terminal side procedure for a network based implementation. Instead of discarding e-mails by itself, the terminal induces a network server such as a GMSC (gateway mobile switching center) to handle push type e-mails before being forwarded to said terminal device according to the status of a user profile. It is advantageous to minimize the overall number of necessary data transfers, so in the case of less e-mails than profile changes the terminal based procedure can be preferred. In case of a number of e-mails that is larger than the number of profile changes, the server based solution may be advantageous.
It is possible to transfer all operation parameters, i.e. the whole user profile. It may be sufficient to transfer only the push type e-mail relevant data of the user profile status. It is possible to send an “e-mail storage overflow” message to stop the server to send further push type e-mails. The message to the server or another mobile communication network device upon activation of a user profile can be performed by pre-generated messages. The message is selected after a certain user profile has been activated and is then sent to induce the GMSC (gateway mobile switching center) or the Home Location Register (HLR) of the mobile communication network to handle e-mails accordingly.
The filter can be implemented as a time based filter characteristic or a sender based filter characteristic selection. The filter may only allow e-mails from certain senders to pass. The filter may only allow e-mails from certain senders not to pass the filter, but only in a defined time interval.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, said user profile status comprises ‘push type e-mail enabled’ or ‘push type e-mail disabled’. This may be embodied by activation or deactivation of the hardware or software component required to receive push type e-mails (in the terminal or at a server).
In another embodiment of the present invention, said user profile comprises a predetermined filter performing on the received push type e-mails. The filter selects push type e-mails according to the properties of said e-mails. The method further comprises receiving at least one push type e-mail, and filtering said at least one received e-mail according to said properties.
The filter can be a user selectable filter. It is possible to enable the user to adapt the filter characteristics upon each receipt of a push type e-mail. The filter characteristics can be defined in said user profile. The user profile may comprise a reference to a filter library.
By determining the properties of said received e-mail, unwanted e-mails can be sorted out and discarded. If the filter finds properties that match with the operation parameters of said selected user profile, said e-mail can be passed and made available to said user. The filter determines if the push type e-mail is to be forwarded to the user or not. The push type e-mail may be forwarded immediately to the user or with a time-controlled or an event-controlled delay.
It is also possible to store a received push type e-mail in a ‘hidden’ manner within said terminal, until a user profile is selected, in which said push type e-mail would have passed said filter. This hidden storing in a temporary way of push e-mails requires that there is at least one user profile/file which said push type e-mail could pass (usually the always present “default user profile”). The hidden temporary storing of push e-mails requires the presence of sufficient memory within said mobile terminal device.
The hidden push e-mails can be made available to the user, if he selects the respective user profile. For example, when coming to the bureau, the user selects work profile, and the device reports the receipt of e.g. 25 push type e-mails.
In another embodiment of the present invention, said method further comprises storing said received push type e-mail. This includes the possibility to retrieve said stored e-mail, e.g. upon a detected change of said user profile status.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention, said terminal device further comprises sensors, and said method further comprises determining sensor data, and changing said user profile according to said determined sensor data. The sensor can be a pressure sensor such as keyboard or a power button. Thus a user can deactivate/active push type e-mail receiving from profiles menu using power button, navigation key or by some other means.
The sensor may also comprise a temperature sensor for automatically changing the user profile to private in case a sensed temperature exceeds a threshold for giving the rest of the day off [school/work] because of excessively hot weather.
In case that a position sensor is used, the user profile can be changed according to a signal from a network cell or a GPS (Global Positioning System), to perform an automated position dependent user profile selection. If a user leaves his workplace and returns home, the terminal detects this position change and adapts its user profile and the handling of push type e-mails automatically. The sensor can determine any kind of environmental data, being correlated to certain user profiles.
According to another aspect of the present invention a method for controlling the handling of push type e-mails destined for mobile terminal devices on a push type e-mail server is provided. Said server stores at least one user profile related to a mobile terminal device, wherein said user profile regards the handling of push type e-mails that are destined for said related mobile terminal device. The method comprises: receiving at the push type e-mail server a notification from said terminal device related to the handling of push type e-mails destined for said terminal device via a mobile communication network. The method further comprises handling said push type e-mails for said terminal device in accordance with said received notification.
Said server can be an e-mail server of a mobile communication network, or e.g. the Internet. This aspect represents the server-side procedure for the network-based implementation of the present method as indicated within the preceding specification. The received notification can cause the server to enable or to disable the forwarding of received push type e-mail to said terminal device. Additionally, the notification can include the application of an e-mail filter acting on the received push type e-mails. The filter selects push type e-mails according to properties of said received e-mails, for forwarding them or not to the terminal device. The server can store received push type e-mail. The filter implementations/characteristics disclosed in the preceding specification can also be applied to the server-based implementation.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, a software tool is provided comprising program code means for carrying out the method of the preceding description when said program product is run on a computer or a network device.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a computer program product downloadable from a server for carrying out the method of the preceding description is provided, which comprises program code means for performing all of the steps of the preceding methods when said program is run on a computer or a network device.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, a computer program product is provided comprising program code means stored on a computer readable medium for carrying out the methods of the preceding description, when said program product is run on a computer or a network device.
According to another aspect of the present invention a computer data signal is provided. The computer data signal is embodied in a carrier wave and represents a program that makes the computer perform the steps of any method contained in the preceding description, when said computer program is run on a computer, or a network device.
According to yet another aspect of the present invention, a mobile terminal device capable of receiving push type e-mails and controlling the handling of push-type emails is provided. The terminal device comprises a processing unit, a network module, a storage and a determination component.
The processing unit is connected to the other components of the mobile terminal device. The processing unit is connected to said network interface and controls said network interface. The network interface is capable of receiving push type e-mails via a network. Said terminal device comprises a storage that is connected to said processing unit. The storage is for storing at least one user profile regarding the handling of push type e-mails. The determination component is provided to determine the status of said user profile regarding the handling of push type e-mails. The processing unit is configured to control the handling of push type e-mails according to said user profile status determined by said determination component.
The components of the mobile terminal device are provided to enable activation and control of the push-type e-mail service integrally with a user selection or a determination of a user profile. The determination component may be implemented within said processor unit.
In another embodiment of the present invention said processing unit is configured to control the handling of push type e-mails according to said determined user profile status by enabling or disabling said network interface for the reception of push type e-mails.
In yet another embodiment, said network terminal device further comprises a push-type e-mail filter. The push-type e-mail filter is connected to said network interface. Said push type e-mail filter is configured to filter received push type e-mails according to properties of received push type e-mails. The filter characteristic defines which e-mails can pass the filter, wherein the filter characteristics are defined by the user profile. The push-type e-mail filter can be connected to said network interface via said processing unit.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention said processing unit is configured to dispatch a message comprising the status of said user profile regarding the handling of push type e-mails. Said notification is sent via said network interface to a push-type e-mail server connected to a mobile communication network.
This foregoing represents an embodiment of a mobile terminal configured to perform the terminal side of the ‘network based procedure’ for intercepting said push type e-mails before being sent to said terminal. The notification of the server may only be performed, if a change of the user profile is detected that includes a change of the handling of push type e-mails. In case of a change of the user profile status, that does not effect the handling of push e-mails, the notification can be suppressed.
In yet another embodiment of the present invention said mobile terminal device further comprises at least one sensor connected to the processing unit. The processing unit is configured to receive a sensor output from said at least one sensor, and is further configured to change said user profile depending on said output.
In one embodiment said sensor is a position sensor, to change the user profile according to e.g. a position signal from a network cell or a GPS (Global Positioning System). Such a device can perform an automated position dependent user profile change. If a user enters his car and he moves at a considerable speed along an area defined as street, the device can automatically change the user profile, to suppress text type e-mails in order not to bother the user while he is walking. The sensor may also determine any kinds of environmental data, detect a correlation to certain user profiles, and automatically adapt said user profile and hence the handling of push type e-mail to said environmental data.
A keyboard or a navigation key can be regarded as a sensor within the scope of the present invention. This includes the other user interfaces such as touch screen display and the like. The sensor may be implemented in said mobile terminal device as a user profile selector connected to said processing unit and storing selectable user profiles. A user profile selector can be implemented as part of a user interface.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a push-type e-mail server is provided. Said push-type e-mail server is capable of receiving and sending push type e-mails. Said push-type e-mail server comprises a processing unit, a network interface and a storage.
Said processing unit is connected to said network interface and said storage. The network interface is capable of receiving and sending push type e-mails via a network. Said network interface is connected to and controlled by said processing unit. Said network interface is further capable of receiving notifications related to the status of a user profile of at least one mobile terminal device regarding the handling of push type e-mails. Said storage is provided to store said received status of said user profile of said at least one mobile terminal device regarding the handling of push type e-mails. Said processing unit is configured to handle received push type e-mails destined for said at least one mobile terminal according to said received user profile status.
The server is configured to receive a notification indicative of how to proceed with push type e-mails destined for said mobile terminal. This information has been sent to the server upon a determination of a user profile status. The server handles the push type e-mails destined for said terminal device according to the information in said notification, and stores, forwards, deletes, rejects, or re-routes received e-mail. The server may be connected to more than a single communication network, e.g. to a cellular telephone network and e.g. to the Internet.
It is possible to send a notification for the deactivation of the push e-mail feature upon the receipt of a push-type e-mail by the terminal device. The re-activation of a push-type e-mail service may be sent whenever a respective change in the user profile occurs. The server performs the server side procedure of the network-based embodiment of the present invention.
In another embodiment of the present invention said push type e-mail server is embodied as an external mailbox capable of receiving push type e-mails. The e-mail server is a mailbox that automatically pushes the received mail to the terminal of the user. In this case there is no need for polling. When e.g. GPRS (gateway mobile switching center) is in use, the mailbox can automatically push the mails to the terminal of the user.
According to another aspect of the present invention, a push-type e-mail handling system is provided. Said push-type e-mail handling system comprises a server as disclosed in the preceding description, and a mobile terminal as described in the preceding specification capable of receiving push type e-mails.
In the following, the invention will be described in detail by referring to the enclosed drawings in which:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows a flowchart of an example of push-type e-mail handling according to one embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 2 depicts a flowchart of an example of a push type e-mail handling control method according to another embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 3 is a flowchart depicting another example of a user profile controlled push type e-mail handling control method according to another embodiment of the present invention,
FIG. 4 shows schematically an embodiment of a push type e-mail delivery server according to one embodiment of the present invention, and
FIG. 5 shows schematically an embodiment of mobile terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
FIG. 1 shows a flowchart of an example of push-type e-mail handling according to one embodiment of the present invention. The flowchart comprises a server or network side 2 and a terminal side 4 of a network system. The arrow 6 indicates a time the terminal can be operated with two different user profiles e.g. “work” and “home”. If the terminal 4 is in the “work” profile indicated by the bracket 50 , the terminal 4 is configured to receive push type e-mails from a server/network 2 . If the terminal 4 is in the “home” profile indicated by the bracket 70 , the terminal 4 is configured to reject push type e-mails from the server/network 2 . The server can be e.g. an external mailbox of the user. This mailbox automatically pushes the received e-mail to user terminal 4 . Thus, there is no need for polling. When a GPRS or other push type service is used, the mailbox can automatically push the mails to the terminal. This service is stopped by the invention, when this embodiment of the present invention is used. The user device can e.g. simply ignore that a push type e-mail is sent, or can e.g. delete a received push type e-mail if and when it is received.
It is further preferable that the push e-mail activation/de-activation process can be combined to any user profile. In each profile there is provided a possibility to choose whether the feature is active or not. This could be an alternative solution to the one mentioned above, i.e. having separate work and home profiles.
This situation is different to the case in which a normal circuit switched connection is used to access e-mails, since in this case a user has to always initiate the connection in order to check mails from an external mailbox. In the case of conventional e-mails the present invention does not need to be applied, as the user, simply does not need to check his e-mails if he is at home.
FIG. 2 shows a flowchart of another example of push-type e-mail handling according to one embodiment of the present invention. The flowchart comprises a server or network side 2 and a terminal side 4 of a network system. The arrow 6 represents a time axis of the flowchart.
The network side 2 comprises in the present example a server 40 , for example a gateway mobile switching center (GMSC), that receives a push-type e-mail. It is expected that the push e-mail is received via a communication network such as a cellular telephone network or e.g. the Internet. The server 40 forwards the push type e-mail using information from the Home Location Register (HLR) 42 to the Mobile Switching Center (MSC) 44 . From the MSC 44 , the push type e-mail is transferred via a BSC (Base Station Controller) and a BTS (Base Transciever Station) to the mobile terminal 4 . To not obscure FIG. 2 , the BSC and the BTS are depicted as a common block 45 . From the BTS to the mobile terminal 4 , the traffic is wireless. The air interface may be provided e.g. via push type e-mail enabled service such as General Packet Radio Service (GPRS) or the like.
The mobile terminal 4 receives the push type e-mail via a radio interface 46 and makes it available to the user via a user interface 48 . The first bracket with the reference sign 50 refers to a conventional delivery of push type e-mail to a user device.
The second bracket 60 refers to a user-input changing the user profile of said terminal device 4 . The changed user profile induces the terminal device to disable the reception or the notification of a user about push type e-mails received.
The bracket 70 represents the same procedure of delivering push type e-mail to a user device 4 as in the bracket 50 . The difference resides in that the user is no longer notified about the reception of said push type e-mail. The user is not notified via the user interface, as the e-mail may not be received. The user is not notified via the user interface, as the e-mail is received but not stored. The user is not notified via the user interface, as the e-mail is received and stored but the receipt of the push type e-mail is not indicated via the user interface 48 to the user.
The lacking of information to the user is indicated by the crossed through arrow between the terminal device 4 and the user interface 48 .
The bracket 62 refers to user input for changing the user profile of said terminal device 4 . The changed user profile induces the terminal device to re-enable the reception or the notification of a user about received push type e-mail.
After the e-mail receipt is enabled again, e-mails may again be received according to the procedure indicated by bracket 50 .
After the e-mail receipt is enabled again, and in case the terminal device has stored a received e-mail without notifying the user, this hidden e-mail may be made available to the user again (indicated by the arrow in bracket 72 ).
The flowchart of FIG. 2 requires no interaction except the transfer of mails via air interface between the network and the terminal. This procedure can be carried out by terminal device only by implementation.
FIG. 3 is a flowchart of another example of user profile controlled push type e-mail handling according to another embodiment of the present invention.
Similar to FIG. 2 , a server 40 forwards the push type e-mail using information from the Home Location Register (HLR) 42 to the Mobile Switching Center (MSC) 44 . From the MSC 44 , the push type e-mail is transferred via BSC (Base Station Controller) and BTS (Base Transciever Station) to the mobile terminal 4 . To not obscure FIG. 3 , the BSC and the BTS are depicted as a common block 45 . From the BTS to the mobile terminal 4 , the traffic is wireless. The mobile terminal 4 receives the push type e-mail via a radio interface 46 and makes it available to the user via a user interface 48 . The first bracket with the reference sign 50 refers to a conventional delivery of push type e-mail to a user device.
Similar to FIG. 2 , the second bracket 60 refers to a user input changing the user profile of said terminal device 4 , wherein in contrast to FIG. 2 the changed user profile induces the terminal device to send a message to the server 40 e.g. a GMSC via the network 42 , 44 and 45 . This message is sent to induce the server 40 to intercept all push type e-mails destined for said mobile terminal device 4 . So the bracket comprises more steps and, in the following, the server 40 stops forwarding push type e-mails (indicated by the crossed out arrows in bracket 70 ).
In contrast to the procedure of FIG. 2 , a user input (bracket 62 ) to change the user profile induces the terminal device to send a message to the server 40 via the network 42 , 44 and 45 . This message induces the server 40 to re-enable the delivery of push type e-mails destined for said mobile terminal device 4 .
After the e-mail receipt is enabled again, and in case the server 40 has stored a received e-mail without notifying the terminal device, the stored e-mails may be forwarded and made available to the user (indicated by the dotted arrows in bracket 72 ).
FIG. 4 shows schematically an embodiment of a push type e-mail delivery server according to one embodiment of the present invention. The depicted embodiment of the server 40 comprises a network interface 14 connecting said server to at least one communication network. The communication network is indicated by two lines, representing a data network as the Internet 10 and a cellular telephone network 12 .
The network interface 14 is connected to a processor 16 , which is in turn connected to storage 18 . It is assumed that the push-type e-mail server 40 is used for performing the network-based implementation of the present invention. It is assumed that the server further comprises additional storage 19 connected to said processor 16 to perform and store e-mails data and the like.
In the server 40 , the storage 18 is provided to store address information of a number of mobile terminals and related push e-mail delivery characteristics. The e-mail delivery characteristics can comprise in the simplest case information such as push type e-mail enabled or push type e-mail disabled. More sophisticated approaches may provide more complex delivery characteristics distinguishing between different filter parameters such as amount of data per e-mail (to prevent data overflow at the terminal). Another filter parameter can be the delivery time frame (user does not want to receive a push type e-mail between 23 and 6 o'clock). Another filter parameter can refer to the sender of the e-mail. The storage 18 can store delivery parameters, which are related to certain terminal devices. The delivery parameter can be selected by a user and are received from a user terminal device.
FIG. 5 shows schematically an embodiment of mobile terminal device according to an embodiment of the present invention. The mobile terminal 4 comprises a cellular network interface 20 , a processing unit 22 , storage 24 , and a user interface 48 .
As in the case of FIG. 4 , the terminal device can comprise further components such as memory modules, broadcast radio modules, music player modules. The mobile terminal device 4 can be operated according to the procedures of FIGS. 1 to 3 .
To perform the procedure according to FIG. 2 , the internal handling of the received push type e-mails between the network interface 20 and the user interface 48 is influenced by said user profile. It may be assumed that the user profile is stored in the storage 24 , and that the user profile can be changed by the user via input in said user interface 48 . The activated or selected user profile usually is the default user profile. When changing the user profile, the push type e-mail handling parameters stored in said storage 24 are retrieved and provided to said processor unit 22 to handle received push type e-mail according to the detected user profile status referring to push type e-mails. This may be described as changing the “order of the day”, and handling e-mails accordingly.
In another embodiment, said processor 22 can check the user profile status in storage 24 , only if a push type e-mail is received. This may be described as waiting for the first e-mail, and retrieving the actual handling instruction on receipt of the first e-mail accordingly.
To perform the procedure according to FIG. 2 , the internal handling of the received push type e-mails between the network interface 20 and the user interface 48 is influenced by the status of the user profile stored in storage 24 .
To perform the procedure according to FIG. 3 , the external handling of push type e-mails in a connected network (server) is influenced by the status of the user profile stored in storage 24 . In contrast to the embodiment for procedure of FIG. 2 , the storage 24 stores notifications for an external network server. When and if a user changes the actual user profile in storage 24 , in a way effecting the handling of push type e-mails, the processor 22 retrieves a notification for a server from storage 24 and dispatches it via the network interface 20 and via said network 12 to said server.
The terminal device performs detecting a change of the user profile and notifying a server about said changed user profile. The change of an internal parameter (user profile) can induce the device to send a message (the notification).
It is also possible to combine the terminal based method and the network based method in a more sophisticated approach, wherein the device determines a disabled state of the push type e-mail, and does not notify the server until a first push type e-mails is received (in the disabled mode). If a user changes between two user profiles with enabled and disabled push type e-mail, but actually receives no e-mails, the server is not notified which saves network resources. Additionally, if a hidden storage of e-mails is desired, the terminal device needs only to store a single e-mail.
The present invention is to solve a problem that has not really actually surfaced at the time of the present application but it may be expected to occur in near future.
The user can benefit from the invention by its good usability. This invention solves usability problems related to activating and deactivating of push type e-mails. The present invention can be implemented in a basic version as a user interface feature, wherein no standard related server-terminal protocols have to be implemented.
A user is able to deactivate/active e-mail receiving from profiles menu using power button or a navigation/menu key or by some other means. The device can comprise a ‘work’ profile and a ‘home’ profile. In the work profile the push type e-mail can be activated. In the home profile the push type e-mail can be deactivated. When the user leaves office, he can select home profile for example by using profile button/menu key. Then push type e-mails are not received. The next morning the user can again switch on push type e-mail receiving with profile concept.
During the next couple of years, an improved push type e-mail system will be integrated in all enterprise devices. Most of office workers are receiving 10's of e-mails every day. Depending on company policy end-users can use enterprise paid mobile devices in free time as well. Normally most of the users do not want to receive work related e-mails in free time. Therefore, an easy e-mail receiving activation/de-activation and filtering would help employees to better control boundaries between work and free time.
The present invention solves usability problems of activating, deactivating and customizing of push type e-mail. Easy activation/deactivation of push type e-mail increases the acceptance of user push type e-mail.
This application contains the description of implementations and embodiments of the present invention with the help of examples. It will be appreciated by a person skilled in the art that the present invention is not restricted to details of the embodiments presented above, and that the invention can also be implemented in another form without deviating from the characteristics of the invention. The embodiments presented above should be considered illustrative, but not restricting. Thus, the possibilities of implementing and using the invention are only restricted by the enclosed claims. Consequently, various options of implementing the invention as determined by the claims, including equivalent implementations, also belong to the scope of the invention.
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A method for controlling the handling of push type e-mails on a mobile terminal device comprises at least one user profile regarding handling of push type e-mails. The method comprises: determining the status of the user profile and controlling the handling of push type e-mails according to the determined user profile status. A corresponding mobile terminal comprises: a processing unit, a network interface capable of receiving push type e-mails via a network, wherein the network interface is connected to and controlled by the processing unit, wherein the terminal device has a storage connected to the processing unit for storing at least one user profile regarding the handling of push type e-mails, a component to determine the status of the user profile regarding the handling of push type e-mails, and where the processing unit is configured to control the handling of push type e-mails according to the determined status.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] None.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Aspects relate to the field of oil well services. More specifically, aspects relate to oil based drilling mud filtrate contamination monitoring.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
[0003] Oil based drilling mud (OBM) filtrate contamination monitoring (OCM) is one of the biggest challenges in downhole fluid analysis. Conventional systems and algorithms are not capable of providing adequate results for OBM contamination monitoring, particularly with focused sampling interface modules. Accurate and quantitative OBM contamination measurement is a key enabler of quality sampling and quality downhole fluid analysis (DFA). New algorithms are highly demanded for this purpose.
[0004] Conventional systems do not disclose or suggest any capability that gas/oil ratios may be used in oil based mud filtrate contamination monitoring quantitatively. Previous attempts at developing a relationship have failed as conventional fluid analyzers display a negative gas/oil ratio in Oil Based mud filtrate. This limits its use in quantifying Oil Based mud contamination. Extrapolating contamination free gas/oil ratios determined by asymptotic fitting methods does not work, especially for focused probes and/or new developed probes and packers.
SUMMARY
[0005] In one example embodiment, a method for monitoring OBM contamination, is disclosed, comprising analytically dividing a fluid stream into two parts, determining a gas/oil ratio for a native (or OBM filtrate contamination free) fluid, determining an apparent gas/oil ratio for the native fluid, and determining on a volume fraction, an oil based mud filtrate contamination level based upon the gas/oil ratio for the native fluid and the apparent gas/oil ratio for the native fluid.
[0006] A novel procedure is provided for oil based mud filtrate contamination monitoring and determination of oil based mud filtrate contamination level. Based on the definition of gas/oil ratio, a simple formula is developed to relate oil based mud filtrate contamination level in volume fraction in stock tank oil (STO) to apparent gas/oil ratio which is measured by downhole fluid analysis. The end point for native (contamination free) oil can be determined in different ways using multiple sensors in downhole fluid analysis. Additionally, density itself can be used for oil based mud filtrate contamination monitoring using a mixing rule. When combining the oil based mud contamination level results from gas/oil ratio, density and pressure gradients with those from optical density calculations, confidence is significantly gained in particular when all the results are close. In addition, the oil based mud filtrate contamination monitoring algorithms can be applied not only for individual guard and sampling flowlines but also for combined guard and sampling flowlines. These formulas and algorithms can be used for oil based mud filtrate contamination monitoring in real time and postjob analysis.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0007] FIG. 1 is a density vs. gas/oil ratio for three (3) fluids.
[0008] FIG. 2 is a density vs. gas/oil ratio for three (3) fluids.
[0009] FIG. 3 is a density vs. gas/oil ratio for three (3) fluids.
[0010] FIG. 4 is a graph of gas/oil ratio vs. live density.
[0011] FIG. 5 is a gas/oil ratio fitting results using Equation (7).
[0012] FIG. 6 is a plot of In(v obmSTO ) vs. In(V).
[0013] FIG. 7 is a plot showing a conversion factor as a function of gas/oil ratio, M gas and ρ STOStd
[0014] FIG. 8 is a tool string using the methodology disclosed.
[0015] FIG. 9 is a plot of gas/oil ratio and density variations with pumpout volume.
[0016] FIG. 10 is plot of gas/oil ratio and density relationship.
[0017] FIG. 11 is plot wherein oil based mud level can be obtained by both gas/oil ratio and density values.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0018] Through aspects described herein, it is now possible to use the value of gas/oil ratio for oil based mud filtrate contamination monitoring. The oil based mud filtrate contamination monitoring formula is derived from the definition of gas/oil ratio and oil based mud filtrate contamination level in volume fraction on the basis of dead oil (stock tank oil, STO). Confidence is significantly gained using gas/oil ratio as oil based mud filtrate contamination monitoring due to this theoretical base.
[0019] Additionally, the new generation of downhole fluid analysis, like in situ fluid analyzer, avoids negative gas/oil ratio (normalizing GOR to zero for dead oil) in the algorithm and the assumption of zero gas/oil ratio for pure oil based mud filtrate is valid.
[0020] Contamination free GOR 0 for native oil can be determined from different methods, which can gain confidence for the analysis. For example, (1) density derived from pressure gradients and GOR 0 from a linear relationship between density and gas/oil ratio measured by downhole fluid analysis; (2) GOR 0 from the asymptotic fitting method is also used for reference. The linear relationship between density and gas/oil ratio is confirmed by laboratory and field data.
[0021] In an asymptotic fitting method, a new and robust optimization method is provided to reduce arbitrariness in determining the exponential constant of the power function asymptote.
[0022] Oil/gas ratio can be measured by downhole fluid analysis based on downhole optical spectra using optical densities at multiple hydrocarbon channels, referred to as apparent gas/oil ratio. In-field practice, apparent gas/oil ratio was used to guide downhole reservoir fluid sampling along with other sensor measurements downhole during cleanup, especially for focused probes and new developed probes and packers. Once apparent gas/oil ratio reaches a stable value with time or/and pumpout volume, one is able to start sampling. Gas/oil ratio can be used as well to determine oil based mud filtrate contamination levels and then for oil based mud filtrate contamination monitoring during cleanup.
[0023] It is reasonably assumed that pure oil based mud filtrate has no gas/oil ratio (no gas dissolved in pure oil based mud filtrate) and cannot be vaporized into the gas phase at a single stage flash at standard conditions (the flash process reaches equilibrium). Based on the definition of gas/oil ratio, a simple formula is derived for the first time to relate oil based mud filtrate contamination level in volume fraction in stock tank oil (STO) to gas/oil ratio. Therefore, one endpoint gas/oil ratio for pure oil based mud filtrate is zero, and the other endpoint gas/oil ratio for native oil can be determined in different ways using multiple sensors in downhole fluid analysis.
[0024] Using gas/oil ratio and multiple sensors in downhole fluid analysis as oil based mud filtrate contamination monitoring has the following advantages:
1. Using all optical density information in hydrocarbon channels. 2. Large gas/oil ratio contrast (e.g. 0 scf/bbl for oil based mud filtrate and 20-50000 scf/bbl from heavy oil to gas condensate) between pure oil based mud filtrate and native oil. 3. Linear (near linear) relationship between gas/oil ratio and density confirmed from laboratory and field data, which allows to extrapolate gas/oil ratio to native oil based on density from pressure gradients and other methods, which also allows to extrapolate density of pure oil based mud filtrate by setting gas/oil ratio to zero. 4. Engineers may estimate endpoint gas/oil ratio for native oil in a sense from information of nearby wells, nearby downhole fluid analysis stations and the like. 5. Gas/oil ratio and other fluid properties for native oil can be obtained as by-product without oil based mud correction. 6. If the result becomes close by integrating multiple sensor oil based mud filtrate contamination algorithms such as gas/oil ratio, density and optical density, confidence about the answer is significantly gained. 7. Gas/oil ratio cannot be used for oil based mud filtrate contamination monitoring in previous generations of downhole fluid analysis such as optical fluid analyzer, live fluid analyzer and advanced fluid analyzer but a new generation of downhole fluid analysis such as in situ fluid analyzer because the gas/oil ratio algorithm in optical fluid analyzer, live fluid analyzer and advanced fluid analyzer does not normalize gas/oil ratio to zero (negative gas/oil ratio occurs for low gas/oil ratio fluids) at the low end.
[0032] For a native live fluid, the single stage flash gas/oil ratio is defined as the ratio of the volume of the flashed gas that comes out of the live fluid solution, to the volume of the flashed oil (also referred to as stock tank oil, STO) at standard conditions (typically 60° F. and 14.7 psia)
[0000]
GOR
0
=
V
gas
V
oil
0
(
1
)
[0000] where GOR 0 , V gas and V oil0 are the gas/oil ratio of the native fluid, the flashed gas volume and the volume of flashed native (oil based mud filtrate contamination free) STO at standard conditions respectively.
[0033] The contaminated fluid is divided into two components: the pure oil based mud filtrate and the native fluid. If the reservoir fluid is contaminated by oil based mud filtrate and it is assumed that the oil based mud filtrate exists only in the flashed liquid (oil) phase (i.e., the oil based mud filtrate has no gas/oil ratio), then gas/oil ratio of the contaminated fluid can be expressed as in equation two (2):
[0000]
GOR
=
V
gas
V
STO
=
V
gas
V
oil
0
+
V
obm
(
2
)
[0000] where the total volume of STO (V STO ) is the summation of the oil based mud filtrate volume (V obm ) and native STO volume (V oil0 ) at standard conditions. Divided both numerator and denominator by V oil0 on the right-hand side, Equation (2) can be rearranged as:
[0000]
GOR
=
V
gas
/
V
oil
0
(
V
oil
0
+
V
obm
)
/
V
oil
0
=
GOR
0
(
V
oil
0
+
V
obm
)
/
V
oil
0
(
3
)
[0000] where the definition of gas/oil ratio, i.e. Equation (1), is used for the native fluid. Furthermore, Equation (3) can be rewritten as:
[0000]
GOR
GOR
0
=
V
oil
0
(
V
oil
0
+
V
obm
)
=
1
-
V
obm
(
V
oil
0
+
V
obm
)
=
1
-
v
obmSTO
(
4
)
[0000] where v obmSTO is the oil based mud filtrate contamination level in volume fraction in stock tank oil (STO) at standard conditions.
Therefore, the oil based mud filtrate contamination level in volume fraction based on STO can be related to gas/oil ratio by:
[0000]
v
obmSTO
=
1
-
GOR
GOR
0
=
GOR
0
-
GOR
GOR
0
(
5
)
[0034] Equation (5) can be used for downhole oil based mud filtrate contamination monitoring in real time. Apparent gas/oil ratio can be measured by downhole fluid analysis at a series of time during cleanup. The endpoint, GOR 0 (gas/oil ratio for the native fluid), can be determined by the following different ways. Then the most suitable gas/oil ratio is selected for GOR 0 .
[0000] GOR 0 from Density and Pressure Gradients
[0035] Gas/oil ratio is typically in a linear relation with live fluid density. To test the relationship, gas condensate, black oil and heavy oil have been mixed with three types of oil based mud filtrates (esters, mineral oil and olefins) at 10 wt %, 25 wt % and 40 wt % oil based mud filtrate based on STO, respectively, and then the gas/ratio ratio and density are measured for all the mixtures. The results are shown in FIGS. 1 , 2 and 3 . The results clearly show that the relation between density and gas/oil ratio is linear.
[0036] The real time in situ fluid analyzer data also show the linear relationship between gas/oil ratio and live density as illustrated in FIG. 4 . It can be seen that the higher density data in the low gas/oil ratio range are off the trend because the fluids may contain some solids and/or be compressed due to a pressure increase at the beginning of the cleanup process.
[0037] Because downhole fluid analysis measures apparent gas/oil ratio and density during cleanup, a linear relation can be determined from the cleanup data by selecting a suitable time interval. Pretest pressure (pressure gradient) data can be used to determine density of the contamination free fluid—density endpoint for the native fluid. Thus, the linear relation between gas/oil ratio and density can be extrapolated in terms of the density obtained from the pressure gradient. As a result, the endpoint GOR 0 can be determined. Once GOR 0 is obtained, oil based mud filtrate contamination level can be estimated by Equation (5) at a series of time (pumpout volume) based on apparent gas/oil ratio measured by downhole fluid analysis. On the other hand, this linear relation can be used to obtain the density of pure oil based mud filtrate by setting gas/oil ratio to zero.
[0038] GOR 0 from Density Regression and the Linear Relation between GOR and Density
[0039] During cleanup, live fluid density can also be fitted by the following empirical expression:
[0000] ρ=ρ 0 −βV −γ (6)
[0000] where ρ and V are the density and pumpout volume (can be replaced by time t) measured by downhole fluid analysis; ρ 0 , β and γ are three adjustable parameters. Once good density data regression is obtained, density (ρ 0 ) for the native fluid can be extrapolated by assuming that the pumpout volume (time) approaches infinity. Then GOR 0 for the native fluid can be determined from the linear relationship between gas/oil ratio and density mentioned previously. For the focused flow, V can be replaced by the volume in the sample line instead of total volume (summation of sample and guard line volumes).
GOR 0 and Density from Nearby Wells or/and Nearby Downhole Fluid Analysis Stations
[0040] Both GOR 0 and density (ρ 0 ) for the native fluid can be obtained from data of nearby wells or/and nearby DFA stations in the same well.
[0000] GOR 0 from the Plot of Apparent GOR vs. Pumpout Volume (Time) Data
[0041] When gas/oil ratio becomes unchanged (derivative of gas/oil ratio with respect to pumpout volume (time) is zero) even changing flowrate in guard or sampling flowline, that gas/oil ratio is taken as GOR 0 . This method may be used in field practice for focused sampling and new developed probes and packers.
[0000] GOR 0 from Fitting to Apparent GOR vs. Pumpout Volume (Time) Data
[0042] During cleanup, apparent gas/oil ratio can also be fitted by:
[0000] GOR=GOR 0 −βV −γ (7)
[0000] GOR 0 , β and γ are the three regression parameters and they are determined by fitting the GOR and pumpout volume (time) data during cleanup. Setting V to infinity, GOR 0 is assumed to be the GOR for the native fluid.
Equation (7) can be rearranged as
[0000] ΔGOR=GOR 0 −GOR=β V −γ (8)
[0000] Combining Equation (5) and Equation (8) the following is obtained:
[0000]
v
obmSTO
=
GOR
0
-
GOR
GOR
0
=
β
V
-
γ
GOR
0
(
9
)
[0000] If it is assumed GOR 0 from the apparent gas/oil ratio vs. V (or t) plot, the result is:
[0000]
ln
(
v
obmSTO
)
=
ln
(
GOR
0
-
GOR
GOR
0
)
=
ln
(
β
GOR
0
)
-
γln
V
(
10
)
[0043] A linear regression method may be used to obtain β and γ. The constraints can be applied to the regression: 0≦η≦1; GOR≦GOR 0 ; ⅓≦γ≦2 (γ constraint can be changed according to different packers and probes). In plots In(v obmSTO ) vs. In(V) or In(t). a straight line can be observed. The slope is γ and the interception is In(β/GOR 0 ). Because GOR 0 is assumed, β can be determined. GOR 0 is then updated; updating β and γ is followed. The process may be repeated and the most suitable GOR 0 may be found for the best fit for the graph as well as other objectives. An example is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 and the data come from in situ fluid analyzer measurements. FIG. 5 illustrates gas/oil ratio fitting results using Equation (7). FIG. 6 gives the In(v obmSTO ) vs. In(V) plot. It can be seen that a nice linear relationship is observed.
[0044] All these methods can be used to obtain GOR 0 for the native fluid. Finally, a most suitable GOR 0 is selected for oil based mud filtrate contamination level estimation.
[0045] Once GOR 0 is obtained and the pumpout flowrate is known, the time required for sampling to reach a certain oil based mud level can be calculated by:
[0000]
Δ
t
=
Δ
V
Q
pump
(
11
)
[0000] where Δt, ΔV, and Q pump are the time required to reach a specified OBM level, the pumpout volume required to reach the specified OBM level, and the pumpout volume flowrate (assuming to be a constant).
Using Density as Oil Based Contamination Monitoring
[0046] Again, the contaminated fluid is divided into two components: the pure oil based mud and the native fluid. It is assumed that the mixing of the oil based mud filtrate and native fluid is ideal, i.e., producing no excess volume:
[0000] V mol =x obm V obm mol +(1− x obm ) V 0 mol (12)
[0000] where V mol and x are the molar volume and mole fraction. Subscripts obm and 0 represent the pure oil based mud filtrate and native fluid. The molar volume and mole fraction can be changed into density (ρ) and oil based mud filtrate volume fraction (v obm ) at downhole conditions by:
[0000] ρ=ν obm ρ obm +(1−ν obm )ρ 0 (13)
[0047] Rearranging Equation (13), the oil based mud filtrate volume fraction is expressed as
[0000]
v
obm
=
ρ
0
-
ρ
ρ
0
-
ρ
obm
(
14
)
[0000] v obm can be related to the weight fraction of oil based mud contamination at downhole conditions by:
[0000]
w
obm
=
v
obm
ρ
obm
ρ
=
ρ
obm
(
ρ
0
-
ρ
)
ρ
(
ρ
0
-
ρ
obm
)
(
15
)
[0048] In Equation (14) and Equation 15, two endpoints—densities of pure oil based mud (ρ obm ) and native fluid (ρ 0 ) should be known. It should be noted that density contrast between the pure oil based mud filtrate and native fluid should be large enough in order to use Equation (14) and (5) for oil based mud filtrate contamination monitoring.
[0000] Determination of Density of Pure OBM (ρ obm )
[0049] The density of pure oil based mud filtrate can be determined
a) Measure the density of pure oil based mud filtrate if pure oil based mud filtrate (or base oil) is available before logging at different temperatures and pressures covering entire reservoir conditions. b) According to the linear relationship between gas/oil ratio and density mentioned previously, setting gas/oil ratio to zero, the density obtained is the density of the pure oil based mud filtrate. c) At the beginning of clearup, 100% oil based mud filtrate may be pumped in flowline. The downhole fluid analysis measured density at the beginning of clearup may be considered to be the density of pure oil based mud filtrate.
Determination of Density of Native Fluid (ρ 0 )
[0053] The density of native fluid can be determined as follows:
d) Pretest pressure (pressure gradient) data can be used to determine density of the contamination free fluid—density endpoint for the native fluid. e) During cleanup, live fluid density can also be fitted by Equation (6). Once good density data regression is obtained, density (ρ 0 ) for the native fluid can be extrapolated when the pumpout volume (time) approaches infinity.
[0056] Once the two endpoint densities are obtained, Equation (14) and (15) are used to estimate oil based mud filtrate contamination level.
[0057] Oil based mud contamination level in weight fraction can be converted between standard and downhole conditions by Equation 16 below:
[0000]
w
obmSTO
w
obm
=
(
1
+
GOR
M
gas
P
Std
ρ
STOStd
RT
Std
)
=
conversion
factor
(
16
)
[0000] where w obmSTO , ρ STOStd , M gas , R, P Std and T Std are the oil based mud filtrate contamination level in weight fraction based on STO at standard conditions, the STO density at standard conditions, the molecular weight of flashed gas at standard conditions, the universal gas constant, the standard pressure (typically 14.7 psia) and standard temperature (typically 60° F.), respectively. ρ STOStd and M gas can be estimated by the method proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 7,920,970. FIG. 7 shows the conversion factor as a function of gas/oil ratio, M gas and ρ STOStd . For high gas/oil ratio fluids, oil based mud weight fraction based on STO is quite different from that at downhole conditions.
[0058] Oil based mud contamination level in volume fraction is then converted between standard and downhole conditions by Equation 17 below:
[0000]
v
obmSTO
v
obm
=
(
ρ
obm
ρ
obmStd
)
(
ρ
STOStd
ρ
)
(
1
+
GOR
M
gas
P
Std
ρ
STOStd
RT
Std
)
=
(
ρ
obm
ρ
obmStd
)
B
o
(
17
)
[0000] where B o is the formation volume factor of the contaminated fluid.
[0059] If it is assumed that the density ratio of oil based mud filtrate to fluid at reservoir and standard conditions (i.e., the isothermal compressibility of both oil based mud filtrate and fluid) are approximately identical, the same conversion factor can be used for both oil based mud weight and volume fractions.
[0060] The existing oil based mud filtrate contamination monitoring methods such as the methane and color channel oil based mud filtrate contamination algorithms, multi-channel oil based mud filtrate contamination algorithms can be used as well.
[0061] An example is given below:
[0000] The tool string is shown in FIG. 8 . The PQ, DV-Rod and in situ fluid analysis were used. Only comingling up flow was performed. Gas/oil ratio and density variations with pumpout volume are shown in FIG. 9 . The gas/oil ratio and density relationship is given in FIG. 10 . GOR fitting ( FIG. 9 ) shows GOR 0 =595 scf/bbl for the native oil. The native oil and pure OBM densities are obtained by the linear relation between GOR and density, ρ 0 =0.762 g/cm3 and ρ obm =0.875 g/cm3. Therefore, the oil based mud filtrate contamination level can be obtained by both gas/oil ratio and density as shown in FIG. 11 . They are very close.
[0062] While the aspects has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art, having benefit of this disclosure, will appreciate that other embodiments can be devised which do not depart from the scope of the disclosure herein.
|
A method for monitoring oil based mud filtrate contamination is provided including steps of analytically dividing a fluid stream into two parts, determining a gas/oil ratio for a native fluid determining an apparent gas/oil ratio for the contaminated fluid and determining on a volume fraction, an oil based contamination level based upon the gas/oil ratio for the native fluid and the apparent gas/oil ratio for the contaminated fluid.
| 6
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field
The invention relates to brake system control of a motor vehicle, and more particularly to control of braking where a vehicle includes regenerative braking capability and conventional service brakes.
2. Description of the Problem
Various types of hybrid and electric vehicles obtain higher operating efficiencies and extend operating range by using regenerative braking. During regenerative braking a vehicle's kinetic energy is captured converted to a form amenable to storage. For example electrical energy may be stored in capacitors or subjected to conversion to potential chemical energy and stored in batteries or capacitors, or the energy may be stored mechanically by compressing a fluid. Later, the stored energy can be used to propel the vehicle. In the case of electrical power it can be applied as electricity to a traction motor, and on a hydraulic hybrid vehicle the working fluid can be applied to a pump under pressure. Regenerative braking may operate to supplement or replace operation of the conventional service brakes, in a fashion similar to an engine brake or retarder in the drive line on a conventional vehicle. The torque absorbed for regeneration supplements the braking torque requested by the driver by use of the brake pedal. Absent compensating brake pedal resistance, this results in the vehicle stopping faster for a given brake pedal input and biases the braking force to the drive axle(s).
In a full hybrid or electric vehicle, the vehicle's electric traction motor doubles as the electrical generator which can be coupled to be driven by the wheels. On a hydraulic hybrid vehicle a pump may be coupled to the driveline. Typically only some of the wheels are driven, and thus capable of being coupled to the electric traction motor/generator or hydraulic pump when it is operating in its generating/storage mode. Thus, on either type of vehicle, a portion of the braking torque will come from the service brakes mounted with non-driven wheels, though braking force is biased toward the drive axles as they receive both service brake torque and regeneration torque while the non-drive axle(s) receive only service brake torque. Consideration may be given the issue of anti-lock braking systems (ABS) which distribute braking force to maintain braking stability.
U.S. Pat. No. 6,454,365 describes a braking force control system for a vehicle incorporating hydraulic service brakes and regenerative braking for the vehicle's drive wheels. The '365 patent provides a braking controller which generates a target braking force for front and rear wheels of the vehicle. Initially the controller applies regenerative braking in attempting to meet the target braking force levels. If regenerative braking proves insufficient to meet braking target levels, friction service brake operation is added to any wheels not supplying the target level of braking torque.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The invention provides a braking system for a motor vehicle. A plurality of wheels are coupled to a motor which provides traction power for propelling the vehicle and regenerative braking for slowing or stopping of the motor vehicle. Pneumatically actuated service brakes are further coupled to the drive wheels to provide slowing or stopping of the motor vehicle. An operator controlled brake actuator connects air from a compressed air source to a pneumatic brake actuation line to pneumatically actuate the service brakes for the driven wheels. A pressure regulator is disposed in the pneumatic brake actuation line. A brake controller is provided which is responsive to operation of the operator controlled brake actuator for closing the pressure regulator in the pneumatic brake actuation line up until the torque limit of the motor operating in the regenerative braking mode. An anti-lock braking system controller may be further provided responsive to indications of limited traction for overriding closure of the pressure regulator in the pneumatic brake actuation line to open the pressure regulator and providing for cessation of regenerative operation of the hybrid drive system. The control functions are implemented by incorporating pressure transducers in the driven wheel, service-brake, pneumatic actuation line. These are located both upstream and downstream from the pressure regulator for the line. The upstream transducer signal indicates occurrences of actuation of the brake actuator. The downstream transducer confirms operation of the pressure regulator.
Additional effects, features and advantages will be apparent in the written description that follows.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The preferred mode of use, further objects and advantages of the present disclosure, will best be understood by reference to the following detailed description of an illustrative embodiment when read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a brake circuit schematic illustrating the modifications used to implement one embodiment of the invention.
FIG. 2 is a brake circuit schematic illustrating an alternative embodiment of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring now to the drawings and in particular to FIG. 1 , a brake system 10 for a medium or heavy duty vehicle is illustrated. Brake system 10 is illustrated as configured for a vehicle having a front axle and a rear axle (the axles are not shown), but may be applied to other configurations, such as vehicles with lift axles and other combinations of axles having driven and non-driven wheels. Associated with the front and rear axles are individual, wheel mounted, pneumatically actuated service brakes 104 . The rear wheels 94 have brake assemblies 106 which include a park or spring brake chamber 105 in addition to the service brake 104 while the front wheels 92 do not include a park brake. In addition, the rear wheels 94 are connected by a vehicle drive train 96 to a hybrid drive system, such as an electric traction motor or the preferred hydraulic drive system 90 , which can operate regeneratively to supply braking torque. The rear wheel 94 brake assemblies 106 provide service braking and park braking. In the configuration illustrated the rear wheels 94 are driven and the front wheels 92 are non-driven.
The functioning of the parking brake is discussed here for the sake of completeness of description of the pneumatic brake actuation system. Control over the distinct parking and service brake functions of the rear wheel brake assemblies 106 are accomplished by having separate air ports 111 a and 111 b for the service brake chambers 104 and the spring brake chambers 105 , respectively. The service braking air port 111 a allows air to be directed to the service brake chamber 104 to move brake pads (not shown) to stop the rear wheels. The park braking port 111 b allows air to be directed to the spring brake chambers 105 to act counter internal springs which normally urge application of brake pads. When the parking brake is disengaged, compressed air holds the park brakes off and free movement of the rear wheels 94 is allowed. Air is delivered to a quick release valve (QRV) 31 along an air line 19 h from a push pull double check valve (PPDC) 29 and a spring brake modulator valve 30 for delivery to the park brake chambers 105 . Air is also supplied to the spring brake modulator valve 30 from relay valve 430 along air line 19 m from the primary tank 20 and along air line 19 f from the foot actuated double valve 26 from the secondary tank 21 . The parking brake system makes use of the redundant compressed air sources (primary and secondary compressed air tanks 20 , 21 ) to avoid unintended engagement of the parking brake system should one compressed air source fail. Air lines 19 f and 19 g supply air from the primary and secondary tanks 20 , 21 through the double valve 26 to a push pull double check (PPDC) valve 29 .
The pneumatic components in the brake system 10 are supplied with compressed air from an air compressor 22 . Air compressor 22 supplies air via air line 19 a though an air dryer 23 to a wet tank 24 . The wet tank 24 acts as a supply reservoir for both a primary air tank 20 and a secondary air tank 21 , which in turn supply the service and parking brake systems. Air lines 19 b and 19 c , respectively, deliver air from the wet tank 24 to the primary tank 20 and the secondary tank 21 . Check valves 25 are incorporated into air lines 19 b and 19 c allowing air to flow out from the wet tank 24 but not back into the wet tank.
Primary air tank 20 and secondary air tank 21 are the direct sources of supply of pressurized air for brake system 10 . The primary air tank 20 supplies air for service braking for the rear wheels 94 and the secondary air tank 21 supplies air for service braking for the front wheels 92 . Since independent sources of air are used for the service brakes for the rear and front wheels 94 , 92 , the service brake system is considered to be redundant. Air is routed from primary air tank 20 via air line 19 d through a foot actuated double valve 26 upon depression of foot pedal 26 a . On anti-lock braking system (ABS) equipped vehicles quick release valves 31 (QRVs) are used only for rear parking brake functions. ABS modulators 91 perform the QRV functions for the service brakes and are included in the air lines 19 j and 19 e which supply air to the brake assemblies 104 . For the rear brakes an air line 19 j from the primary tank 20 to the rear wheel 94 brake assemblies 104 includes a relay valve 430 which is actuated by air from the foot actuated double valve 26 delivered along air line 19 d as a pneumatic signal for applying air to the rear wheel service brakes 104 . Air from secondary air tank 21 is coupled to the service brakes 104 for the front wheels 92 for service braking via air line 19 e through the double valve 26 upon depression of foot pedal 26 a . The operation of the ABS modulators 91 is well known in the art. The ABS modulators 91 operate to modulate air pressure delivered to the service brakes 104 to distribute braking torque to the wheel best able to absorb it.
In the brake system 10 as illustrated the rear wheels 94 are driven and the front wheels 92 are non-driven. One source of traction power for the rear wheels 94 is a hybrid drive system, preferably a hydraulic system 90 , which is mechanically connected to the rear wheels by drive line 96 . During braking hydraulic drive system 90 operates as a pump turned by the wheels 94 . In an electric traction motor system a motor operates as a generator. Thus service braking is supplemented by regenerative braking which is applied to the rear wheels 94 . During normal operation of the brake system 10 , rear wheel 94 braking torque should be supplied by the hybrid (hydraulic) drive system 90 , and not the service brakes 104 , in order to recapture as potential energy as much of the vehicle's kinetic energy as possible.
During emergency braking, particularly where ABS operation comes into play, factors affecting vehicle control and the need for stopping the vehicle arise which may mitigate against the use of regenerative braking. Brake system 10 is modified to implement control over service brake operation and regenerative braking to better meet these potentially conflicting engineering requirements. Air line 19 d , connecting the foot actuated double valve 26 to the relay valve 430 (i.e., the air line transmitting a pneumatic signal from the foot-controlled valve to the relay valve for controlling application of pressure from the primary tank 20 to the rear service brakes 104 through the relay valve) is modified to include two pressure transducers, a primary transducer 80 and a feedback transducer 84 , with an intervening pressure regulator 82 . The pressure transducers 80 , 84 are located in air line 19 d with the primary transducer 80 upstream from, and the feedback transducer 84 downstream from, the pressure regulator 82 . The pressure transducers 80 , 84 report pressure readings to a hybrid brake controller 86 , from which the pressure difference across the pressure regulator 82 can be determined. Additionally, pressure transducer 80 reports pressure readings in air line 19 d to a hybrid controller 88 . A control signal from the hybrid brake controller 86 is applied to modulator 82 .
The hybrid drive system 90 is under the control of the hybrid controller 88 , which can set system 90 into a regeneration mode for operation as a pump or generator, depending upon the type of drive system, e.g. hydraulic, electric. A hydraulic drive system operates as a pump to increase pressure on a hydraulic fluid delivered through an energy storage device 76 embodied in an accumulator. The details of this arrangement are outside the scope of the present invention.
Hybrid controller 88 communicates by one of various data network systems with the hybrid brake controller 86 and an ABS controller 74 . The hybrid controller 88 can report the amount of torque being absorbed by the drive system 90 during regenerative braking to the hybrid brake controller 86 . The hybrid brake controller 86 compares this with the degree of braking demanded as indicated by a pressure transducer 80 . In normal operation the hybrid brake controller 86 utilizes braking demand pressure as detected transducer 80 to demand regenerative braking from the drive system 90 up to the torque limit of its regenerative braking capacity. The front service brakes 104 are unaffected and operate normally. Once the torque limit of the drive system 90 is reached, the hybrid brake controller adjusts the pressure regulator 82 to allow actuation of the service brakes 104 for the rear wheels 94 to supplement the drive system 90 braking.
During ABS events the regenerative braking functionality of the drive system 90 is normally cancelled and the hybrid brake controller 86 is instructed to allow normal service brake operation along air line 19 d by opening pressure regulator 82 . ABS controller 74 is connected to the hybrid controller 88 and the hybrid brake controller 86 to allow communication of the appropriate indication. ABS controller 74 also controls the modulation of ABS modulators 91 associated with the service brakes 104 for each wheel of the vehicle equipped with service brakes. ABS control over braking is provided over the service brakes 104 only. The object is that ABS operation is unaffected by the modifications to the brake system introduced by the invention. During an ABS event regulator 82 is opened. To confirm that the pneumatic braking system is operating conventionally, that is, as though no regenerative braking were available, the feedback pressure transducer in air line 19 d , transducer 84 , should provide feedback indication to the hybrid brake controller 86 that pressure in air line 19 d following regulator 82 closely matches the pressure measured by transducer 80 ahead of regulator 82 .
FIG. 2 illustrates an embodiment of the invention applied to a 6×4 truck with a lift axle 114 . Service brakes 104 associated with wheels for the lift axle 114 have no associated park brake chambers. In addition, the lift axle is a non-driven axle, meaning no regenerative braking is produced from it. The service brakes 104 are actuated by a signal from an ABS control module 74 to relay valve 530 . A local auxiliary air tank 110 supplies the air to the relay valve 530 for operation of the service brakes 104 for lift axle wheels. ABS modulation of the brakes of the lift axle is not directly provided. During ABS events the brakes of the lift axle 114 may be lightly braked or not braked at all.
The electronically controlled air pressure regulator 82 (located between the primary and feedback pressure transducers 80 , 84 ) controls pressure in the primary air pressure signal line when the vehicle operator actuates the foot pedal 26 a . When the vehicle operator is not requesting service brake application, this regulator is fully open (normally open). This allows for normal service brake function should there be a loss of power or control signal to the regulator. The hybrid brake controller determines how much air pressure is needed at the primary service brake relay valve to properly supplement the hybrid hydraulic regenerative braking torque up to the vehicle operator requested level. It sends a control signal to the electrically controlled air pressure regulator and monitors the signal from the second pressure transducer to ensure proper signal line air pressure to the primary service brake relay valve. The hybrid brake controller 86 control signal is disabled (the electronically controlled air pressure regulator allows full signal line pressure to pass unimpeded) during ABS active and other priority braking events. Under these conditions, full service braking capability is maintained and uninterrupted. The controller is also disabled when the ABS system is deactivated. The invention allows for increased regenerative braking efficiency because of the reduced or eliminated application of the service brakes on the axle(s) providing torque to the hybrid hydraulic drive system. The increase in regeneration efficiency will allow for greater availability of hydraulic launch assist from the hybrid hydraulic drive system, thus decreasing fuel consumption. This would be of significant benefit in vocations with frequent start and stop driving conditions.
While the invention is described with reference to only a few of its possible forms, it is not thus limited but is susceptible to various changes and modifications without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention.
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Braking control for a hybrid vehicle provides both service and regenerative mode braking for the driven wheels. A hybrid drive system is coupled to the driven wheels to provide traction power and which is capable of operating in a regenerative braking mode. The service brakes are provided by pneumatically actuated service brakes coupled to the driven wheels. Braking is initiated conventionally using an operator controlled brake actuator. A pressure regulator is placed in a pneumatic brake actuation line coupled from the operator controlled brake actuator to the pneumatically actuated service brakes for the driven wheels. The pressure regulator initially closes during braking, preventing operation of the service brakes up to the limit of the ability of the hybrid drive system to absorb torque for regenerative braking. When the torque limit for the hybrid drive system is reached, the regulator opens the actuation line progressively allowing the service brakes to supplement the hybrid drive system. During loss of traction events regenerative braking is discontinued to avoid interference with operation of anti-lock braking of the vehicle's service brakes.
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This application is a Divisional of U.S. application Ser. No. 08/915,986, filed Aug. 21, 1997.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for manufacturing semiconductor devices, and in particular, to a method for forming titanium silicide within electrical contacts and apparatuses including such electrical contacts.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Device density in integrated circuits (ICs) is constantly being increased. To enable the increase in density, device dimensions are being reduced. As the dimensions of device contacts get smaller, device contact resistance increases, and device performance is adversely affected. Methods for decreasing device contact resistance in ICs are needed to obtain enhanced device and IC performance.
Device contacts with reduced resistance may be created by forming certain metals on a silicon semiconductor base layer. These metals react with the underlying silicon, for example, to form silicides. Silicide device contacts are desirable because they reduce the native oxide on silicon. The native oxide is undesirable because it increases the contact resistance.
Titanium is preferably used to form silicide device contacts for two reasons. First, titanium silicide has superior gettering qualities. Also, titanium silicide forms low resistance contacts on both polysilicon and single-crystal silicon.
Device contacts are normally formed with the following process. First, a thin layer of titanium is formed on top of the silicon base layer, such as a substrate. The titanium adjoins active regions exposed by contact holes in an isolating layer, such as an oxide, above the silicon base layer. Then, the silicon base layer is annealed. As a result, the titanium reacts with the active regions of silicon to form titanium silicide.
Ultimately, an electrically conductive plug material, such as tungsten, fills the contact hole to facilitate external electrical connection to the contact. However, plug materials, such as tungsten, adhere poorly to titanium silicide. Additionally, to ensure low contact resistivity, aluminum or polysilicon plug materials should not be intermixed with the titanium silicide and underlying silicon base layer. Accordingly, a barrier layer is formed over the titanium silicide to prevent diffusion of the titanium silicide and silicon base layer into the plug material. The barrier layer also causes the plug material to adhere to the IC.
Titanium nitride is a desirable barrier layer because it is an impenneable barrier for silicon, and because the activation energy required for the diffusion of other impurities is very high. Titanium nitride is also chemically and thermodynamically stable, and has a relatively low resistivity. Titanium nitride can be formed on the substrate by (1) evaporating titanium in a nitrogen ambient, (2) reactively sputtering titanium in an argon and nitrogen mixture, (3) sputtering from a titanium nitride target in an inert argon ambient, (4) sputter depositing titanium in an argon ambient, and converting the titanium to titanium nitride subsequently by plasma nitridation, or (5) low pressure chemical vapor deposition (CVD).
The resistance of device contacts can also be adversely increased by the formation of titanium silicide having small step coverage in the contact hole. As device dimensions shrink, the contact holes become relatively deeper and narrower. Also, the walls of the contact holes become steeper, and closer to vertical. As a result, most metal deposition techniques form conductive layers having relatively small step coverage. As a result, a void, or keyhole, forms in the plug material. The void increases contact resistivity and diminishes contact reliability. Hence, IC performance is degraded. Thus, there is a need for forming contacts with reduced resistivity. Specifically, there is a need for a method of forming contacts without voids.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention solves the above-mentioned problems in the art and other problems which will be understood by those skilled in the art upon reading and understanding the present specification. The present invention includes a method for forming titanium silicide and/or titanium by chemical vapor deposition (CVD), and apparatus formed by such a method. The method comprises cleaning a contact hole. A titanium precursor and a silicon precursor are combined in the presence of hydrogen (H 2 ). Titanium silicide is formed by CVD.
In another embodiment, the method includes combining a titanium precursor in the presence of hydrogen (H 2 ). Then, titanium silicide is formed by CVD on an exposed silicon surface of a contact hole.
In another embodiment, the method includes forming titanium by CVD on a conductor according to the following chemical process:
TiCl 4 +H 2 →Ti+HCl.
In yet another embodiment, the method includes forming titanium by CVD on an insulator according to the following chemical process:
TiCl 4 +H 2 →Ti+HCl
In yet another embodiment, the method includes forming titanium silicide according to the following chemical process:
TiCl 4 +Si n H 2n+2 +H 2 →TiSi x +HCl,
wherein TiCl 4 is the titanium precursor, Si n H 2n+2 is the silicon precursor, x is less than or equal to 2, and n is greater than or equal to 1. In yet another embodiment, the titanium silicide is also formed according to the following chemical process:
TiCl 4 +Si+H 2 →TiSi x +HCl,
wherein x is less than or equal to 2.
In one embodiment, the apparatus is a memory, comprising a memory array, a control circuit, operatively coupled to the memory array, and address logic, operatively coupled to the memory array and the control logic. The memory array, control circuit and address logic, each including a contact. The contact includes titanium silicide. Titanium nitride is formed on the titanium silicide. A plug material is formed on the titanium nitride. The plug material is substantially solid. In another embodiment, the titanium silicide formed on an exposed silicon base layer, and the exposed silicon base layer is not substantially depleted.
In yet another embodiment, the apparatus is a system, comprising a memory, and a processor coupled to the memory. The memory includes a contact. The contact includes titanium silicide. Titanium nitride is formed on the titanium silicide. A plug material is formed on the titanium nitride. The plug material is substantially solid. In yet another embodiment, the titanium silicide formed on an exposed silicon base layer, and the exposed silicon base layer is not substantially depleted.
It is an advantage of the present invention that the contacts have reduced resistivity. It is a further benefit that the contacts have increased reliability.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
FIG. 1A is a cross-sectional view of a contact hole that has been etched through an insulator to an underlying semiconductor substrate.
FIG. 1B is a cross-sectional view of the contact hole of FIG. 1A, comprising a silicide film formed thereon by one aspect of the present invention.
FIG. 1C is a cross-sectional view of the contact hole of FIG. 1B, further comprising a barrier layer and plug material.
FIG. 2A is a cross-sectional view of the contact hole of FIG. 1A, comprising a silicide film formed thereon by another aspect of the invention.
FIG. 2B is a cross-sectional view of the contact hole of FIG. 2A, further comprising a barrier layer and plug material.
FIG. 2C is a cross-sectional view of a contact hole comprising a conductor, a barrier layer, and plug material.
FIG. 3A is a cross-sectional view of a contact hole that has been etched into an insulator.
FIG. 3B is a cross-sectional view of the contact hole of FIG. 3A, further comprising a silicide film, a barrier layer and plug material formed thereon by another aspect of the invention.
FIG. 4 is a block diagram of a memory.
FIG. 5 is a block diagram of a memory coupled to an external system.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In order to manufacture a contact in an integrated circuit (IC) 11 , a contact hole 10 , as illustrated in FIG. 1A, is etched through an insulator 12 , such as borophosphosilicate glass (BPSG) or silicon dioxide, to expose a portion of the underlying silicon base layer 14 , to which electrical contact is to be made. The exposed silicon base layer 14 is generally an active region 15 of a transistor in the IC 11 . An optional in-situ clean of the contact hole 10 may then be performed with a wet chemical clean, or a plasma, such as a high density Ar/NF 3 plasma.
Chemical vapor deposition (CVD) is then used to form titanium silicide 16 , such as TiSi x , at the bottom of contact hole 10 , as shown in FIG. 1 B. CVD permits accurately controlled formation of films, including conformal films.
CVD techniques are well known by persons skilled in the art, and are described in Panson et al., Appl. Phys. Lett ., 53,1756 (1988) and Cowher et al., j. Cryst. Growth , 46, 399 (1979), hereby incorporated by reference. Any CVD apparatus design may be used when practicing the present invention including hot wall reactors, cold wall reactors, radiation beam assisted reactors, and plasma-assisted reactors. These CVD apparatuses are disclosed in C. E. Morosanu, “Thin Films by Chemical Vapor Deposition,” Elsevier, N.Y. (1990), pages 42-54; I. P. Herman, Chemical Reviews , 89, 1323 (1989); U.S. Pat. No. 4,876,112; U.S. Pat. No. 5,005,519; U.S. Pat. No. 4,340,617; U.S. Pat. No. 4,713,258; U.S. Pat. No. 4,721,631; U.S. Pat. No. 4,923,717; U.S. Pat. No. 5,022,905; U.S. Pat. No. 4,868,005; U.S. Pat. No. 5,173,327, and Bachman et al., MRS Bull ., 13, 52 (1988), hereby incorporated by reference.
For blanket depositions, a cold wall-hot substrate reactor is sometimes preferred, as this design is efficient in regard to precursor consumption. For depositions on selection areas, a radiation beam assisted reactor may be preferred as the radiation beam may be used to selectively deposit metal containing films onto small areas of the substrate.
Different embodiments for forming titanium silicide, which may use plasma-assisted CVD (PACVD) and non-plasma CVD, are subsequently described. In a first embodiment, CVD is utilized to deposit a film of titanium silicide 16 on the top and side walls of the insulator 12 , as illustrated in FIG. lB. The titanium silicide 16 is preferably formed as a conformal film, and thus has high step coverage. This embodiment will now be described in further detail.
The IC 11 is mounted on a substrate holder in a chamber of the CVD apparatus. A titanium precursor, such as titanium tetrachloride (TiCl 4 ) and a silicon precursor, such as silane (Si n H 2n+2 ), for example either SiH 4 or Si 2 H 6 , are combined with hydrogen (H 2 ) in the CVD apparatus to form the titanium silicide 16 in and around the contact hole 10 , as illustrated in FIG. 1 B. The following general chemical process (I) is used:
TiCl 4 +Si n H 2n+2 +H 2 →TiSi x +HCl, (I)
wherein, generally, n is greater than or equal to 1, and x is less than or equal to 2.
When PACVD is used, the deposition takes place in a water cooled quench chamber having a volume of approximately 6 liters. The power supply for generating a plasma can be any type of energy source, such as radio frequency (RF) or direct current (DC). When a RF power source is used, the radio frequency is approximately 13.6 MHZ. However, the present invention envisions using higher or lower frequencies. The power of the energy source used to create the plasma is between approximately 10 and 1,000 Watts, preferably approximately 600 Watts. The IC 11 is heated to a temperature between approximately 300 and 800 degrees Celsius, preferably approximately 500 degrees Celsius.
In the first embodiment, the precursor gases TiCl 4 and Si n H 2n+2 are delivered to a plasma flame. TiCl 4 is introduced at a flow rate of between approximately 1 and 40 sccm, preferably approximately 20 sccm. If SiH 4 is used, the SiH 4 is introduced at a flow rate of between approximately 0.5 and 100 sccm, preferably approximately 50 sccm. Alternatively, Si 2 H 6 may be used, and is introduced at a flow rate of between approximately 0.05 and 50 sccm, preferably approximately 25 sccm. A sheath gas, selected from a group consisting of the noble gases and hydrogen, is employed in order to direct the plasma flame. In this example, hydrogen is introduced at a flow rate between approximately 500 and 5,000 sccm, preferably approximately 3,000 sccm. Optionally, a carrier gas, such as argon, is also introduced at a flow rate between approximately 500 and 5,000 sccm, preferably approximately 2,000 sccm.
A precursor compound, including silicon and titanium precursors, becomes a plasma gas. The precursor compound is transported via a reactor tube to the chamber. The precursor plasma, upon coming into contact with the heated IC 11 , pyrolyzes and deposits a film of TiSi x 16 on the exposed surfaces of the insulator 12 . The chamber pressure is between approximately 0.1 and 100 Torr, preferably approximately 5 Torr. The reaction products from the pyrolysis of the precursor compound exit from the chamber via an exhaust manifold.
For this embodiment, x is typically 2. However, x may be less than 2 when the silane flow rate is relatively low, and when TiCl 4 precursor flow rate is relatively high.
Alternatively, when using a non-plasma CVD method, the process parameters generally remain the same. However, in the absence of the plasma, the process temperature is increased to between approximately 600 and 900 degrees Celsius, preferably approximately 700 degrees Celsius.
Titanium silicide is typically formed on the exposed surface of the silicon base layer 14 when the titanium precursor and hydrogen contact the silicon base layer 14 . This reaction is described by the following general chemical process (II):
TiCl 4 +Si+H 2 →TiSi 2 +HCl (II)
However, process (II) may remove exposed silicon base layer that is the active region 15 . Titanium silicide 16 will then intrude into the active region where the exposed silicon base layer was removed. The active region 15 is highly doped to reduce contact resistance. As a result of the removal, the contact resistance will undesirably increase. Therefore, preferably, sufficient silane is preferably added to the precursor compound by regulating the silane flow rate. As a result, titanium silicide over the exposed silicon base layer is at least partially formed according to process (I). Hence, the exposed silicon will not be substantially depleted. Therefore, the contact resistance will not be detrimentally increased.
In a second embodiment, CVD is used to selectively deposit a film of titanium silicide 16 on the exposed silicon base layer according to process (II), described above. If PACVD is used, the IC 11 is heated to between approximately 400 and 800 degrees Celsius. Simultaneously, a substantially thinner layer of titanium 17 is deposited on the sidewalls of the contact hole 10 , as illustrated in FIG. 2 A. The titanium 17 is deposited according to chemical process (III):
TiCl 4 +H 2 →Ti+HCl (III)
As illustrated in FIG. 2B, the titanium 17 formed on the sidewalls of the insulator 12 is substantially thinner than the titanium silicide 16 formed on the base of the contact hole 10 . Thus, in the event the titanium 17 on the sidewalls is formed with a retrograde, there will be substantially no voids in the subsequently formed plug material 20 , illustrated in FIG. 2 C. Hence, the plug material 20 is substantially solid. The titanium 17 formed on the top of the insulator 12 is substantially thicker than the titanium 17 formed on the sidewalls of the contact hole.
The second embodiment may be implemented, for example, at a temperature of approximately 630 degrees Celsius, a pressure of approximately 5 Torr, an H 2 flow rate of approximately 5 slm, and a TiCl 4 flow rate of approximately 40 sccm. A carrier gas, such as argon, having a flow rate of approximately 5 slm, may also be used. As a result, a 500 Angstrom layer of titanium 17 is formed on the exterior surfaces 22 of the insulator 12 . Little or no titanium 17 is formed in the contact hole 10 , such as on the sidewalls 24 and over the active region 15 , as illustrated in FIG. 2 A. Additionally, approximately 2500 Angstroms of titanium silicide 16 is formed over the active region 15 . Alternatively, the second embodiment may be implemented at a temperature of less than about 550 degrees Celsius. As a result, about 1250 Angstroms of titanium 17 , rather than titanium silicide 16 , are formed over the active region 15 . The titanium 17 is subsequently converted to titanium silicide during an anneal.
Chemical process (III), described above, may also be used to form a contact to a conductor 21 on an IC 11 , as illustrated in FIG. 2 C. The conductor 21 is typically formed over a second insulator 23 on the IC 11 . The titanium 17 formed on the sidewalls of the contact hole 10 is substantially thinner than the titanium 17 formed on the base of the contact hole 10 . Thus, in the event the titanium 17 on the sidewalls is formed with a retrograde, a there will be substantially no voids in the subsequently formed plug material 20 , illustrated in FIG. 2 C.
In a third embodiment, titanium silicide 16 can be formed in a contact hole 10 in insulator 12 , where no silicon base layer 14 is exposed, as illustrated in FIG. 3A. A conformal layer of titanium silicide 16 having high step coverage is formed in the contract hole 10 , according to general chemical process (I) described above. For the first, second and third embodiments, the reaction products of general chemical processes (I) and (II) may also include SiCl 4 .
Typically, after the titanium silicide 16 has been formed according to one of the embodiments described above, the barrier layer 18 is then formed in the contact hole, as illustrated in FIGS. 1C, 2 B and 3 B. The IC 11 may be heated before or after barrier layer 18 formation. Heating may be accomplished, for example, in a rapid thermal annealer or a furnace, in a manner known to persons skilled in the art. The heating step can convert titanium 17 proximate to exposed silicon to titanium silicide 16 . Additionally, heating of previously formed titanium silicide 16 is desirable because it reduces native oxides. The plug material 20 is then formed over the barrier layer 18 to complete contact formation. The barrier layer 18 and plug material 20 may each be formed by CVD.
The aforementioned processes may be used to form contacts in an integrated circuit 11 that is a memory 400 , such as a dynamic random access memory. The memory 400 may include a memory array 402 , control logic 404 , and address logic 406 coupled in a manner known to one skilled in the art and exemplified in FIG. 4 . Each of the aforementioned elements of the memory 400 includes contacts formed in the manner described above. The memory 400 may be coupled to an external system 524 , such as a processor, as illustrated in FIG. 5 .
The present invention provides a method for forming low resistivity, high reliability contacts. It is to be understood that the above description is intended to be illustrative, and not restrictive. Many other embodiments will be apparent to those of skill in the art upon reviewing the above description. For example, other titanium precursors, such as tetradimethyl amino titanium (TDMAT) can be used to form titanium 17 and titanium silicide 16 . Additionally, the present invention may be implemented with any CVD apparatus 29 , including hot wall reactors, cold wall reactors, radiation beam assisted reactors, plasma-assisted reactors, and the like. Hence, the scope of the invention should, therefore, be determined with reference to the appended claims, along with the full scope of equivalents to which such claims are entitled.
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Methods arc provided for forming a contact in an integrated circuit by chemical vapor deposition (CVD). The methods include forming titanium silicide in the contact. One method includes forming titanium silicide by combining a titanium precursor in the presence of hydrogen, H 2 . Another method includes forming titanium silicide by combining titanium tetrachloride, TiCl 4 , in the presence of hydrogen. A further method includes forming titanium silicide by combining tetradimethyl amino titanium, Ti(N(CH 3 ) 2 ) 4 , in the presence of hydrogen. The methods may further include forming titanium in the contact.
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REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the benefit of Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/374,228, filed on Apr. 19, 2002, the contents of which are herein incorporated by reference.
BACKGROUND
[0002] 1. Technical Field
[0003] The present disclosure relates to computer systems. More specifically, the present disclosure relates to a method and system for managing a computer system.
[0004] 2. Description of the Related Art
[0005] One beneficial characteristic of computers today is their versatility, specifically, their ability to be used by multiple users and for multiple purposes. The capabilities of a computer, including desktop personal computers, laptop computers, workstations, point of sale computers, and other computer-based devices, may be partially determined by an operating system. Operating systems provide a software platform on top of which other programs, called application programs, can run. Some operating systems permit accounts for multiple users and may have different application programs installed and accessible to each user. A single computer may hold multiple operating systems, multiple application programs, and even multiple versions of a single application program.
[0006] Computers located in different areas may be connected via a network, for example, a local-area network (LAN) or wide-area network (WAN). As a result, a computer administrator has the ability to monitor and control a large number of computers from a remote location. A computer administrator has the responsibility to manage the many users, purposes, operating systems, applications and versions of applications installed on a computer.
[0007] Traditionally, computer management has been performed in a computer-centric fashion. For example, computer administrators have been presented with lists of computers to be managed. Often, computers are labeled with unique alphanumeric sequences, which, while adequately identifying each computer, do not identify the user associated with a particular computer. Accordingly, if a policy change needs to be effected for certain users, it can be difficult for an administrator to determine which computers are associated with the user so that the policy change can be implemented only on those machines associated with that user. One solution may be to label a computer with the name of its user; however, because a computer may have multiple users and because a user may operate multiple computers, this solution may not always be sufficient. In a computer-centric system, computers may be categorized by groups to reflect geographical location or functional purpose. For example, a supermarket chain may manage thousands of point-of-sale (POS) computer systems, and may configure the computers based on location and function.
[0008] Computer management may also be performed in a user-centric fashion. Management from the viewpoint of users, rather than computers they operate, can be more intuitive for the computer administrator and easier to maintain. This type of system is referred to herein as user-centric computer management. The goal of user-centric computer management is to offer computer administrators an alternative view of their enterprise that reflects the user-centric model. In order to operate with existing computer-centric systems, it may be desirable to provide a computer management system in which the traditional computer-centric model remains and may be modified to operate with the user-centric model.
[0009] Many companies have, or are moving toward, a centralized store of common enterprise data, for example, employee information, held in a directory. These directories are databases which often hold information about the personnel of the enterprise,. their roles and geographical location. For example, a company could have a directory design using a container hierarchy reflecting the company's geographical structure and groups to reflect the roles of individual users. Where such directories exist, it may also be desirable for user-centric management systems to be able to take advantage of these centralized stores of data by integrating with existing management systems in order to access the directory information to retrieve user information, including employee name, location, occupational role, etc..
SUMMARY
[0010] The present disclosure relates to a method for managing a plurality of computers, wherein at least one of the plurality of computers is associated with a user having a user characteristic. The method comprises inputting selection information including the user characteristic, inputting management information, selecting at least one of the plurality of computers based on the selection information, and modifying the at least one selected computer based on the management information.
[0011] In another embodiment, the method comprises inputting selection information including one of the user characteristic and a computer characteristic into a selected computer, transmitting the selection information to a managing computer, searching in a database for the selection information and management information associated with the selection information, and modifying the selected computer based on the management information.
[0012] The present disclosure also relates to a computer recording medium including computer executable code for managing a plurality of computers, wherein least one of the plurality of computers is associated with a user having a user characteristic. The computer recording medium comprises code for inputting selection information including the user characteristic, code for inputting management information, code for selecting at least one of the plurality of computers based on the selection information, and code for modifying the at least one selected computer based on the management information.
[0013] In another embodiment, the computer recording medium includes code for inputting selection information including one of the user characteristic and a computer characteristic into a selected computer, code for transmitting the selection information to a managing computer, code for searching in a database for the selection information and management information associated with the selection information, and code for modifying the selected computer based on the management information.
[0014] The present disclosure also relates to a programmed computer system for managing a plurality of computers, wherein at least one of the plurality of computers is associated with a user having a user characteristic. The programmed computer system resides on a computer-readable medium and comprises instructions for causing a computer to input selection information including the user characteristic, input management information, select at least one of the plurality of computers based on the selection information, and modify the at least one selected computer based on the management information.
[0015] In another embodiment, the programmed computer system comprises instructions for causing a computer to input selection information including one of the user characteristic and a computer characteristic into a selected computer, transmit the selection information to a managing computer, search in a database for the selection information and management information associated with the selection information, and modify the selected computer based on the management information.
[0016] The present disclosure also relates to a programmed computer apparatus for managing a plurality of computers, wherein at least one of the plurality of computers is associated with a user having a user characteristic. The programmed computer apparatus performs steps comprising inputting selection information including the user characteristic, inputting management information, selecting at least one of the plurality of computers based on the selection information, and modifying the at least one selected computer based on the management information.
[0017] In another embodiment, the programmed computer apparatus performs steps comprising inputting selection information including one of the user characteristic and a computer characteristic into a selected computer, transmitting the selection information to a managing computer, searching in a database for the selection information and management information associated with the selection information, and modifying the selected computer based on the management information.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0018] A more complete appreciation of the present disclosure and many of the attendant advantages thereof will be readily obtained as the same becomes better understood by reference to the following detailed description when considered in connection with the accompanying drawings, wherein:
[0019] FIG. 1 shows an example of a computer system capable of implementing the method and system of the present disclosure;
[0020] FIG. 2 shows an example of a network connecting a managing computer system and other computer systems according to the present disclosure;
[0021] FIGS. 3A-3B show examples of a computer-object view and a user-object view according to the method and system of the present disclosure;
[0022] FIG. 4 shows an example of a process for selecting and modifying computer systems according to the method and system of the present disclosure; and
[0023] FIG. 5 shows an example of a computer system login and configuration process according to the method and system of the present disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0024] In describing preferred embodiments of the present disclosure illustrated in the drawings, specific terminology is employed for sake of clarity. However, the present disclosure is not intended to be limited to the specific terminology so selected, and it is to be understood that each specific element includes all technical equivalents which operate in a similar manner.
[0025] FIG. 1 shows an example of a computer system which may be managed by a management system according to the present disclosure, or which may execute such a management system. The system and method of the present disclosure may be implemented in the form of a software application running on a computer system, for example, a mainframe, personal computer (PC), handheld computer, server etc. The software application may be stored on a recording media locally accessible by the computer system, for example, floppy disk, compact disk, hard disk, etc., or may be remote from the computer system and accessible via a hard wired or wireless connection to a network, for example, a local area network, or the Internet.
[0026] An example of a computer system capable of implementing the present method and system is shown in FIG. 1 . The computer system referred to generally as system 100 may include a central processing unit (CPU) 102 , memory 104 , for example. Random Access Memory (RAM), a printer interface 106 , a display unit 108 , a (LAN) local area network data transmission controller 110 , a LAN interface 112 , a network controller 114 , an internal bus 116 and one or more input devices 118 , for example, a keyboard, mouse etc. As shown, the system 100 may be connected to a data storage device, for example, a hard disk, 120 , via a link 122 .
[0027] FIG. 2 shows an example of a network connecting a managing computer system and other computer systems according to the present disclosure. Managing computer system 150 and Computer A 152 and Computer B 154 may be of the type of computer system 100 as shown in FIG. 1 , or they may be of any other type of stationary or portable computing system. Managing computer system 150 and Computer A 152 and Computer B 154 may be connected via a network 156 , such as the Internet, a local-area network (LAN), wide-area network (WAN), or wireless network. In the example shown in FIG. 2 , users of the computers are shown along with the computers with which they are associated. For example, an Administrator 160 is associated with a Managing computer system 150 , User 1 162 is associated with both Computer A 152 and Computer B 154 , User 2 164 is associated with Computer A 152 , and User 3 166 is associated with Computer B 154 .
[heading-0028] User-Model and Computer-Model
[0029] The present system and method allows an administrator to view the system as a number of users and to effect policy changes on to those users. A Managing computer system 150 will automatically determine what to do with the individual machines on the system belonging to those users in order to implement a policy change.
[0030] A user-centric computer management system according to the present disclosure allows a computer administrator to manage computers and other information technology (IT) resources through a view of the users of those resources. Resources may be represented and displayed graphically to the administrator at a managing computer system via, for example, a computer monitor. To offer this view, data models of the existing computer-centric management systems may be modified to include a user-object data structure corresponding to a user. The user-object data structure may provide a link to one or more computer-object data structures which store information such as, for example, inventory, software installations including application programs, operating systems etc., computer configuration tasks, and users associated with the computer. In another aspect of the system of the present disclosure, the user-object may instead store the information stored in each associated computer-model and may be updated accordingly.
[0031] When a user is associated with one or more computers, the user-object for that user may contain a link to each of the associated computers. Accordingly, if a computer is associated with more than one user, the user-object for each user may have a link to the computer-object of the associated computer. In one aspect of the present disclosure, when a user-object for a user is displayed, the system retrieves and displays information stored in the linked computer-objects corresponding to computers with which the user is associated.
[0032] The user-object may be identified by the user account used to log on to a computer running a desktop agent, the user account may then be reported back to a managing computer for registration. The computer administrator has the option to deactivate user registration.
[0033] FIGS. 3A, 3B show examples of a computer-object view and a user-object view according to the method and system of the present disclosure. These views may be visible to an Administrator 160 , and may serve to indicate associations between users, computers, tasks, and software applications. In a computer-object view, as shown in FIG. 3A , a Computers heading 200 is shown, followed by one or more computers listed individually or by group categorization. The Computers heading 200 , for example, may be referred to as “All Targets” or some other heading that appropriately describes computer-objects. Managing computer system 150 , Computer A 152 and Computer B 154 are shown beneath the Computers heading 150 . In FIG. 3A expanded views for Computer A 152 , and Computer B 154 are visible. In FIG. 3A , Computer A 152 includes Inventory area 202 and Installations area 204 . Inventory area 202 may include a description of the hardware included in the computer system. In this example. Installations area 204 includes Wordprocessor software 206 and Email software 208 entries indicating the association of those application programs with Computer A 152 . Those software applications listed beneath Installations area 204 may be stored on Computer A 152 or may be accessible via, for example, a network. For each computer, scheduled tasks may be shown in a Tasks area 210 . An Email update task 212 appears for Computer A 152 which may be a result of a policy set by the administrator to update the Email software 208 and may be removed once the update is complete. User 1 162 and User 2 164 associated with Computer A 152 are shown in a Users area 214 . Computer B 154 is shown beneath the Computers heading 200 . Computer B 154 includes Inventory area 216 and Installations area 218 which includes computer aided design (CAD) program 220 and Email software 208 . The Tasks area 222 includes the email update task 212 . Areas for User 1 162 and User 3 166 associated with Computer B 154 are shown in a Users area 224 .
[0034] Shown in FIG. 3B is a user-object view showing users of the system under a Users heading 226 including Administrator 160 , User 1 162 , User 2 164 and User 3 166 . The Users heading 226 , for example, may be referred to as “All Users” or some other heading that appropriately describes user-objects. Administrator 160 , User 2 164 and User 3 166 also have associated information and are shown in an abbreviated, unexpanded form. An area beneath the heading User 1 162 includes Installations area 228 . Tasks area 236 and Targets area 238 . In this user-object view, Installations area 228 includes application programs associated with User 1 , for example Wordprocessor 206 , beneath which is listed the computers, or Targets 230 , on which those programs are stored and/or executed. Additionally, if a user uses a computer, all installations for that computer may be added to the view of installations for the user. Similarly, if the same user also uses another computer, the installations view for that user may include the sum of both computers' installations.
[0035] In the example shown in FIG. 3B , the application program Wordprocessor 206 is stored on, or may be associated with, Computer A 152 , the application program Email 208 is stored on, or may be associated with, both Computer A 152 and Computer B 154 listed beneath Targets 232 , and the application program CAD 220 is stored on, or associated with, Computer B 154 , listed beneath Targets 234 . As described above, pending tasks, for example, a task of “Updating Email” 212 , for updating the Email application program 208 , are listed in the Tasks area 236 . The computers with which User 1 is associated are listed in the Targets area 238 . An administrator may interact with the view to reveal more information about or modify an entry. In one aspect of the system according to the present disclosure, the administrator may view information for User 2 164 and User 3 166 by selecting those users, using, for example, a clicking operation of a mouse.
[0036] The system and method of the present disclosure allows an administrator to view application programs available or assigned to a user or to remotely manage the computer to which a user currently is logged on. In the user-centric view as described herein, the computer may be viewed as a property of the user, rather than the user a property of the computer.
[heading-0037] User Roles
[0038] Users may have one or more roles with respect to their duties within their organization, for example, programmer, data entry, point-of-sale operator. In one aspect of the system of the present disclosure, user roles may be implemented by creating a separate user group for each role and associating users with those groups. For example, users can be grouped into organizational or geographical groups, or any other type of group. A user group may be static, query, template and query/template. A new query attribute group may be introduced to handle attributes of the user object. It may also be desirable for user groups to contain other user groups or computer group, in addition to users.
[0039] In another aspect of the system of the present disclosure, a user-object data structure may include an area for storing a user role and/or a user group. In the system of the present disclosure, user roles may be used by the administrator for managing and configuring computers. In one aspect of the present disclosure, when an employee logs on to a computer, the computer may be configured for that user's needs automatically based on information stored in a database or entered by the user, for example, user role, computer role, location, etc.. Optionally, the computer may check for updates every time a user logs on to the computer or periodically as specified by the computer administrator.
[0040] User roles may be categorized to include sub-categories. For example, the user role of programmer may have one or more sub-categories including different types of programmers.
[heading-0041] Computer Role
[0042] A computer role describes a computer in terms of the operations which are performed by that computer, for example, a computer may be used as an email server, word processor or service desk workstation. In the system of the present disclosure, computer roles may be used by the administrator for managing and configuring computers. Computers may have multiple roles and computer roles may be categorized into groups having sub-groups of computer roles. In one aspect of the present disclosure, a computer role may be assigned by a user. An administrator may assign policies to computer roles for updating and configuration.
[heading-0043] Policies, Tasks
[0044] In the present system, a computer administrator may create a policy, or rule, applicable to a user, user role, computer role, or other characteristic, which may define configuration tasks to be performed on computers. In one aspect of the present disclosure, a policy may include information describing those computers which will be affected by the policy. These computers may be identified based on their association with users having specified user-roles, or by other identifiers, such as computer-roles or the computers may be identified directly by some other naming convention. A policy may also include a name or descriptor of the software application used to modify the computer system, as well as the action or actions to be performed, such as installing, updating, deleting, configuring, etc.. For example, a policy may provide that all computers associated with users having the user role of programmer are to receive a specified application program.
[0045] A policy may provide configuration information for a specific application program. For example, features of an email program may be enabled or disabled. By assigning a policy specifying a user role, configuration tasks may be scheduled for users not yet assigned that role. When the administrator assigns a user role to a user, the policies of the rule assigned may be enforced automatically, and any computers on which the user operates may be automatically configured accordingly.
[0046] A task may be any automated procedure performed on a computer. It may be an asset management policy or a software delivery installation. A task modifies the configuration of a computer so that it complies with a policy.
[0047] In one aspect of the present disclosure, tasks may be performed on computers selected based on, for example, user name, user role, computer role, other user or computer characteristic or a combination thereof. Tasks may be scheduled according to user, while the associated targets actually run the tasks. A user may be labeled as “multisystem,” meaning that all targets that the user logs on to become associated targets. Tasks scheduled for a multisystem user may be run on all associated targets for that user.
[0048] To provide greater flexibility when selecting computers for modification, computers may be selected individually or by searching users, user roles and computer roles using logical operators, for example, AND, NOT, OR, etc. For example, once all computers in an enterprise have been allocated roles, an administrator may invoke a policy change without being cognizant of any actual computer names. The administrator may order that a task, such as installing a word processor, be implemented on all computers having a specific role. Continuing with this example, the administrator may further define the parameters by ordering the task performed on users having a specific role and in a particular group.
[0049] In one aspect of the present disclosure, tasks may be assigned using a “drag-and-drop” procedure whereby an administrator selects one or more software applications from a list displayed on a display screen, then drags icons representing the software applications to a point on the display screen overlapping one or more icons representing users or computers and drops them on the user or computer icons.
[0050] In another aspect of the present disclosure, a task may be scheduled, for example, for a specified user or for a user designated by a specified user role. Continuing the example, in the system of the present disclosure, it is possible to modify only those computers associated with a user which are designated by a specified computer role.
[heading-0051] Directories
[0052] A directory is a storage area for storing user data, user roles, computer data, computer roles, application program data and other user and computer information. It may be desirable for the system of the present disclosure to use the organization information stored in existing directories by integrating with existing management systems. Such integration may be performed in a number of ways. For example, the directory may be a primary store for all application data. Integration may also be performed by publishing the directory through a directory interface. A standardized protocol, such as Lightweight Directory Access Protocol (“LDAP”) may be used for accessing data from directories. By adding an LDAP gateway that translates the data models of desktop products into directory schemes, it is possible to publish a subset of objects for an entity without updating that entity's directories. Accordingly, two directories may be logically linked together so that it looks like one directory to end users.
[0053] In another alternative, it may be desirable to populate a target directory with a subset of application data from a database. The schema of the target directory may be extended with all the classes and attributes desired for storing the exported data. The exported data may be updated periodically to allow for objects that no longer exist and changes in values of attributes. The population may be performed using an LDAP Data Interchange Format (“LDIF”).
[0054] In another alternative for directory integration, it may be desirable to populate a target database with data from an external directory. This may require mapping an entity s organizational hierarchy and performing desktop management based on that hierarchy. User and computer groups may be mapped to directory containers and groups through advanced LDAP search expressions. The members of the containers and groups in the directory may be populated into the groups of the desktop products if the objects also exist in the desktop database. The population may be either on-line meaning that it is performed every time accessed or off-line meaning that it is performed on a time schedule.
[0055] In yet another alternative for integration, it may be desirable to store references to objects in a directory and access the references through user interfaces (“UIs”), reports, events, etc.. User and computer objects in desktop databases may store a reference to a corresponding object in a directory. The reference may be the distinguished name of the directory object. When viewing the objects in the desktop graphical user interfaces (“GUIs”) and producing reports, the attributes stored in the directory may be displayed to enhance the user centric experience. LDAP search URLs to locate the objects in the directories may be stored globally and used when a new user or computer is registered to the desktop manager. It may be possible to manually map users and computers as well.
[0056] The system of the present disclosure may provide directory membership synchronization and utilization functionality to allow a computer administrator to use the organization information stored in existing directories. The computer administrator may create user roles or computer roles based on a result from a directory search operation. An example of a directory search may utilize natural language or structured query language (SQL) expressions. For example, a computer administrator may search for users who are members of the group ‘Secretary’ having a last name beginning with the letters ‘SM’, or the computer administrator may search for computers that are members of the group ‘United Kingdom’ and are members of the directory group ‘Web Servers’. In this example, users or computers returned by the directory search operation may be assigned a user role or computer role, respectively. The evaluation of roles may be based on a time schedule defined by the computer administrator, making role assignment dynamic and automated. A directory query designer may be used to create a complete LDAP search URL to be used for synchronization of a desktop management computer and user groups with a directory.
[0057] When viewing user-objects and computer-objects, the computer administrator may be offered extended user and computer information retrieved from a directory. User information may include a user's full name, email address, street address, and for computers this may include an operating system, operating system version, service pack, and application programs resident on the computer. In general, any attribute that has been mapped into the generic directory schema at the time of directory integration configuration may be presented.
[0058] An EXE, such as a directory configuration wizard, may be used to map classes and attributes in a directory to a generic desktop management schema understood by all products. The wizard may be used to define the location of the directory with authentication details, map a user class, identity and attributes, and map a computer class, identity and attributes. After finalizing the wizard, all desktop management managers installed on a server may use the new directory definition.
[heading-0059] Selection and Modification
[0060] FIG. 4 shows an example of a process for selecting and modifying computer systems according to the method and system of the present disclosure. In Step S 300 , a computer administrator enters information which may include, for example, user name, user role, user group, computer role, computer group, another identifying characteristic of a user or computer, or any combination thereof. This information may be used to search a database and produce a list of users and/or computers satisfying the information input. In step S 302 , the administrator inputs a policy to be implemented on the users/computers retrieved from the database. The policy may be saved for reference and implementation. In one aspect of the present disclosure, the system may check the new policy against existing policies in order to inform the administrator of conflicts. An example of policy conflict would be to schedule a modification for a program already scheduled to be deleted. In that example, a computer administrator may first input a policy to remove an application program from a computer associated with a user and, before the task of removing the application program is carried out, to input a second policy to modify the same application program from the same computer associated with the user. In the event a new policy conflicts with an existing policy, the administrator may be alerted and may have the option to edit or delete a policy. Similarly, if a computer has dual roles, the administrator may be alerted if one policy change made because of a first role conflicts with a second policy change made because of a second role. In Step S 304 , the administrator may execute a command to implement the policy, which may include scheduling and adding a task corresponding to the policy to the data structures of the users/computers retrieved from the database. In Step S 306 , the task is carried out of the selected computers.
[heading-0061] Login and Configuration
[0062] An example of a computer system login and configuration process according to the system and method of the present disclosure is shown in FIG. 5 . In step S 320 , a user inputs login information into a computer system, for example Computer A 152 , running a Software Delivery Agent application. The Software Delivery Agent application monitors the users of Computer A 152 , and, in step S 322 , transmits user login information, and/or information related to the users of Computer A 152 , to a Software Delivery Server application running on Managing computer 160 via, for example, a communication network 156 . By receiving this login information at the Managing computer 160 , it is possible to always know where a user is logged on. In step S 324 , the Managing computer 160 searches for information, for example, a user-object in a database based on the received user login information. In one aspect of the system of the present disclosure, if a user-object does not exist for the user, one may be created and information relating to the user object stored in the database. It may also be possible to configure which types of users, such as none, only domain users, only local users or both domain and local users, to populate on the software delivery server. It may also be possible to decide whether to include the domain or computer name in the user-object's unique name.
[0063] The information stored in the database may include a user role, a computer role, policies and other information. In another aspect of the present disclosure, it may be possible to set up data transfers between users and user groups as well as computers and computer groups. In another aspect of the present disclosure, instead of the user role and computer role being determined from a database query, a user may provide the user role and/or the computer role information at Computer A 152 , where it is then transmitted to the Managing computer 160 and stored in the database. In step S 326 , the Managing computer 160 , based on the information retrieved from the database, configures Computer A 152 accordingly. Configuration may include modifying software used on Computer A 152 . For example, Managing computer 160 may transmit and install operating systems, application programs, updates to application programs and operating systems, data files, or other types of information. Managing computer 160 may alter settings on the computer and/or may uninstall operating systems and application programs. The configuration process may allow a computer administrator to control the functionality and operation of Computer A 152 .
[0064] The present system and method thus provides an efficient and convenient way for an administrator to configure and modify one or more computer systems. Numerous additional modifications and variations of the present disclosure are possible in view of the above-teachings. It is therefore to be understood that within the scope of the appended claims, the present disclosure may be practiced other than as specifically described herein.
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A method and system for managing a plurality of computers, wherein at least one of the plurality of computers is associated with a user having a user characteristic. The method comprises inputting selection information including the user characteristic, inputting management information, selecting at least one of the plurality of computers based on the selection information, and modifying the at least one selected computer based on the management information.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This patent application is a divisional of copending U.S. application Ser. No. 14/499,609, filed Sep. 29, 2014, which claims priority to and the benefit of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 61/885,375, filed Oct. 1, 2013, all of which are incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Field of the Disclosure
[0003] The present disclosure relates generally to leaf springs for vehicle suspensions and to a method of manufacturing the same. The disclosure presents several example embodiments that may be utilized for particular purposes.
[0004] Description of Related Art
[0005] In the past, quenched and tempered steel leaf springs for trucks and other heavy duty vehicles have been specified with a finished hardness, such as, between 375 BHN and 461 BHN (Brinell hardness number). More recently, leaf springs in Europe and Japan have been manufactured with a higher specified hardness, such as, 461 BHN to 514 BHN. These higher hardness leaf springs show an improvement in fatigue life.
[0006] The demand for higher hardness leaf springs is reinforced at least in part by the desire to reduce vehicle weight and in particular, unsprung suspension system weight. The higher hardness leaf springs allow for the use of fewer and/or thinner and lighter leaf springs relative to more traditional, lower hardness leaf springs referred to above. As a result, fuel economy as well as control, performance and efficiency of the suspension system improve. In addition, new laws require trucks and other heavy duty vehicles to be capable of stopping in shorter distances, imposing greater demands on a suspension system.
[0007] While higher hardness leaf springs show an improvement in fatigue life, there has been, however, a persistent, low, but nevertheless increased incidence in early failures, particularly of the main leaf of a suspension system at the eyes when compared with springs that are quenched and tempered to traditional hardness ranges. Similar failures have also occurred at or around the center or other bolt hole, if present, in the seat of the leaf spring. These failures are the result of hydrogen environment assisted cracking (HEAC), also known as hydrogen assisted cracking.
[0008] Hydrogen assisted cracking can occur in high strength steels when three conditions are met: 1) a condition of static assembly stress such as may occur as the result of clamping forces at a seat or hoop stress from insertion of a bushing into an eye; 2) the existence of a galvanic couple sufficient to charge the steel with hydrogen; and 3) the steel involved is of sufficient strength to trigger the mechanism of failure.
[0009] Hydrogen assisted cracking has a peculiarity in that as the strength of the steel increases, the threshold stress required to trigger hydrogen assisted cracking goes down, thus creating a disadvantageous, inverse relationship.
[0010] In light of the foregoing, the current state of leaf springs and in particular high hardness leaf springs, given the strong correlation in steels between hardness and strength, leaves something to be desired.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0011] This disclosure is directed to leaf springs and methods of manufacturing thereof. Through the use of secondary tempering methods as disclosed herein, leaf springs can be manufactured with a specified or high through hardness in the arms or the parabolic or other sections of the leaf spring to provide high strength and hardness, while having lower through hardness in sections of the leaf spring that experience static assembly stress, such as in the eyes and/or seat, thereby reducing the incidence of hydrogen cracking and improving leaf spring fatigue life.
[0012] In one aspect, a leaf spring has at least a first section and a second section, spaced apart along the length of the leaf spring. Each of the first and second sections extend across an entire cross section and along the length of the leaf spring. The first section is through hardened and tempered to a finished through hardness. The second section is through hardened and selectively tempered to a finished through hardness that is less than the finished through hardness of the first section of the leaf spring.
[0013] In another aspect, a method is disclosed of selectively tempering to a finished through hardness one or more sections of a leaf spring after primary tempering has commenced. Localized heat is applied to a section of the leaf spring, bringing the heated areas within the section to a temperature that is above the temperature at which the leaf spring undergoes primary tempering and below austenitic transformation temperature. The localized heat is maintained for at least twenty (20) seconds. The leaf spring is then rapidly cooled from a temperature that is at least 50° F. and preferably at least 75° F. to 100° F. above the temperature at which tempered martensite embrittlement can occur down to a temperature that is less than about 150° F., by quenching the leaf spring with an aqueous solution to reduce and preferably minimize heat migration into any section to which the localized heat was not applied. The result of this process is a leaf spring having a finished through hardness in the selectively tempered section that is lower than the finished through hardness in at least one other section or in the remainder of the spring.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0014] In describing the preferred examples, reference is made to the accompanying drawing figures wherein like parts have like reference numerals.
[0015] FIG. 1 is a side elevational view of a parabolic leaf spring having first and second opposing eyes at opposite ends and a centrally located seat and showing areas to which localized heat may be applied within these sections of the leaf spring when the spring undergoes secondary tempering as disclosed herein;
[0016] FIG. 2 is a side elevational view of the leaf spring shown in FIG. 1 and showing the areas relating to heat migration when heat is applied to areas within sections of the leaf spring, as shown in FIG. 1 , during secondary tempering as disclosed herein.
[0017] FIG. 3 is a chart of primary and secondary tempering data for example embodiments.
[0018] FIG. 4 is a plot of the primary and secondary tempering data provided in FIG. 3 .
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0019] This disclosure presents examples of leaf springs which have undergone secondary tempering, also referred to herein as selective tempering or retempering, and methods of manufacturing the same. The term “finished through hardness” shall mean the through hardness of a section of a leaf spring that is through hardened and then tempered and/or selectively tempered and subsequently quenched and will exclude the hardness values of any decarburized layer, which if present may extend, for example, to a depth of 0.1 mm to 0.25 mm below the surface of the leaf spring. The finished through hardness of a through hardened, secondarily tempered section or sections of a leaf spring prepared in accordance with this disclosure can be verified by obtaining Vickers micro-hardness hardness values in the section of interest at multiple depths (for example, in increments of 0.05 mm to a depth of 0.5 mm, and thereafter at depths of 0.75 mm, 1 mm, 2 mm, and 4 mm), excluding any measurements associated with any decarburized layer, if present.
[0020] As in the case of the first embodiment shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 , a leaf spring 40 may be manufactured for example to include a seat 44 , optionally having a center hole 48 , with arms 42 , 46 which in this embodiment comprise parabolic sections 53 , 51 , extending from the seat 44 in opposite directions, and with respective eye forms 54 , 64 at the distal ends of the arms 42 , 46 .
[0021] The leaf spring 40 will have undergone initial processing that is known to those skilled in the art of leaf spring manufacture. Such initial processing includes cutting a blank of suitable size from a bar of carbon steel alloy, such as for example, SAE 5160, 6150, 8660 or 9260; DIN 51CrV4 or 52CrMoV4; JIS SUP 9, 10 or 11; or Hendrickson type 4169 (a derivative of SAE 41 series alloys) referred to in CANMET (Canada Centre for Mineral and Energy Technology) Publication entitled “SEM and microprobe analysis of alloy 4169 for Hendrickson.” For parabolic leaf springs, the cut blank may be heated to about 1750° F. or 1800° F. degrees before the tapered profile is imparted to the blank. If an eye form is present, such as eye forms 54 or 64 , the eye form or eye forms are rolled at about 1750° F. to 1800° F. The leaf spring 40 is then austenitized at approximately 1550° F. to 1675° F. and quenched in oil, polymer glycol or another suitable quenching solution to form at least 90% martensite throughout the spring. Thereafter, the entire leaf spring 40 undergoes primary tempering during which the leaf spring is heated at a temperature, such as for example 800° F. or more, that is maintained for an extended period of time, typically 60 minutes, to achieve a desired through hardness for the particular alloy steel being used.
[0022] As introduced by this disclosure, the process of secondary tempering will begin after primary tempering has commenced. In one example, the leaf spring may exit the primary tempering furnace without having been quenched before secondary tempering begins. Alternatively, the leaf spring may exit the primary tempering furnace and be quenched, reducing the temperature of the leaf spring to ambient temperature, before secondary tempering begins. In either example, secondary tempering begins by applying heat to select locations of the leaf spring 40 , such as by heating to 1000° F. to 1200° F., as will be described in greater detail herein. Preferably, for secondary tempering, heat may be supplied by any suitable heat source, including for example, electric induction heating, flame impingement, very high velocity hot air flow, or fluidized bed reactor. If only the eyes are to be treated, a brief immersion of the eyes in a bath of molten salt may be used.
[0023] If eye forms 54 , 64 undergo secondary tempering, such as for example in FIGS. 1 and 2 , the heated area, i.e. the area to which heat is applied, should be limited to the complete eye forms 54 , 64 . In other words, the heated area should not extend into the tapered section leading into the minimum thickness of the leaf spring. Preferably, heat is applied to the outside face and across the entire width of the eye over, for ease of explanation, a 180 degree area, for example, at 58 to 60 and/or at 68 to 70 shown in FIG. 1 . In another example, heat may be applied to the outer quarter of the eye shown as a 90 degree area, for example, at 56 to 58 and/or at 66 to 68 in FIG. 1 . Heat migration from the heated area of the eye preferably should not exceed the location where the parabolic sections 42 , 46 of the leaf spring begin, shown as 55 and 65 in FIG. 2 .
[0024] If a seat 44 undergoes secondary tempering, preferably the heat source should be applied to areas on the top and bottom and across the entire width of the seat and within about a half inch on each side of the center or the center hole (if present) of the seat 44 , as shown in FIGS. 1 at 48 to 50 and at 48 to 52 . Heat migration preferably should not extend beyond the seat.
[0025] During secondary tempering, the target surface temperature of the leaf spring at the heated areas within sections undergoing secondary tempering must be increased above the temperature at which primary tempering was conducted.
[0026] In one example of this disclosure, secondary tempering occurs immediately after the leaf spring exits the primary tempering furnace without being quenched. The heated areas within the sections undergoing secondary tempering preferably should be heated to a minimum temperature of 1000° F. and a maximum temperature of 1200° F., such as for example 1100° F. for a period of time of 20 seconds or longer. In this example, the temperature of the heated areas within these sections should not exceed 1300° F. Maximum dwell time above about 880° F. is based on the maximum temperature at which retempering occurs. The maximum temperature at the physical limit of the heat affected areas should not exceed 880° F. The temperature of the leaf spring at a location one inch outside of the seat 44 preferably should not exceed 810° F.
[0027] After secondary tempering, the leaf spring 40 must be quenched. The temperature of the leaf spring immediately prior to quenching should be at least about 50° F. and preferably at least 75° F. to 100° F. higher than the point at which tempered martensite embrittlement can occur. In this example, temper embrittlement occurs at approximately 500° F., accordingly, the temperature of the leaf spring should be at least about 550° F. and preferably at least 575° F. to 600° F. prior to quenching. After quenching, spring temperature should be less than 150° F., making the spring cool enough to handle by hand. All sections of the spring must be cooled.
[0028] In a further example, leaf springs were conventionally tempered at approximately 840° F. for one hour to achieve a through hardness of 470 BHN. These example springs were subjected to secondary tempering by maintaining surface temperature of the heated areas of the eyes at a given temperature for a period of 45 to 60 seconds. The leaf springs in this example were manufactured from Hendrickson 4169 material but could have been made with any suitable material, including but not limited to those materials cited herein. The leaf spring was approximately 4 inches wide and 1⅛ inches thick at the seat and approximately a half inch thick in the eyes. Vickers micro-hardness measurements taken in the eyes, which underwent secondary tempering at 1000° F., 1100° F., and 1200° F., and then quenching, yielded hardness values of respectively, 460 HV, 430 HV and 410 HV, which are equivalent to respectively, 434 BHN, 406 BHN and 388 BHN when converted to Brinell hardness values using standard correlation charts known to those skilled in the art. As a point of comparison, direct surface hardness measurements were taken with a King Brinell hardness tester by placing the anvil on the inside of the eye. The measured hardness values were approximately 20 BHN lower than the Brinell values cited above. The reason for this minor discrepancy is believed to be the result of attempting to directly measure the surface hardness of a curved surface. The round ball indenter of the Brinell hardness tester left oval shaped rather than round impressions which are normally formed when direct surface hardness measurements of a flat surface are taken.
[0029] Primary and secondary tempering data for example springs appears in FIG. 3 and the plot of these data appears in FIG. 4 . As shown in these Figures, the correlation of finished through hardness (BHN) to the temperature (° F.) at which tempering is conducted is generally linear for both primary or conventional tempering, as well as for secondary tempering. These correlations, however, will differ in slope, as shown in FIG. 4 .
[0030] When the time for secondary tempering was extended to approximately 15 minutes, finished through hardness fell by approximately 18 BHN from the above-cited values. Accordingly, temperature rather than time was shown to be the dominant influence in hardness during secondary tempering.
[0031] As also shown in FIG. 4 , when the correlation for finished through hardness to secondary tempering temperature is extrapolated both left and right of the three data points that define this correlation for secondary tempering, one observes that the line for secondary tempering will intersect the line for primary tempering at the approximate temperature and through hardness (840° F., 470 BHN) at which the retempered leaf spring underwent primary tempering. Further, as this correlation for secondary tempering will vary in its vertical position, rather than its slope, for a given primary tempering temperature and hardness, one may extrapolate from this point with the slope of the line for secondary tempering to predict the temperature at which secondary tempering must be performed to achieve a desired through hardness in the sections of the leaf spring so treated.
[0032] In yet a further example of the present disclosure, a leaf spring having a two eyes and a seat has a first section that is through hardened and tempered to a finished through hardness of approximately 466 BHN to 510 BHN, and a second section that is through hardened and selectively tempered to a finished through hardness of between 401 BHN and 444 BHN. The first section may comprise one arm, or alternatively, both arms and the seat of the parabolic spring. The second section may respectively comprise one eye or the seat, or alternatively, one eye of the parabolic leaf spring. In this example, the finished through hardness of the second section of the leaf spring may be about 79 to 95 percent of the finished through hardness of the first section of the leaf spring.
[0033] In yet a further example, a leaf spring that has undergone processing in accordance with the present disclosure has a first section that is a trailing arm with a finished through hardness of between 375 BHN and 410 BHN, and an eye or seat that has a finished through hardness that is less than the finished through hardness of the first section.
[0034] In yet a further example, a leaf spring that has undergone processing in accordance with the present disclosure has a first section that is tempered to a finished through hardness of about 470 BHN, and second and third sections that are selectively tempered to a finished through hardness of respectively, about 434 BHN and 406 BHN.
[0035] In yet a further example, a parabolic leaf spring that has undergone processing in accordance with the present disclosure has a first section that includes a seat and first and second parabolic arms, and a second and a third section that includes respectively, a first and second eye positioned at the end of the first and second parabolic arms. The first section is through hardened and tempered to a finished through hardness of 444 BHN to 495 BHN. The second and third sections are through hardened and selectively tempered to a through hardness of 388 BHN to 444 BHN. In this example, the finished through hardness of the second or third sections of the leaf spring may be at least about 70 percent of the finished through hardness of the first section of the leaf spring.
[0036] In light of the above discussion, the drawings and the attached claims, it will be appreciated that leaf springs and their manufacture in accordance with the present disclosure may be provided in various configurations. Any variety of suitable materials of construction, configurations, shapes and sizes for leaf springs and their methods of manufacture may be utilized to meet the particular needs and requirements of an end user. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications can be made in the design and manufacture of such leaf springs, and in the performance of such methods, without departing from the scope of the attached claims, and that the claims are not limited to the preferred embodiments illustrated.
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Leaf springs, and methods of manufacturing thereof, having first and second sections, spaced apart along the length of said leaf spring, said sections are through hardened and tempered to achieve, respectively different levels of finished through hardness, are disclosed.
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[0001] The present invention claims the priority of Provisional Patent Application 60/345,275 filed Jan. 2, 2002, and Provisional Patent Application 60/402,522 filed Aug. 9, 2002, the disclosures of which are incorporated herein by reference in their entireties.
[0002] The present invention is a new concept in protecting a Payload from injury or damage due to the shock of impact experienced by the Payload's vehicle (or structure). The present invention is installed as an interface between the Payload and vehicle; and limits the force transmitted to the Payload while absorbing the energy of the shock pulse. The invention can be embodied in many ways, including as a seating system, a passenger platform, an equipment mounting system, a crash protection capsule, a blast-proof chamber, or a thrill ride.
[0003] The invention is unusually adept at protecting against shock. Unlike other shock-absorbing approaches which reduce the transmitted shock to a percentage of the excitation shock, this invention unequivocally limits the force transmitted from the vehicle (or structure) to the Payload to a low, user-adjustable value. It does this virtually independently of the magnitude of the impact acceleration or jerk (d 3 ×/dr 3 ). In addition, the invention accomplishes this using the minimum possible relative displacement between Payload and vehicle, consistent with not exceeding the limit on acceleration transmitted to the Payload.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0004] Planing boats operating in rough water may experience significant vertical shocks when the boat and wave impact one another. The most powerful shocks occur after a boat has become airborne fling, off the crest of a wave, when the boat lands onto a wave face with its keel substantially parallel to the wave surface. Shock impulses on the order of 50 Gs with pulse durations in excess of 40 milliseconds are not uncommon, and such shock is more than enough to cause serious injury. Documented injuries include sprains to the back neck, hips knee, and shoulder, kidney damage, and broken ribs and limbs.
[0005] Typically, naval architects have attempted to reduce this shock by deepening and narrowing the hull, and pointing the bow. These deep-vee hulls impact the water more gradually and with less peak acceleration than shallower, flatter hulls. But deep-vee hulls require deeper water for safe navigation, may have roll stability issues, and generally require more fuel for a given speed than shallow-vee hulls. Moreover, they cannot unquestionably limit the acceleration on the Payload in all cases of boat-water impact.
[0006] Boat-operators typically attempt to reduce shock by either slowing down considerably in rough water, or slowing down-somewhat while attempting to steer and throttle around the biggest waves while avoiding becoming airborne. The drawback of these approaches is the speed reduction. Military and law-enforcement boats often cannot slow too much without risking mission failure. Offshore power boats cannot slow too much without risking the race.
[0007] A number of hardware devices have been developed and are in use, including several that have been patented. All have drawbacks. Perhaps the most serious drawback of previous approaches is that they cannot protect the Payload if the incident shock peak or its rate of rise is too large. Many of these devices work reasonably well provided the peak shock amplitude is fairly low, for example, shock peak under 10 G's with jerk under 100 G's per second. But the performance of these same deices degrades as the rate of rise and/or peak amplitude of the acceleration increases. Faster boat speeds and rougher seas create sharper, more powerful shocks, with peaks on the order of 50 G's and jerk on the order of 1,000 G's per second. Previous approaches are generally based on viscous dampers and springs. A viscous damper's force is a function of the relative velocity of its endpoints. Even if actively controlled, a viscous damper transmits forces to the Payload which depend on the peak toad and loading rate of the shock pulse.
[0008] A problem related to protection from boat shock is protection from explosive shock. Explosive devices generate accelerations on the order of thousands of G's with jerk on the order of tens of millions of G's per second. Explosions have such short pulse durations, as small as a fraction of a millisecond, that an active protection system would require an extremely high sampling rate, some very rapid processing algorithms to discriminate between noise and an actual explosion, and very rapid actuators to effect protection of the Payload, making an active protection system very expensive, if it could be made at all. Current approaches using passive viscous damping systems would either break or dump fluid out their relief valve under such extreme forces. Traditional approaches to protecting against shock differ somewhat depending upon the nature of the Payload. If the Payload consists of equipment, the traditional approaches have been to either harden it or mount it on resilient mounts. Hardening generally results in increased weight and volume, and often impacts accessibility for maintenance and convective cooling. Resilient mounting often exacts volume penalty in order to accommodate sway and surge of the equipment during shock. In cases where the Payload is personnel, there have also been two similar traditional approaches. The first is to brace for shock, generally involving bending the legs and holding onto handrails while tensing the muscles. The other approach has been some type of resilient interface such as padded seating of heavy sponge rubber deck covering on a ship traversing a suspected minefield. No systematic, engineered approach which can unequivocally protect a Payload from explosive shock has been developed.
[0009] Another drawback of many previous approaches is an inability to adjust to the weights of various Payloads. These devices are either overly stiff or overly soft depending upon the Payload mass. Overly stiff devices obviously transmit too much force to the Payload. But overly soft devices may also be inadequate in that they expend all available relative displacement between Payload and vehicle without absorbing all the shock energy. The Payload then bottoms out, spiking the acceleration. Even if the Payload does not bottom out, an overly soft interface takes up more volume than required, impacting its usefulness, particularly in high-performance vehicles.
[0010] A further drawback of previous devices is a slow reset time. If the device cannot restore the Payload to its original position before the next shock hits, then the next shock may cause it to bottom out.
[0011] The purpose of the present invention is to protect the Payload (personnel and sensitive equipment) from shock. It does so by limiting the force transmitted to the Payload to a low, user-adjustable value; regardless of the peak amplitude or rise rate of the imposed shock on the vehicle or structure.
[0012] Another purpose of the present invention is to provide adjustment of the force transmitted to the Payload from the vehicle or structure to accommodate masses of various Payloads without being overly stiff or bottoming out.
[0013] Another purpose of the present invention is to have a quick reset time so that it can be fully recovered in time for each subsequent shock events.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0014] In accordance with the foregoing purposes and other purposes and intents, the invention is based upon three required principles and one optional principle.
[0015] The first principle is limiting the acceleration upon the Payload regardless of the peak shock imposed upon the vehicle.
[0016] The second principle is that the displacement required to dissipate the shock energy be minimized.
[0017] The third principle is adjustability to accommodate a range of Payload masses.
[0018] The fourth principle is optional and is the ability to react to an impending shock by repositioning the Payload to gain more displacement over which to dissipate the shock energy.
[0019] A number of useful ways to implement the above principles are conceived. Various seating systems, equipment foundations, cockpit enclosures, platforms, and even entire chambers can be isolated from their surroundings by the present invention.
[0020] The invention is generically comprised of four required assemblies, plus one optional assembly.
[0021] (1) The Frame Assembly (FA) mounts directly to the vehicle. It provides structural support to the other major assemblies, constraining their movement to within acceptable-limits, and enabling them to function properly.
[0022] (2) The Payload Interface Assembly (PIA) directly interfaces with the Payload. It directly supports and restrains the Payload. It provides monitoring and control capabilities for the invention.
[0023] (3) The Suspension Assembly (SA) supports the PIA. During a shock; the SA works with the EDA to allow the PIA to move just enough to avoid exceeding the acceleration limit on the Payload, and then recovers the PIA.
[0024] (4) The Energy Dissipating Assembly (EDA) dissipates the shock energy.
[0025] (5) The optional Shock Anticipating Assembly (SAA) is a reactive assembly which repositions the PIA just prior to shock so that more displacement is available to absorb or dissipate the shock.
[0026] According to one aspect of the invention, a limiting interface for supporting a payload relative to a structure includes a frame assembly attached to the structure, a payload interface assembly for receiving the payload, a suspension assembly disposed between the frame assembly and the payload interface assembly, and an energy, dissipating assembly, disposed between the frame assembly and the payload interface assembly. The energy dissipating assembly is adapted to dissipate energy transmitted to the structure, so as to limit a parameter of interest transmitted to the payload. Depending on the particular application, in various embodiments, the parameter of interest can be displacement, time integrals of displacement including velocity, acceleration and jerk, as well as vibration, force, energy, and shock.
[0027] Based on an event that causes an input to the structure, the limiting interface can be configured to attenuate the energy, so as to transmit to the payload a predetermined maximum parameter of interest in a predetermined manner. For example, in one embodiment, a force-displacement profile of the payload interface assembly is substantially linear. Alternatively, or additionally, in another embodiment, the force-displacement profile of the payload interface assembly is substantially constant. In yet another embodiment the force-displacement profile of the payload interface assembly is substantially a square wave.
[0028] The limiting interface may optionally include an anticipating assembly disposed between the frame assembly and the payload interface assembly that repositions the payload interface assembly relative to the structure from a neutral position in anticipation of an event. In one such embodiment, the anticipating assembly increases a range of travel of the payload interface assembly relative to the structure in anticipation of an event.
[0029] In various embodiments of the invention, the suspension assembly permits relative movement between the payload interface assembly and the structure in a first direction only, when acceleration or other parameter of interest transmitted to the payload is about to exceed a predetermined value. In still other embodiments of the invention, the suspension assembly permits relative movement between the payload interface assembly and the structure in a first direction only, for as long as acceleration or other parameter of interest transmitted to the payload is about to exceed a predetermined value.
[0030] According to one embodiment, the limiting interface and the energy dissipating assembly are capable of accommodating a plurality of events. The limiting interface may be reset automatically or, alternatively, manually. In various embodiments of the resetting type, after at least one event, the payload interface assembly is returned to a neutral position by the suspension assembly. In other embodiments, the energy dissipating assembly is capable of accommodating a single event, and can be rebuilt or refurbished to restore functionality.
[0031] In various embodiments, whether multiple event, single event, resettable or refurbishable, the energy dissipating assembly may be configured to convert kinetic energy transmitted to the structure at least partially into thermal energy. In some embodiments, the energy dissipating assembly may be configured to deform an element, elastically and, optionally, plastically. The energy dissipating assembly may be a friction brake, of any of a variety of configurations.
[0032] The limiting interface may advantageously be adjustable, to accommodate payloads of various configurations and mass, including equipment and personnel. In those instances where the pay load is a person, the payload interface assembly may be a platform, bench, seat, or any suitable supporting structure for a person. Similarly, the structure may be any of a variety of structures, including aeronautic-based, land-based, or water-based vehicles.
[0033] According to another aspect of the invention, a method for supporting a payload relative to a structure includes, in one embodiment, the steps of providing a limiting interface attached to the structure and adapted to receive the payload and dissipating energy transmitted to the structure, so as to limit a parameter of interest transmitted to the payload. In one embodiment, the limiting interface does so by converting at least a portion of kinetic energy transmitted to the structure to substantially a square wave force-displacement profile transmitted to the payload. Alternatively or additionally, a magnitude of the force-displacement profile may be substantially constant. In general, the magnitude of the square wave force-displacement profile is less than a predetermined value.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0034] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of the Payload, a generic SLIC device, and the vehicle (or structure).
[0035] FIG. 2 shows a basic SLIC device implemented as a seating system which uses a straight-mounted SA actuator and “Check-Clamp” type EDA.
[0036] FIG. 3 shows details of the Check-Clamp EDA used in the SLIC device of FIG. 2 .
[0037] FIG. 4 shows a vector diagram of the clamping force in the Cheek-Clamp EDA of FIG. 3 .
[0038] FIG. 5 shows a variant of the FA from the SLIC device of FIG. 2 , in which the rails are tipped backwards.
[0039] FIG. 6 shows a SLIC device in which the SA actuator has been mounted at an angle with respect to the direction of movement of the PIA.
[0040] FIG. 7 shows a SLIC device using twin pneumatic actuators mounted at mirror angles to one another to support the Payload Pan.
[0041] FIG. 8 shows a SLIC device similar to that of FIG. 7 , but using twin matched gas charged lift supports.
[0042] FIG. 9 shows a SLIC device in which the FA uses a four-bar linkage to constrain the movement of the PIA.
[0043] FIG. 10 is a different view the SLIC device of FIG. 9 .
[0044] FIG. 11 shows a SLIC device featuring a bell crank and linkage to amplify movement and reduce the force of the SA actuator on the Payload Pan.
[0045] FIG. 12 shows a Check-Clamp type EDA similar to that of FIG. 4 but with springs mounted at angles replacing the counterweights, drop stops, and spring.
[0046] FIG. 13 shows a Check Clamp type FDA which uses a lever to amplify the clamping force of the EDA actuator, a roller bearing replacing the linkage on one side, and a more sensitive mechanism for adjusting the engagement/disengagement of the clamping feature.
[0047] FIG. 14 shows a Check Clamp type EDA in which both pressure pads are mounted on roller bearings.
[0048] FIG. 15 shows details of the pivot adjusting mechanism used in FIG. 14 .
[0049] FIG. 16 shows how the required clamping force in a Check-Clamp type EDA can be reduced by adding additional suspension bars and associated brake components.
[0050] FIG. 17 shows details of some components of the multiple suspension bar Check-lamp type EDA of FIG. 16 .
[0051] FIG. 18 shows a simple SAA arrangement.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0052] In accordance with the foregoing purposes and other purposes and intents, the invention is based upon three require principles and one optional principle, a more expanded discussion of which follows.
[0000] Principles of Operation
[0053] The first principle is limiting the acceleration on the Payload to a level below that which would cause injury or damage. To this end, a SLIC device is designed so that is cannot sustain a force between the Payload and vehicle greater than that which would cause injury or damage. No matter how large the force or acceleration on the vehicle, the SLIC device only transmits an acceptably low force to the Payload.
[0054] The second principle is that the change in relative displacement between the Payload and vehicle is kept to a minimum. This makes the device as compact as is substantially possible without violating the first principle. To achieve this substantially minimum displacement, the SLIC device does not allow relative movement between Payload and vehicle in response to shock unless the acceleration on the Payload is about to exceed the injury or damage limit, and then allows only as much movement as is substantially necessary to absorb or dissipate all the shock energy imposed on the Payload.
[0055] The third principle is adjustability to accommodate the masses of various Payloads. More massive Payloads must be supported with more force than less massive Payloads to achieve equal accelerations and ins equal protection from shock.
[0056] The optional fourth principle is that the invention react to an impending shock by repositioning the Payload to provide more relative displacement at impact. Since energy is force integrated over distance, more relative displacement means that the energy of a given shock pulse can be dissipated at a lower force.
[0057] A corollary principle that follows from the above is that the force-displacement output of the invention upon the Payload be substantially a square wave. The magnitude of a square wave approaches but does not exceed the limiting force, and its pulse width is the shortest possible given the amount of energy to be absorbed. It is the most efficient profile for absorbing any given shock pulse without exceeding the limiting force on the Payload. The invention is unique in that it can transform a shock impulse of thousands of G's peak amplitude and jerk (d 3 ×/dr 3 ) on the orders of tens of millions of G's per second into a force-displacement profile which is substantially a square wave, of adjustable and substantially constant magnitude.
[0058] Another corollary principle is that the present invention can slow a person to a complete stop, safely, in a minimum distance, from speeds of almost arbitrary magnitude.
[0059] There are two limits on the capability of the invention to protect against any arbitrary shock. The first limit is in regards to the strength of the FA. The FA must be designed strong enough to withstand two conditions. The first condition is the ability to withstand without significant deformation, the body force resulting from the perhaps thousands of G's acceleration experienced by the vehicle, which is also experienced by the FA. The second condition is that the FA be strong enough to support the force resulting from the user-adjusted acceleration of the masses of the Payload, PIA, SA, EDA, and SSA (if implemented), which must be supported by the FA. The second limit on the capability of the invention is its capacity to fully absorb or dissipate the energy in the shock pulse directed upon the Payload. This is an energy balance criterion. In the time domain, the integral over time of the output acceleration of the SLIC device must be equal to the integral over time of the input acceleration of the shock. In the space domain, the available relative displacement of the Payload with respect to the vehicle must exceed that required to fully absorb the shock. If all the energy is not fully absorbed, then the device will bottom out, spiking the acceleration felt by the Payload.
[0000] Concepts of Embodiment
[0060] A number of useful shock-limiting applications are conceived. The invention has applications for protecting a Payload housed in a structure as well as a Payload riding in a vehicle. Various seating systems, equipment foundations, cockpits, standing, platforms, even entire chambers can be isolated from their host vehicle or their other surroundings. The invention can also be implemented on the exterior of a vehicle, as a shock-limiting bumper to reduce the impact force of a head-on collision. The invention could be installed on the exterior of a fixed structure, such a bridge abutment, to limit the force on the structure which may result from accidental vehicle impact. An amusement park thrill ride offering a vertical free-fail of several hundred feet and “a sudden” thrill stop at the end could be implemented. Another application is as a bumper system on the front end of a vehicle
[0061] FIG. 1 shows a block diagram of a SLIC device 100 mounted functionally between the Payload and the vehicle (or structure). The SLIC device is shown to be composed of the four required major assemblies, the Frame Assembly (FA) 95 , the Payload Interface Assembly (PIA) 96 , the Suspension Assembly (SA) 97 , and the Energy Dissipating Assembly (EDA) 98 , plus the optional fifth major assembly, the Shock Anticipating Assembly (SAA) 99 . Each of these assemblies shall be discussed here in generic terms, and later in more detail, with several examples of typical embodiments.
[0062] The FA 95 provides structural support to the other major assemblies, and mounts directly to the vehicle or structure. The FA 95 generally constrains the movement of the other major assemblies to within certain geometric bounds, enabling them to function properly. Since the FA 95 is fastened directly to the vehicle, it experiences whatever shocks the vehicle does. The shock on the FA 95 may be attenuated somewhat by plastic deformation of the vehicle frame, but may also possibly be exacerbated by elastic spring back of the vehicle fame.
[0063] The PIA 96 directly interfaces between the Payload and the other major assemblies. It touches and supports the Payload and provides monitoring and control capabilities for the invention. The heart of the PIA 96 is the Payload Pan (not shown in FIG. 1 ), which is a structural assembly to which the other components of the PIA 96 are attached. The Payload Pan is constrained by the FA 95 to move within certain limits, and is connected to the SA 97 and EDA 98 , and also the SAA 99 when implemented. If the Payload consists of shock-vulnerable equipment, the PIA 96 consists of the Payload Pan, the connecting components enabling smooth low-friction movement within the FA 95 , the joints and connections to the other major assemblies, appropriate hardware to fasten the equipment, and an Interface-Monitoring and Control Panel (IMCP) assembly, which is used to monitor and adjust the performance of the invention. If the Payload is a person or persons, the equipment mounting fasteners would be replaced by various human interface components such as seat pad(s), seat back(s), seat belt(s) and harness(es), a standing platform, arm rest(s), hand rail(s), footrest(s), leg rest(s), lumbar support(s), head rest(s), neck support(s), and other sundry comfort amenities. Depending upon the severity of the shock environment, the PIA may also mount a Vehicle Monitoring and Control Panel (VMCP) assembly used to navigate and pilot the vehicle. This is to fully isolate the personnel, reduce operator fatigue, and improve performance. For military or law-enforcement applications, a communications panel, a weapons control panel, or other mission-specific items, may also be included, for example.
[0064] The SA 97 mounts between the PIA 96 and FA 95 , except when the optional SAA 99 is incorporated. The SA 97 supports the PIA 96 at the Neutral Position. The Neutral Position is the normal, user-adjustable position of the Payload with regard to the shock vector, for example, the seat height in regards to an upwardly-directed shock. After a shock, the SA 97 restores the PIA 96 to the Neutral Position before the next shock pulse hits. During a shock event, the SA 97 operates in conjunction with the EDA 98 to provide a substantially constant force output between the PIA 96 and FA 95 over the full range of motion of the PIA 96 . There are three methods for the SA 97 to function with the EDA 98 . One method hereafter known a “SA/EDA Method 1” is for the SA 97 to provide only a nominal supporting force while the EDA 98 provides the bulk of the resistive force as it dissipates energy during the shock stroke. The EDA 98 then disengages, and the SA 97 recovers the PIA 96 to the Neutral Position using the same nominal supporting force, but with damping as it approaches the Neutral Position, to avoid launching the Payload out of the PIA 96 . The second method, hereafter known as “SA/EDA Method 2”, is for the SA 97 to provide the bulk of the resistive force while it stores the shock energy during the shock stroke, while the EDA 98 is disengaged. The SA 97 then recovers the PIA 96 to the Neutral Position at a force reduced by the EDA 98 , which engages to dissipate the stored energy. The third method, “SA/EDA Method 3” combines the first two methods.
[0065] The EDA 98 dissipates the shock energy. It works with the SA 97 as described above.
[0066] The SAA 99 is the optional assembly. It may be included when the tiring and direction of the shock vector can be predicted with reasonable accuracy. The SAA 99 mounts interposed between the PIA 96 and the SA 97 , with the EDA 98 mounted around them. Nominally a reactive assembly, the SAA 99 repositions the PIA 96 relative to the FA 95 just prior to shock so that a greater displacement distance is available to dissipate or absorb the shock energy at impact. This provides two significant advantages. The most obvious advantage is that the shock energy can be absorbed and dissipated at a lower force than would be possible than over a shorter distance. The second advantage is that the Payload's average position is maintained closer to the Neutral Position, assuming that the Payload sweeps through the Neutral Position as a result of the shock. Note that when an SAA 99 is included in the SLIC device 100 , the SA 97 and EDA 98 function together under SA/EDA Method 2.
[0067] In one of its simplest embodiments, for example as part of a seating system aboard a high-performance planing boat, the SAA 99 simply reacts to the free-fall period before impact. In this example, the SAA 99 provides a continuous upward force upon the PIA 96 at a fraction of the combined weights of the Payload, PIA 96 , and the parts of the SA 97 and EDA 98 moving with them. During the time intervals between shocks, the PIA 96 simply remains at the Neural Position, since the upward force of the SAA 99 is too weak to exceed the weight of the components. As the boat becomes airborne speeding off the crest of a wave, an impact shock with some other part of the seaway is imminent. Neglecting aerodynamics, the boat accelerates downward at −1.0 G. The SAA 99 reacts to the free-fall raising the PIA 96 and Payload upwards with respect to the falling boat, creating extra displacement beyond that inherent in the Neutral Position. At impact, the EDA 98 uses the extra displacement to dissipate energy.
[0068] An example of a much more sophisticated embodiment of an SAA 99 would use a set of powered actuators to reposition the PIA 96 . The actuators would have to receive their commands of when and where to reposition the PIA from a CPU, which in turn would be fed from a sensor array and/or communications link. The sensors would have to be capable of detecting potential shock threats and the CPU would have to be capable of resolving the sensor data in real time to discriminate real shock threats from false ones. The communications link would presumably tell of the onset of a real, perhaps massive shock threat such as an earthquake or nuclear blast. Since electrons move faster than shock waves, there is the possibility that a suitable sensor array networked across the epicenter or ground zero and linked to an appropriate CPU could detect a massive shock event in time to warn nearby SLIC devices so that they could reposition their PIA's.
[0069] In general, the SLIC device 100 will function most effectively when the constrained movement of the PA 96 is aligned with the shock vector. Supporting the PIA 96 with three of mutually orthogonal sets of SA 97 and EDA 98 will protect the Payload from any arbitrarily-oriented shock. Alternatively, the entire SLIC device 100 can be mounted in a gimbaled assembly.
[0000] Embodiment of the Invention: A Typical SLIC device
[0070] FIG. 2 shows an embodiment of a typical SLIC device implemented as a vehicle seat intended to protect against an upwardly-oriented shock. The Payload Pan 20 rides up and down on rails, 10 a and 10 b , and is equipped with rollers 21 to reduce friction. The rails are fastened at their upper ends to crossmember 11 , and at their bottom ends to foundation 12 , which is fastened to the deck of the vehicle. Braces 13 a , 13 b , 13 ′, 13 d ′, 13 e , and 13 f (shown in phantom) help the crosshead 11 and foundation 12 maintain alignment of the rails 10 a and 10 b . Similar braces (not shown) leading to the foundation or vehicle deck forward and/or backward stabilize the rails 10 a and 10 b from swaying forward or backward (into or out of the paper), and together with the foundation 12 and the other braces 13 a - f provide torsional stiffness as well. The Payload Pan 20 supports the Payload, in this case, a person. In this case then, several typical seat features are mounted to the Payload Pan 20 such as a seat bottom, seat back, lumbar support, padding, armrests, footrests, seatbelt, shoulder harness, etc. All these features are considered typical of many seating systems and are omitted from the drawing for clarity. An important assembly mounted to the Payload Pan 20 in a spot convenient to the user is the Interface Control Panel (ICP) 27 , which has been drawn to the side of the FA for clarity. The ICP 27 enables the user to monitor and adjust the performance of the SLIC device. In this particular embodiment, the components of the ICP 27 are the SA accumulator fill valve 41 , SA accumulator bleed valve 42 , SA pressure gage 44 , flow control valve 47 , EDA fill valve 61 , EDA bleed valve 62 , and EDA pressure gage 64 , each of which shall be discussed more fully later. The Payload Pan 20 is supported by the SA actuator 30 , which is mounted to the Foundation 12 at clevis bracket 16 a , and attached to the Payload Pan 20 at clevis bracket 32 . The SA actuator 30 supports the Payload Pan 20 at the Neutral Position 37 . The upward support force developed by the SA actuator 30 is a function of its piston area and the pressure of the gas in the SA accumulator 40 . The gas in the cap end of the SA actuator 30 and SA accumulator 40 are in free communication through appropriate hose and piping 49 f . The SA accumulator 40 provides extra gas volume to lessen the pressure rise due to compression of the SA actuator 30 as the Payload Pan 20 strokes downward. The user can monitor the pressure in the SA actuator 30 at the ICP 27 using the SA pressure gage 44 . The user can raise the initial pressure in the Sa actuator 30 by opening the SA fill valve 41 , allowing higher-pressure gas from the flask 45 to enter through appropriate piping and hose 49 a and 49 b . Similarly, the user can reduce the SA actuator 30 pressure by opening the SA bleed valve 42 , allowing some gas to escape to the atmosphere through appropriate piping and hose 49 b and 49 d . On this type of SLIC device where the EDA 98 a , fully discussed later, provides the bulk of the resistance versus shock, the initial pressure in the SA actuator 30 would typically be adjusted to provide an upward force of between 1.2 to 1.4 times the combined weight of the Payload plus PIA. After initial adjustment, the pressure can be readjusted as desired to counteract pressure changes due to temperature change or leakage. The SA actuator 30 provides all the force during the upward stroke restoring the Payload Pan 20 to the Neutral Position 37 . Over-pressurization of the SA accumulator 40 is prevented by the SA relief valve 43 . To reduce contamination of the head-end chamber of the SA actuator 30 when the piston strokes downward, makeup air comes from a plenum 48 which is connected through appropriate hose and piping 49 e . A flow control valve 47 is installed in the piping 49 e which allows free flow of gas into the head-end chamber but throttles the gas coming out. The user can adjust the position of the flow control valve 47 to control the rate of ascent of the Payload Pan 20 back to the Neutral Position 37 . The flask 45 is charged from a separate air source such as an onboard compressor through appropriate supply piping 49 g by opening the flask supply valve 46 . The pressure in the EDA accumulator 60 is monitored at the ICP 27 using the EDA pressure gage 64 . The EDA accumulator 60 pressure can be adjusted by opening either the EDA fill valve 61 to increase gas charge from the flask 45 , or opening he EDA bleed valve 62 to allow some gas to escape to atmosphere. The EDA Accumulator 60 supplies pressure to the EDA actuator ( 65 , in FIG. 3 ) which is part of EDA 98 a and will be discussed more fully in FIG. 3 . The SA and EDA are arranged to work in SA/EDA Method 1, described above. A spring snubber 34 is mounted to a bracket 16 d attached to the foundation 12 to prevent excessively hard impact or bottoming out the SA actuator 30 in case of hose rupture or other cause of pressure loss in the SA actuator 30 . The suspension bar 17 is fastened to the crossmember 11 at clevis bracket 16 c and attached to the foundation 12 at clevis bracket 16 b . The EDA 98 a is fastened to the Payload Pan 20 .
[0071] FIG. 3 shows the details of EDA 98 a from FIG. 2 . We coin the term “Check-Clamp” to describe this type of EDA because of the way it functions. EDA 98 a dissipates energy at an adjustable, substantially constant force when the relative movement of the EDA 98 a relative to the suspension bar 17 is downward, and allows free movement of the EDA 98 a at only nominal force when its relative movement is upward. The top end of the suspension bar 17 is fastened to the crosshead 11 (shown in part) at clevis bracket 16 c , and its bottom end is attached to the foundation 12 (shown in part) at clevis bracket 16 b . The suspension bar 17 passes through the EDA framework 50 though milled slots 50 a and 50 b . The EDA framework 50 is fastened to the Payload Pan 20 (not shown in this Figure). Pressure pads 51 a and 51 b have been fitted with brake shoes 52 a and 52 b which nave brake linings 53 a and 53 b bonded to them. The brake shoes 52 a and 52 b are fastened to the pressure pads 51 a and 51 b using threaded fasteners 59 a and 59 b . One of the pressure pads 51 a is attached to one end of the EDA actuator 65 by bushed clevis pin 55 a . The EDA actuator 65 is fitted with a body trunnion mount, the trunnion pins 55 c of which pivot in bushings at an intermediate point along lever 67 . The upper end of lever 67 is attached to the EDA framework 50 at clevis bracket 50 c using bushed clevis pin 55 e . The lower end of lever 67 is tapped to accept jackscrew 66 a ; The other end of jackscrew 66 a bears on the EDA framework 50 at a hardened point 57 c , so turning the jackscrew 66 a in or out will adjust the position of the lower end of the lever 67 , which in turn adjusts the position of the trunnion pins 55 c , which is the pivot point for the EDA actuator 65 . A periodic maintenance adjustment of the jackscrew 66 a is needed to compensate for wear in the brake linings 53 a and 53 b . The jackscrew 66 s is equipped with jam nut 66 b to lock it in position once adjusted. A spring 66 c keeps the jackscrew 66 a in contact with the EDA framework 50 to stabilize the adjusted position of the bushed clevis pin 55 c , and prevent peening damage to either the hard point 57 c or the end of the jackscrew 66 a . A counterweight 69 a is fastened to the other end of the EDA actuator 65 in order to approximately balance the moments of the EDA actuator 65 , the pressure pad 51 S, the brake shoe 52 a , the brake lining 53 a , the fastener 59 a , and the bushed clevis pin 55 a about the bushed trunnion pins 55 c . This prevents gravity or other body forces from causing rotation of the EDA actuator 65 about the bushed trunnion pins 55 c . The other pressure pad 51 b is attached to one end of the linkage 54 using bushed clevis pin 55 b . The linkage 54 is attached at an intermediate point to the EDA framework 50 at clevis bracket 50 d using bushed clevis pin 55 d . A counterweight 69 b is fastened to the other end of the linkage 54 and performs a balancing function similar that of counterweight 69 a . The cap end chamber of the EDA actuator 65 is pressurized from the EDA accumulator 60 (shown in FIG. 2 ) through piping/hose 49 i . The EDA actuator 65 can therefore clamp the brake linings 53 a and 53 b onto the suspension bar 17 at a specific normal force equal to the product of the piston area of the EDA actuator 65 times the pressure of the EDA accumulator 60 times the sine of the angle made between the EDA actuator 65 and the suspension bar 17 . But this clamping only occurs when the suspension bar 17 rises with respect to the EDA framework 50 , which happens during the shock down stroke. At all other times, the brake linings 53 a and 53 b are in contact at with the suspension bar 17 but at a much smaller normal force provided by the tension in spring 68 and counterweights 69 a and 69 b (see below for more details). During the downward shock stroke, friction between the brake linings 53 a and 53 b and the suspension bar 17 cause the brake linings to stick to the suspension bar. As the suspension bar 17 rises, the EDA actuator 65 and linkage 54 pivot upwards with it, bringing the upper surfaces of the pressure pads 51 a and 51 b into contact with the hardened surfaces 57 a and 57 b on the EDA framework 50 . The EDA 98 a will continue to move downward on the suspension bar 17 only if the downward force on it exceeds the frictional resistance between brake linings 53 a and 53 b and the suspension bar 17 . The frictional resistance is equal to two times the product of the clamping force normal to the suspension bar 17 times the coefficient of friction between the brake linings 53 a and 53 b and the suspension bar 17 . The EDA 98 a continues to move downward until the all the shock energy has either been dissipated by friction or stored in the increased enthalpy of the gas in the SA accumulator, SA actuator, and associated piping and hoses ( 40 , 30 , etc. in FIG. 2 ). Then, the SA actuator ( 30 in FIG. 2 ) applies a net upward force on the Payload Pan ( 20 in FIG. 2 ), which raises the EDA 98 a with respect to the suspension bar 17 . The friction of the brake linings 53 a and 53 b with the suspension bar 17 causes the EDA actuator 65 and linkage 54 to rotate downwards. The downwards rotation is aided by the obtuse angles that the EDA actuator 65 and linkage 54 make with the suspension bar 17 . After a few degrees of downward rotation, the EDA actuator 65 bottoms out, totally releasing the clamping force of the pressure pads 51 a and 51 b on the suspension bar 17 . Excessive downward rotation is prevented by the tension in spring 68 , and stop bars 58 a and 58 b which are fastened to the EDA framework 50 by threaded fasteners 59 c and 59 d , and fastened to the tapped holes in bushed clevis pins 55 a and 55 b by threaded fasteners 59 e and 59 f . The EDA 98 a therefore provides only the minimal frictional resistance due to the spring 68 clamping force as it is raised up with respect to the suspension bar 17 . The tension spring 68 provides enough force to maintain continuous contact between the brake linings 53 a and 53 b and the suspension bar 17 , so that when another shock hits, the whole clamping process will be repeated.
[0000] More on Some of the Concepts Presented in the SLIC Device of FIGS. 2 and 3 .
[0072] The counterweights 69 a and 69 b only need to approximately balance the EDA actuator 65 (and attached components) about bushed trunnion pins 55 c and linkage 54 (and attached components). It is preferred to make the counterweights slightly heavier than would be required to balance precisely. This is so that the shock vector will tighten rather than loosen the pressure pads 51 a and 51 b upon the suspension bar 17 . As the brake linings 53 a and 53 b wear away the imbalance becomes even more favorable. While slightly overloading the counterweights 69 a and 69 b implies that negative-G body forces (free fail for example) will tend to loosen the clamping, the tension spring 68 can easily be made strong enough to maintain the brake linings 53 a and 53 b in firm contact with the suspension bar 17 . Alternatively, counterweights would not be needed at all if the spring 68 were made stiff enough, but this would increase the resistance during the recovery.
[0073] It is important that pressure pads 51 a and 51 b stop at the hardened surfaces 57 a and 57 b prior to cam-locking over center. This ensures prompt and easy disengagement from the suspension bar 17 . Stopping the rotation about five degrees short of locking over center is a good design point.
[0074] FIG. 4 shows the vectors involved in clamping the Pressure Pads 51 a and 51 b to the suspension bar 17 . It is important that the brake linings 53 a and 53 b stick and not slide on the suspension bar 17 at initial engagement at the start of a shock pulse. The maximum angle that the EDA actuator 65 and linkage 54 can rotate to and still clamp is θmax. Examining the geometry of one side of the clamping mechanism, we can resolve the thrust vector F of the EDA actuator 65 into a vertical component Fsinθ and the horizontal component Fcosθ. The vertical component tends to make the brake lining slip on the suspension bar 17 . and the horizontal component multiplied by the frictional coefficient tends to make it stick. Though the brake linings 53 a and 53 b would typically have a somewhat higher static coefficient than dynamic, we shall use the dynamic coefficient to be conservative in case there may be some slipping before full clamping. Typical brake lining material has a minimum dynamic frictional coefficient of 0.35 or greater depending upon the material. This results in a maximum drop angle θmax of 19.3 degrees to ensure clamping. The preferred embodiment uses a conservative design value of no more than thirteen degrees for θmax. This corresponds to a frictional coefficient of 0.23, or a 34% safety margin to allow for slight degradation of the brake lining material due to contamination, pitting, etc.
[0075] Bottoming out the EDA actuator 65 at or before θmax is important to the proper disengaging of the clamping action.
[0076] As the brake linings 53 a and 53 b wear away, the clamping action will disengage at a smaller and smaller angle θ, and would eventually approach five degrees (i.e., no clamping at all) if the jackscrew 66 a and jam nut 66 b were not adjusted to compensate. Strictly speaking, the jackscrew 66 a and jam nut 66 b would not have to be readjusted until the brake linings 53 a and 53 b have worn the clamping angle θ down to 5+ degrees, but this would be imprudent. However, readjusting too frequently would seem burdensome. A reasonable compromise is to readjust the jackscrew 66 a and jam nut 66 b when the clamping angle θ has worn down to about ten degrees, and to readjust it back to thirteen degrees.
[0077] In general, whenever a clevis joint is specified, it may be replaced by a spherically-mounted bearing. In general, all clevis pins are bushed with an appropriate friction-reducing and/or anti-corrosion bushing fitted to the ID of the clevis pieces and OD of the clevis pin. Bushings may be deleted if an analysis of the load, friction, wear, and corrosion circumstances of the clevis joint warrant.
[0078] The adjustment and retainer features provided by the jackscrew 66 a , jam nut 66 b , and spring 66 c can just as effectively be provided in a variety of other common ways familiar to those practiced in the art. All of these other common ways are conceived.
[0079] The adjustments of the valves 41 and 42 to maintain pressure in the SA actuator 30 can be automated. There are several ways to do this, each of which involves electronically (digitally) sampling either the average pressure or the pressure at a specific Payload Pan 20 position (the Neutral Position 37 , for example) and comparing it to a reference signal corresponding to the initially-adjusted pressure value. If the measured signal differs from the reference signal by more than a specific amount, a control algorithm can trigger solenoids or similar actuators attached to valves 41 and 42 to admit or release gas and restore the pressure to the initial value.
[0080] The volume of the SA accumulator 40 in comparison to the swept volume of the SA actuator 30 affects the increase in the SA actuator force as it strokes. As a first-order approximation, the compression and expansion of the gas in the SA actuator 30 and the rest of the gas-filled components connected to it can be modeled as adiabatic. If air is used as the working fluid, then if the volume of the accumulator 40 and all connected hosing and piping 49 a , 49 b , 49 c , 49 d , and 49 f is on the order of twenty times the swept volume of the SA actuator 30 , then the upward force exerted by the SA actuator 30 will remain substantially constant throughout its stroke range (within about 3.5% of its mean value, or within about 7% of its initial value). This is shown by Table 1 and FIG. 4 of the Provisional Patent Application filed 2 Jan. 2002.
[0081] The spring 68 is shown as a tension spring, and is shown mounted over the axial centerlines of bushed clevis pins 55 a and 55 b . Neither of these is required for satisfactory operation. Other ways are conceived for performing the same function (maintaining the brake linings in contact with the suspension bar) by use of one or more compression springs, tension springs, leaf springs, rotary springs, etc., attached at various points, allowing the pressure pads to tilt with respect to the suspension bar 17 .
[0082] The use of a pneumatic actuator to support a load subject to shock is not novel. The use of a pneumatic actuator in conjunction with various mechanisms and mounting schemes to attempt to make the support substantially constant is novel. The use of such a support arrangement with a separate device which is intended to dissipate the shock energy at a substantially constant force is also novel. The use of such a combined mechanism with another mechanism designed to anticipate a shock event and increase the displacement available for absorbing/dissipating the shock energy by repositioning the Payload is also novel.
[0083] In FIGS. 2 and 3 , the FA is composed of parts 10 a , 10 b , 11 , 12 , 13 a , 13 b , 13 c , 13 d , 13 e , 13 f , 16 a , 16 b , 16 c , 16 d , 17 , the fasteners used for mounting to the vehicle, the (unpictured) support braces running into the paper, an (unpictured) cover plate to keep hands away from moving machinery, and (unpictured) maintenance access hatches in the cover plate. For simplicity of illustration on the rails 10 a and 10 b are shown as providing only lateral and roll support to the Payload Pan 20 through the rollers 21 . The rails actually provide support in the surge (fore and aft), yaw, and pitch directions as well. The rails only allow motion of the Payload Pan in the heave (vertical) direction.
[0084] In FIGS. 2 and 3 , the PIA is composed of parts 20 and 21 , and the assembly 27 . It is to be understood that several mundane features common to seats are not shown for ease of illustration. Though only one roller is called out in piece 21 , it is to be understood that a number of rollers are required, in each of the movement directions restrained by the rails 10 a and 10 b . The important function of piece 21 is to reduce friction in the allowable movement direction (heave) and support the loads restraining the Payload Pan 20 in all other directions. Piece 21 could therefore be embodied by a linear bearing, wheels on axles mounted to the Payload Pan 20 , wheels on axles mounted to the rails 10 a and 10 b , or even by low-friction skid surfaces.
[0085] In FIG. 2 , the SA is composed of parts 30 , 32 , 34 , 40 , 43 , 48 , and the hoses 49 b , 49 c , 49 e , and 49 f . Parts 41 , 42 , 44 , 47 and piping manifold 49 d are parts of the IMCP assembly 27 , which is part of the PIA.
[0086] In FIGS. 2 and 3 , the EDA is assembly 98 a , which is fully discussed in FIG. 3 .
[0087] The SLIC device depicted in FIGS. 2 and 3 do not have an SAA.
[0000] More Concepts
[0088] FIG. 5 shows one way in which the rails 10 a ′ and 10 b ′ can be tipped backwards by ten to fifteen degrees in order to align them more closely with the orientation of the shock sector on a high-performance boat. Studies have shown that the sharpest shock vectors are often tipped backwards by about ten to fifteen degrees. FIG. 5 also shows one type of channel which provides the type of support needed to allow only one-degree of freedom movement of the PIA. Channels with cross-sections other than U-shapes are conceived. The important thing is that the channel and friction-reducing bearing work together to restrain the PLA in all directions but one, and in that direction, to allow low-friction movement.
[0089] FIG. 6 shows a SLIC device similar to that of FIG. 2 , but with some differences in the SA. First, the SA actuator 130 is mounted at the angle θ with respect to the direction of movement of the Payload Pan 120 . Second, it is attached to the Payload Pan 120 at a different location, clevis bracket 132 . Third, the volume of the SA accumulator 140 is smaller than the volume of the SA accumulator 40 of FIG. 2 . The SA accumulator 140 is smaller to increase the pressure rise as the SA actuator 130 strokes. The upward component of the SA actuator 130 force vector is diminished by the cosine of the angle θ. Fourth, the SA Actuator 130 must have a larger piston area than that of SA actuator 30 , just to equalize the lift force on the Payload Pan 120 . Alternatively, the initial system pressure could be increased, or a combination of each. Fifth, the stroke of the SA actuator 130 may be, but does not have to be, shorter than the stroke of the SA actuator 30 , because of the angle mounting. Sixth, the FA has to be stronger to withstand the extra side loading imposed by the horizontal component of the SA actuator 130 . Several design dependencies flow from the decision to mount the SA actuator 130 at an angle. The larger the mounting angle θ, the smaller the SA accumulator 140 must be in order to maintain the same vertical lift component on the Payload Pan 120 . The larger the mounting angle θ, the stronger the FA has to be to withstand the unbalanced lateral load. The larger the mounting angle θ, the greater the increase in piston area of the SA actuator 130 must be as compared to a simple straight-mounted SA actuator 30 , or alternatively, the greater the increase in initial system pressure must be. The larger the mounting angle θ, the shorter the stroke of the SA actuator 130 may be as compared to a simple straight-mounted SA actuator 30 . The larger the mounting angle θ, the greater the transient pressure rise in the pneumatic system, so care must be taken to avoid over-pressurizing the system. The larger the mounting angle θ, the greater the transient temperature increase in the pneumatic system, so care must be taken to ensure that any temperature-sensitive components such as seals, gaskets, or hoses are not damaged. Using the above guidelines, it is possible to tailor a suitable SA design optimized for particular performance attributes within the capabilities of he components selected.
[0090] FIG. 7 shows another SLIC device. Here, two matched SA actuators 230 a and 230 b have been mounted as mirror images to one another. They support the Payload Pan 220 , and cancel each other's lateral loadings. The components of the FA, including rails 210 a and 210 b can therefore be made less strong and lighter, etc. Another variation, which raw or may not be advantageous from an arrangements standpoint, is the relocation of the SA accumulator 240 to within the FA boundaries. In general, however, keeping the components closer together helps save space and may improve performance by reducing weight, reducing time lag due to friction, etc. Note also that the pneumatic hosing must branch to supply both SA actuators 230 a and 230 b.
[0091] The rendering of FIG. 7 and the renderings in the Appendices of the Provisional Patent Filings have been simplified to enhance clarity. Most components common to the previous devices have been omitted from the Figure. The rails 210 a and 210 b , though illustrated as simple flat surfaces capable of providing restraint in only the lateral and roll directions, in fact are channel sections or similar and provide restraint to the Payload Pan 220 in every direction except linear movement along their long axes. Similarly, the roller wheels 221 are illustrated in only one direction when in fact they must roll along the rails 210 a and 210 b to transfer the restraining forces to the Payload Pan 220 and reduce friction of its movement. Only the lack fee of the Payload Pan 120 is illustrated.
[0092] FIG. 8 shows a SLIC device which uses a matched set of gas charged lift supports 330 a and 330 b as the SA actuator. These actuators are pre-charged with gas to provide a certain force output which increases with the compression stroke. They can be purchased with self-contained damping, which can be implemented on either the compression or extension stroke, or both. For this purpose, damping on compression is unneeded and undesirable. It would disrupt the substantially constant force upon the Payload Pan 320 , making it dependent upon the relative velocities of the Payload Pan 320 and rails 310 a and 310 b . A certain amount of damping on the extension stroke is desirable, as it allows deletion of the flow control valve, plenum, and hosing which are required to perform the damping function in the device of FIG. 2 . This is an advantage which also saves space, weight, and cost, as is the capability to delete about half of the remaining pneumatic system, as compared to the SLIC device of FIG. 2 . The disadvantage is that adjustability of force and damping is limited. FIG. 8 shows one way of providing some adjustability in force, by using a turnbuckle-like screw 335 a . One end of the screw 335 a has a left hand thread, the other a right hand thread. Each end of the screw threads into one of the clevis blocks, 336 a and 336 b to which the lower ends of each support 330 a and 330 b are pinned. A stabilization piece 333 supports the vertical load of the gas charged supports 330 a and 330 b , relieving the screw 335 a of that duty so it only has to support the laterally-directed loads. The stabilization piece 333 also prevents the clevis blocks 336 a and 336 b from rotating with the screw 335 a . The screw 335 a is supported radially by a bushing 335 d at one end, and radially and axially by a combination bushing/thrust bearing 335 e at the other end. When the handle 335 b and crank 335 c are turned, the turnbuckle screw 335 a rotates, which either draws clevis blocks 336 a and 336 b closer together or further apart, depending upon the direction of rotation. This changes the angle of each gas charged support 330 a and 330 b , changing the vertical component of their support on the Payload Pan 320 . Note that since the handle 335 b is used to control the performance of this SLIC device, it is functionally part of the PIA, within the IMCP 327 .
[0093] Although not illustrated, another way of adjusting the support force on the Payload Pan 320 on this or similar types of SLIC devices is to add or subtract gas charged supports. One way of implementing this is to mount one clevis bracket on the Payload Pan 320 and one clevis bracket on the FA for each gas charged actuator potentially desired, then simply quick-pin each support into or out of each clevis place as needed. The lower clevis brackets can be mounted on the turnbuckle screw 335 a in the manner of clevis blocks 336 a and 336 b for added adjustability once pinned in place. The other shortcoming is lack of damping adjustability. The supports are factory-sealed and the damping is not field-adjustable. If the damping is too high, the PIA will not recover to the Neutral Position 337 before the next shock. Therefore, supports should be procured with acceptably-low damping. If extra damping is needed, a separate, adjustable damping device can be added externally.
[0094] Though gas charged lift supports are designed for static lift situations such as holding open the rear hatch on a minivan or opening the engine cover on a boat, they can be used as an SA actuator provided they are not used to dissipate the energy of the shock pulse. The heat buildup will cause premature failure. Therefore, when used, gas charged lift supports should be implemented by SA/EDA Method 1.
[0095] The discussion above assumes that the use of gas charged supports which develop force while extending, which is the only configuration normally available. All the above would still apply to supports which develop force while retracting, but tailored to the new configuration.
[0096] FIG. 9 shows a SLIC device with a substantially different FA which incorporates a four-bar linkage instead of the rails and rollers presented previously. Since the characteristics of motion of four-bar linkages are so well known to those skilled in the art, additional detailed discussion on that aspect of the device will not be necessary here. However, two points are worthy of note. The first is that device is designed to take heavy side loads (into and out of the paper). Since a four bar linkage is nominally a planar mechanism, the extra strength in the side direction comes from the design of the brackets 421 a , 421 b , 431 a , and 431 b , the linkages 434 a and 434 b and the foundation 412 and Payload Pan 420 to which they are attached. The laterally-oriented gusset plates help stiffen the brackets against side forces, and the linkages are designed to resist deformation under torsion. The second point is the nominal range of motion of the Payload Pan 420 . Established as approximately plus or minus 30 degrees from horizontal (which is not necessarily the Neutral Position), plus or minus 30 degrees of movement is a good compromise between strict linear motion and ease of manufacture, which translates as cost for the consumer. Using a length of six inches between pivot points for the linkages 434 a and 434 b , a vertical range of six inches is achieved while only allowing a fore-aft variance of 0.8 inches. This angular range is usually acceptable.
[0097] In FIG. 9 , the SA is the same type as for the SLIC device in FIG. 8 , a matched pair of gas charged lift supports 430 a and 430 b are mounted at mirror images to one another with respect to the vertical, and are attached at their base to clevis bracket 432 and at their upper ends to clevis blocks 436 a and 436 b . The upward force of these supports is adjusted in the same manner as for FIG. 8 . Turning handle 435 b attached to crank 435 c rotates turnbuckle-threaded screw 435 a which draws the clevis blocks 436 a and 436 b closer or further away from one another, changing the magnitude of the upward vector component of the gas charged supports 430 a and 430 b . The upward force of the clevis blocks 436 a and 436 b press on the stabilization crosshead 433 , which takes the bending moment off the turnbuckle screw 435 a and also prevents the clevis blocks 436 a and 436 b from rotating excessively with the turnbuckle screw 435 a . The turnbuckle screw 435 a , etc. have been oriented to provide easier access to the handle 435 b . The turnbuckle screw is supported at one end by a radial bushing 435 d and at the other end by a combination thrust/radial bushing 435 e , each mounted in appropriate brackets. A snubber piece (or snubbers) 409 prevents hard impact between the Payload Pan 420 and foundation 412 in case of an exceptionally energetic shock in comparison to the adjusted resistance of the EDA 498 and upward force-displacement of the SA actuators 430 a and 430 b.
[0098] FIG. 10 shows the same SLIC device as in FIG. 9 , from a different perspective. The EDA 498 is shown at the rear of the device. This EDA uses the same one-way clamping principle as the previous EDA's, but it has a difference in that it uses a push-bar 417 instead of the suspension bar to transfer the force to the FA. The push bar 417 is attached to the FA at the foundation 412 at clevis bracket 416 using clevis pin 455 c . The EDA 498 is attached to the Payload Pan 420 at clevis bracket 456 using trunnion pins 455 a and 455 b . The clevis brackets 416 and 456 are oriented to accommodate the rotation of the EDA 498 and push bar 417 through the angle θ EDA , as the four bar linkage swings through the angle θ FA , and the vertical displacement d. Adequate space must be provided to allow freedom of movement. Also, suitable cover panels (not shown) should be installed over the moving machinery pasts to protect personnel from pinch or chafe hazards, etc.
[0099] Using a push bar such as 417 has the advantage that the FA can be shorter, saving weight and space, and possibly improving aesthetics. The FA does not have to extend upwards just to hang the suspension bar. However, unlike the suspension bar, the push bar 417 is subject to buckling, and thus needs to be designed stiff enough to not buckle under the maximum expected load. The maximum expected load is the product of the sum of the weight of the PIA plus the weight of the heaviest passenger plus his gear, times the maximum user-adjustable G-loading for the device.
[0100] The ends of each SA actuator, the gas charged supports 430 a and 430 b require freedom of movement in two rotational directions, pitch and roll (assuming the seat faces fore-aft). As such, a spherically-mounted clevis bearing, spherically-mounted bearing, resiliently-bedded clevis joint or similar joint is required to ensure standard service life.
[0101] Because the four-bar linkage moves the PIA in an arc instead of linear motion and because the EDA 498 is of the push rather than pull type, the issue of EDA 498 alignment with the push bar 417 must be addressed. In general, the EDA 498 should always be aligned to the push bar 417 to ensure optimum performance and normal service life. Many simple ways of doing this are conceived and will be immediately familiar to those skilled in the art. Methods include use of a linear bearing between the push bar 417 and EDA 498 housing similar to that used in the head end of a hydraulic actuator. Various other bearings and bushings, spring-loaded sliding shoes, etc. are also conceived. The preferred embodiment uses bushings 408 a and 408 b to between the Push bar 417 and EDA 498 housing to alleviate friction and provide some stability, combined with locating the trunnion pins 455 a and 455 b between the EDA center of resistance 418 and the far end clevis pin 455 c of the push bar 417 . Alignment and stability of the pushing force vector is then assured to be collinear between the trunnion pins 455 a and 455 b and the clevis pin 455 c . The EDA center of resistance 418 is the point where the EDA force can be considered to act upon the push bar 417 , which in practical terms is the center of EDA clamping force on the pressure pads. If desired to help alleviate vibration and father minimize pitching of the EDA 498 , one or more springs or snubbers, 419 a and 419 b can be interposed between the Payload Pan 420 and the EDA housing 498 .
[0102] FIG. 11 shows a SLIC device featuring a bell crank and linkage to amplify the movement and reduce the force of the SA actuator on the Payload Pan. Most components common to previous SLIC devices have been omitted for clarity. SA actuator 530 is connected at one end to foundation 512 at clevis bracket 516 and clevis pin 532 e . The other end of the SA actuator 530 is connected to bell crank 531 a at an intermediate point by clevis pin 532 d . One end of the bell crank 531 a is attached to the FA at clevis bracket 536 and clevis pin 532 c . The other end of bell crank 531 a is pinned to one end of linkage 531 b by clevis pin 532 b . The other end of linkage 531 b is attached to the Payload Pan 520 at clevis bracket 536 using clevis pin 532 a . The Payload Pan 520 translates along the rails 510 a and 510 b supported by the rollers 521 in the standard way of previous SLIC devices. One advantage of using the bellcrank 531 a and linkage 531 b mechanism is to transform the force-displacement output of the SA actuator 530 into one that is more desirable. This may be done by adjusting, either by design or by user adjustment, the location of clevis pin 532 d in relation to the other pins 532 b and 532 c and the overall length of the bellcrank 531 a . Another advantage is that standard-off-the-shelf pneumatic actuators or gas charged supports can be used for the SA actuator 530 . Gas charged supports are available only in certain strokes, dimensions, and force outputs, yet there is an advantage to using them when possible so that about half of the otherwise-required pneumatic system can be deleted. The disadvantage is that the extra components (bellcrank 531 a , linkage 531 b , etc.) add weight, require more volume, and cost more than using just the gas charged support alone.
[0103] Several other concepts for substantially constant-force SA's are detailed in the Provisional Patent Applications in Appendices A, B, C, and D. Each of these concepts basically combines a force-producing component with one or more techniques and/or mechanisms which transforms its force-displacement output into a substantially constant force over its range of motion. It is felt that these additional concepts are straightforward enough to be clearly understood by those skilled in the art without explanation beyond that provided herein and in the Provisional Applications.
[0104] The definition of “substantially constant force” requires clarification. Substantially constant means maintained within a certain range, such as within thirty percent, ten percent, or four percent of the mean value. In general, for SLIC devices using SA/EDA Method 1 can maintain an output force constant to within the difference between the static and sliding coefficients of friction between the brake linings (x53 series) and the suspension bar or push bar (x17 series). Since the static coefficient of friction is generally larger than the sliding coefficient, the force peaks just before sliding starts. For best efficiency, its best to choose a brake lining material where the static and sliding coefficients are fiery close. SA/EDA Method 1 SLIC devices depend on the EDA to provide the bulk of their resistance to shock. While sliding, the frictional force is very steady. For SLIC devices which use SA/EDA Method 2, in which the SA provides the bulk of the support force during the shock pulse, the variance in support force can generally be kept within ±3.5 percent of the median value over the full range of PIA movement. There are several ways of doing this, some more complicated than others, and several ways are detailed in the Provisional Patent Application of 2 Jan. 2002 . The claim of substantially constant force is therefore warranted, especially considering that most traditional shock-handling techniques are functions of the shock magnitude and rise rate, and hence vary widely in their force-displacement response depending upon the shape of the shock pulse.
[0105] In general, handling the shock using S/EDA Method 1 saves space, weight, and cost over devices using SA/EDA Method 2. The most intuitive explanation for this is that Method 1 devices simply dissipate the energy, whereas Method 2 devices have to both store and dissipate the energy.
[0106] FIG. 12 shows a Check-Clamp type EDA which is similar to one in FIG. 3 , but the counterweights 69 a and 69 b , spring 68 , and drops stops 58 a and 58 b have been replaced by springs 168 a and 168 b mounted at the angle θ by fasteners 168 a and 168 b . The clevis bracket 150 d supporting the right end of the linkage 154 is also simplified. The advantage of this EDA over the one in FIG. 2 is that it is simpler and lighter. Its important that the springs 168 a and 168 b provide enough upward force that they will maintain the brake linings 153 a and 153 b in contact with the suspension bar 117 even when subjected to the maximum body force (which is user-adjustable) on the respective unbalanced loads about clevis pins 155 c and 155 d . Note that a weaker spring can be used if the mounting angle θ is decreased, and that the mounting angle can be zero or negative if desired.
[0107] FIG. 13 shows a Check Clamp type EDA similar to the others but with a lever 267 a to amplify the clamping force of the EDA actuator 265 , a mechanism which makes adjusting the drop angle (θ in FIG. 3 ) easier by making it less sensitive to rotation of the jackscrew 266 a , and a roller bearing 269 replacing the linkage under one of the pressure pads 251 b . The clamping force exerted upon the pressure pads 251 a and 251 b is the product of the EDA actuator 265 force multiplied by the lever ratio of lever 267 a , which is the length between axes of bushed clevis pins 255 c and 255 d divided by the length between axes of bushed clevis pins 255 b and 255 c . The movement distance at the pressure pads is the movement at the EDA actuator 265 divided by the lever ratio of lever 267 a . This makes adjustment of the engagement/disengagement of the clamping feature easier, since it is less sensitive to rotations of the jackscrew 266 a . The adjustment is made easier still (by being made less sensitive to improper angular position of jackscrew 266 a ) through the action of lever 267 b . The movement at the EDA actuator is the movement at the jackscrew 266 a divided by the lever ratio of lever 267 b . On the right side of FIG. 13 , the pressure pad 251 b is supported by a roller bearing 269 (or similar feature such as low-friction skid surface, etc.) to assist in disengaging the clamping feature. The pressure pad 251 b bears on a section of the EDA framework 250 X and is held in place by restraining fasteners 259 e and 259 f . The pressure pad 251 b is restrained from movement in any direction except parallel to the suspension bar 217 , and is restrained from excessive movement in that direction as sell by making contact with hard points on the EDA framework 257 and 258 . Replacing the linkage with the roller bearing 269 helps save space to the right of the suspension bar 217 . Note that each of the above three changes could have been implemented independently of the others.
[0108] FIG. 14 shows a Check Clamp type EDA which uses a plunger 354 to apply the clamping force on the pressure pads 351 a and 351 b . Brake shoes 352 a and 352 b are fastened to the pressure pads using fasteners 359 a and 359 b and have brake lining material 353 a and 353 b bonded to them respectively. The pressure pads 351 a and 351 b ride on roller bearings (or ball bearings, low-friction skid pads, etc.) 369 a and 369 b respectively, and are held in place and constrained to linear motion by their interfering geometry with the EDA framework 350 or plunger 354 and fasteners 359 a , 339 b , 359 c , and 359 d . One or both of the roller paths of bearings 369 a and/or 369 b are positioned at an angle θ P with respect to the long axis of suspension bar 317 . Springs 368 a and 363 b are mounted by fasteners 359 c , 359 f , 359 g , and 359 h in order to maintain contact between the brake linings 353 a and 353 b and the suspension bar 317 once the clamping pressure is disengaged. The plunger 354 is fastened to the lever 367 at an intermediate point by clevis pin 355 a . The plunger 354 is constrained to linear motion only by sliding in an appropriate slot cut in the EDA framework 350 . A force F is applied at one end of lever 367 at clevis pin 355 c . The other end of lever 367 is pinned to an adjusting assembly 901 by clevis pin 355 b . The adjusting assembly 901 is used to adjust the drop angle at which the clamping feature engages and disengages, and to compensate for wear in the brake lining material 353 a and 353 b . Adjusting Assembly 901 is fully discussed in FIG. 15 . The lever 367 is constrained to rotate through arc θ L , which constrains the plunger 354 to move only through displacement δ L . The length of the arc θ L can be adjusted by turning jackscrew 366 a which passes through a hole or slot in lever 367 and threads into tapped boss 350 b on EDA framework 350 . The rotational position of the jackscrew 366 a can be locked by tightening jam nut 366 b . The EDA is shown with its clamping feature fully engaged, with the pressure pads 351 a and 351 b pressing on surfaces 357 a and 357 b respectively and the force F fully applied to lever 367 . To disengage the clamping feature, the EDA framework 350 has to move upward relative to suspension bar 317 . The angle θ P assists this disengagement by effecting an upwardly-directed vertical component of the clamping force upon the EDA framework 350 . Friction causes the brake pads 353 a and 353 b to stick to the suspension bar 317 as the EDA framework 350 rises. The distance between the bearing races for the pressure pads 351 a and 351 b increases as the EDA framework 350 rises, so the plunger 354 moves to the right. This allows the lever 367 to rotate counterclockwise until it makes contact with the jackscrew 366 a on surface 357 c , relieving the clamping force. The EDA framework 350 can continue to move upwards as the brake linings slide up the suspension bar 317 being resisted by a small friction force due to the action of springs 368 a and 368 b (and its weight, etc.).
[0109] Note that the method of stopping the lever 367 at surface 357 c to redirect the force F off the pressure pads 351 a and 351 b can also be used to disengage the clamping feature on the previously-discussed EDA's, instead of using the bottoming-out of the EDA actuator to relieve the clamping force.
[0110] FIG. 15 shows details of the adjusting assembly 901 used in the EDA of FIG. 14 . Jackscrew 902 inserts through a washer/thrust bearing 903 , through a hole in bracket 905 , through the coils of spring 904 , and into tapped hole 906 in one end of slider 907 . Slider 907 is constrained to linear movement by the gussets of bracket 905 . The opposite end of the slider 907 has a hole drilled through it fitted with a bushing 908 in order to accept a clevis pin. Longitudinal position of the slider 907 is adjusted by rotational position of the jackscrew 902 . Lockwire or other locking device can be used to prevent inadvertent rotation of jackscrew 902 .
[0111] FIG. 16 shows a way of decreasing the required clamping force of a Check-Clamp type EDA while maintaining its resisting force. In this example, the required clamping force is halved as compared to one of the EDA's previously discussed. A second suspension bar 417 b has been added, along with a third brake shoe 452 c which has brake lining material 453 c and 453 d bonded to either side of it. A pair of teeth plates 455 a and 455 b , have ridges which engage with ridges on the sides of brake shoes 452 a , 452 b , and 452 c to hold them aligned with one another. The teeth plates 455 a and 455 b are capable of transmitting shear loads developed in the center brake shoe 452 c to the other brake shoes and also to the EDA framework 450 . The arrangement substantially shares the total resistive force of the EDA equally among the four brake linings 453 a , 453 b , 453 c , and 453 d . Note that since two of the brake linings 453 c and 453 d are bonded to the center brake shoe 452 c , brake shoe 452 c takes substantially half of the total resistive force of the EDA, and the teeth plates 455 a and 455 b have to be designed accordingly. The teeth plates have holes and slots milled through them to accept machine screws 459 a , 459 b , 459 c , and 459 d which hold the teeth plates and brake shoes 452 a , 452 b , and 452 c in continuous engagement, but lateral movement is unrestricted so as not to impact the engagement and disengagement of the clamping feature.
[0112] FIG. 17 shows selected components from FIG. 16 in an isometric view.
[0113] Additional suspension bars could be added using the method shown in FIGS. 16 and 17 , interleaved with additional brake shoes, etc., as may be desired.
[0114] If a Check-Clamp type EDA is to be used in a pushing motion, as was described in FIGS. 9 and 10 , additional push bars may be added in a similar method to that shown in FIGS. 16 and 17 .
[0115] FIG. 18 shows a simple arrangement for a type of SAA usable when the primary shock direction imposed on the vehicle is oriented vertically upward. The upper end of the SAA actuator 670 is attached to the FA crosshead 611 at clevis bracket 616 . The tower end is attached to the upper end of the SA actuator 630 . The lower end of the SA actuator 630 is attached to the Payload Pan 620 at clevis bracket 626 . The head-end chambers of the SAA actuator 670 and the SA actuator 630 are pneumatically connected to one another and to the SA accumulator (not shown) and associated IMCP (not shown) piping by hosing 649 a and are thus at the same pressure. The cap end chambers of the SAA actuator 670 and the SA actuator 630 are pneumatically connected to one another and to the plenum (not shown) and associated IMCP piping (not shown) by hosing 649 a and are thus at the same pressure. The SAA actuator 670 and the SA actuator 630 apply an upward force on the Payload Pan according to the pressure in the SA accumulator and their respective piston areas. The piston area of the SAA actuator 670 is set to about three to six times the piston area of the SA Actuator 630 , depending upon the application. The upward force from the SAA actuator 670 should be weak enough that the Payload Pan 620 remains at the Neutral Position 637 unless the vehicle experiences significant negative acceleration, such as becoming airborne. This is to prevent nuisance rising of the Payload Pan 620 when traversing bumpy seas or terrain that are not severe enough to require additional relative displacement to absorb the shock. The stroke of the SAA actuator 670 is d SAA and may be established independently of the stroke length d SA of the SA actuator 630 .
[0116] Numerous other embodiments of the SAA actuator are conceived, many of which are similar on concept to the suspension concepts usable for the SA. When an SAA is used, it is usually easiest and simplest to incorporate the SA and EDA in SA/EDA Method 1.
[0117] The Check-Clamp type EDA can have a variable controllable force by using a solenoid to apply the clamping force. The force can be controlled by adjusting the solenoid voltage, in response to a G-sensor mounted on the FA.
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A passive/reactive device protests a Payload from injury or damage due to the shock caused by impact or explosion. When the vehicle or structure mounting the Payload receives a shock pulse, the invention limits the acceleration transmitted from the vehicle or structure to the Payload to an acceptably low, user-adjustable level which is substantially constant or is some other user-adjustable force-displacement function. The invention is capable of doing so even when the peak magnitude of the imposed shock is on the order of thousands of G's, with a rise time to peak on the order of microseconds. The invention can be embodied to operate passively, without any external source of power, sensor system, or CPU, although they can be added to improve certain usability features. The invention also absorbs or dissipates the shock energy in substantially the minimum distance possible without exceeding the user-defined acceleration limit on the Payload. The invention can also react when a shock-producing impact is imminent by repositioning the Payload away from the impact site. The Payload can be a person or persons, or shock-vulnerable equipment. The shock can be created in a number of ways, including an explosion, an impact or collision, the slamming on high-performance boats and some off-road vehicles, earthquake, or even intentional shocks on an amusement thrill ride. The ability of the invention to protect against shock is limited only by its ability to absorb or dissipate the energy of the shock pulse on the Payload. The device can be implemented to protect against shock from any arbitrary direction. The name Shock-Limiting Interface, Compact (SLIC) is coined for this invention.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a treatment of organic solutions. More particularly, it is directed to a permselective membrane module and method whereby organic solvents are recovered from the solutions and solutes are separated and concentrated, without possibility of explosion or fire resulting from electrostatic effects occurring in the module during treatment.
Apparatuses having permeable membranes therein are often used for recovery of organic solvents from solutions. When these solutions are nonconductive, static electricity may be produced due to friction between charged particles in the solution and the inner wall of tube supporting the membranes so that the apparatuses become charged with static electricity as they pass through the tube. If these organic solvents are inflammable, there is a persistent danger of explosion and/or fire. Moreover, when such organic solvents are treated by the present distillation method, environment pollution is created. Therefore, there is a pressing need for a method by which such accidents during solution-treatment can be avoided, and reduction of environmental pollution can be achieved.
The conventional apparatuses disclosed in, for example, U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,746,591 and 3,457,170 are disadvantageous in that the dangers resulting from static electricity are not considered, and therefore not overcome.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The module and method of this invention which overcome the above discussed and numerous other disadvantages and deficiencies of the prior art, relate to a module for the treatment of organic solutions comprising:
(1) a membrane assembly,
(2) an electrically conductive support tube supporting the membrane assembly therein; the wall of this support tube being constructed with spaced perforations,
(3) an electrically conductive cylindrical case enclosing the support tube therein and having a permeate port,
(4) an electrically conductive spacer for maintaining a space between the support tube and the case,
(5) headers sealing the ends of the case in a solution-tight engagement by means of packing materials; one header having an entry port, for feed of the solution, connecting to one end of the support tube and/or an exit port, for the treated solution, connecting to the other end of the support tube, and
(6) a grounding means for grounding the support tube through the module elements such as the spacer, the case and the like.
After grounding the support tube, the solution is forced under a given pressure through the support tube from the entry port to the exit port, whereby the permeate collects inside the case through the perforations of the support tube and exits from the permeate port, and the residual solution exits as a concentrated solution from the exit port.
The membrane assembly and the corresponding support tube may be multiple consisting of a series of sub-elements of the support tube connected in series at the headers, the distance between the sub-elements of the support tube being maintained by the spacer. Each of the headers has, on its inner face, U-shaped-bent passages which align pairs of sub-elements of the support tube in such a manner that the solution passing through the entry port passes back and forth along all the sub-elements in turn before leaving the module through the exit port.
The membrane assembly and the corresponding support tube may be multiple consisting of sub-elements of the support tube connected in parallel at the headers, the distance between the sub-elements of the support tube being maintained by the spacer. Each of the headers has, on its inner face, multisocket-shaped-straight passages which align the sub-elements of the support tube in such a manner that the solution entering one header on the entry port side passes all the sub-elements at the same time before leaving the module through another header on the exit port side.
Thus, the invention described herein makes possible the objectives of (a) prevention of explosion and fire resulting from static electricity which is caused by friction of charged particles with the inner wall of the support tube even when the organic solvent used is inflammable, (b) separation and concentration of solutes from nonconductive organic solutions in a wide range of molecular weights, and (c) reduction of losses of solvent and valuable solutes by use of a looped system thereby minimizing environmental pollution.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
This invention may be better understood and its numerous objectives and advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art by reference to the accompanying drawings as follows:
FIG. 1 is a partial sectional view illustrating the preferred tubular permselective membrane module of this invention.
FIG. 2 is a side view of the tubular permselective membrane module of this invention.
FIG. 3 is a partially enlarged sectional view of the support tube of this invention.
FIG. 4(a) is an enlarged sectional view of a header applicable to this invention.
FIG. 4(b)is an enlarged sectional view of another header applicable to this invention.
FIG. 5 is a flow sheet showing a process of the solution-treatment according to this invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The tubular permselective membrane module of this invention has an electrically conductive cylindrical case 1, a conductive support tube 2 enclosed in the case 1 and a membrane assembly 3 supported by the support tube 2, as shown in FIG. 1.
The support tube 2, the wall of which is constructed with spaced perforations, is held in place by a conductvie spacer 4 at a given distance from the inner face of the case 1 which is in a solution-tight engagement by means of a packing material 11, within headers 5 & 6, at its each end. The header 5 has an entry port 51 for feed-solution and an exit port 52 for the treated solution as shown in FIG. 2. The entry port 51 connects to one end of the support tube 2 and the exit port 52 connects to the other end of the support tube 2. The perforations of the support tube wall allow solvents to flow to a permeate port 10 of case 1.
The membrane assembly 3 has a porous ply 30 on its outer face. The ply 30 is adjacent to the inner face of the support tube 2. Both ends of the membrane assembly 3, respectively, are sealed in a solution-tight engagement at the end 20 of the support tube 2 by means of a packing material 21 which is supported by a conductive supporting means 23, as shown in FIG. 3. The top end 210 of the packing material 21 forms an O-shaped ring between the support tube 2 and the supporting means 23 in such a manner that the top end 210 protrudes outward from the rim of the end 20 of the support tube 2.
The membrane assembly 3 and the corresponding support tube 2 may be multiple consisting of a series of sub-elements 200 of the support tube 2 connected in series at the headers 5 & 6, the distance between the sub-elements of the support tube 2 being maintained by the spacers 4, one of which must be conductive. Each of the headers 5 & 6 has, on its inner face 50 & 60, U-shaped-bend passages 151 & 161, which align pairs of sub-elements 200 of the support tube 2 in a series in such a manner that the solution entering the entry port 51 passes back and forth along all the sub-elements 200 in turn, before leaving the module through the exit port 52. The end 20 of the support tube 2 is connected to the inner face of the U-shaped passages 151 & 161 in a solution-tight engagement by means of the O-shaped ring 210.
The membrane assembly 3 and the corresponding support tube 2 may be multiple consisting of sub-elements of the support tube connected in parallel at the headers, the distance between the sub-elements of the support tube also being maintained by the spacer. Each of the headers 5 & 6 has, on its inner face, multisocket-shaped-straight passages 162 which align the sub-elements of the support tube in such a manner that the solution entering one header 5 on the entry port side passes all the sub-elements at the same time before leaving the module through another header 6 on the exit port side, as shown in FIG. 4(b). The end 20 of the support tube 2 is also connected to the inner face of the multisocket-shaped-straight passages 162 in a solution-tight engagement by means of the O-shaped ring 210.
The headers 5 & 6 are coupled to each end of the case 1 by means of a conductive stay bolt 7 running from one header 5 to the other 6. The stay bolt 7 locks the unit of the case 1 and the headers 5 & 6 by means of nuts 71.
The support tube 2 is grounded by a grounding means comprising the spacer 4, the case 1 and the stay bolt 7. The grounding means may further comprise a wire 8 connected to the case 1 with a detachable plug 80 on the surface of the case 1. For completed grounding of the module, the wire 8 may be connected to another wire 81 from the stay bolt 7.
The U-shaped-bend passages 151 & 161 in the inner faces 50 & 60 of the headers 5 & 6 may be of a metal and molded within the headers 5 & 6. Since the headers 5 & 6 are of plastic such as glass-reinforced nylon, the metallic walls 610 of the passages 151 & 161 must be grounded to the exterior of the module, preferably by means of wires 82, as shown in FIG. 4(a), which are connected to the stay bolt 7. When the headers 5 & 6 are made from conductive plastics such as carbon powder-filled plastics or metallic powder-filled plastics, the wires 82 may be optional.
Both the U-shaped-bend passages and the multisocket-shaped-straight passages may be of a metal or a conductive resin.
The conductive elements such as the case 1, the support tube 2, the spacer 4, the stay bolt 7, the supporting means 23 and the like may be of metallic materials such as stainless steel, cast iron, carbon steel, bronze, aluminum and the like, and conductive plastics such as carbon-fiber-reinforced plastics, metallic-fiber-reinforced plastics, carbon powder-filled plastics, metallic powder-filled plastics and the like.
The membrane used is a reverse osmosis membrane, an ultrafiltration membrane or a microfiltration membrane, and its pore size ranges from about 50 A to about 5μ.
The membrane materials prepared from synthetic resins such as polyimide, polyamidimide, polyamide and polytetrafluoroethylene, have a resistance to organic solvents and are neither swelling nor soluble in such organic solvents.
FIG. 5 shows the process of solution-treatment by means of the module of this invention. The feed-solution to be treated is introduced from a feed-solution tank 100 to the module 101 through a feed-solution feed-pipe P1 containing a high pressure pump P, an accumulator A and a pressure gauge G. The feed-solution enters the module 101 at the entry port 51 and passes under pressure through the support tube 2 from the entry port 51 to the exit port 52. The permeate collects inside the case 1 through the perforations of the support tube 2 and exits from the permeate port 10, and then, flows to a permeate tank 102. The residual solution exits as a concentrated solution from the exit port 52 of the module 101 and flows to the feed-solution tank 100 through a return pipe P2 containing a flow meter F and a heat-exchanger E. The feed-solution tank 100, the pipes P1 & P2, the pump P, the module 101 and the permeate tank 102, respectively, are connected, in advance, to a grounding line L through wires W.
The feed-solution used may be organic solutions of paint, ink, gum or plastic paint and edible oils and the like; solutions containing a large amount of inflammable solvents such as benzene, toluene, hexane, acetone and the like. The tanks 100 & 102 and the pipes P1 & P2 may be made of stainless steel.
EXAMPLE
Dimensions of the module used for organic solution treatment were as follows:
The length (distance between the headers 5 & 6) is 1322 mm; the outer diameter of the case 1 is 108 mm; the outer diameter of the headers 5 & 6 are 109 mm; the number of sub-elements 200 of the support tube 2 is 18; the outer diameter of the support tube 2 is 15 mm; the membrane area is 0.77 2 m; the volume of the module 101 is 2.5 liters; the weight of the module is 20 Kg; the inner diameter of each port 10, 51 & 52 is 12.7 mm. The membrane was NTU-4220, a code of the membrane, which was prepared from a synthesized high polymer of the polyimide derivative. Using such a looped system as shown in FIG. 5, a toluene solution containing 1% of polybutylacrylate(molecular weight: about 200,000) was treated by the module with a flow of 20 liters/min. at a temperature of 30° C. under a pressure of 8 Kg/cm 2 . The permeate obtained was 0.76 m 3 /m 2 .day and the nonvolatile matter was 0.08% of the permeate. The system was not charged with static electricity. On the other hand, it was observed that when an isolation board is mounted on the spacer, the system was charged with a static electricity of 4×10 -3 C/cm 2 Or 6,000 V on the perforated tube made of stainless steel.
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Module and method for providing a safe treatment of noncondutive organic solutions containing inflammable solvents by passing such solutions under pressure through electrically conductive perforated tubes supporting membrane assemblies therein and being grounded through the case of the module.
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims the benefit of provisional application Ser. No. 60/495,955 filed Aug. 18, 2003.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
This invention was made with government support under Contract No. F33615-00-D-5008 awarded by the United States Air Force. The government has certain rights in the invention.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to thermal control coatings, and more particularly to polyaryleneetherketone phosphine oxide compositions incorporating cycloaliphatic units for use as polymeric binders in thermal control coatings and a method of synthesizing such compositions.
Spacecraft such as satellites and deep-space craft are exposed to a wide range of thermal conditions. The high intensity of direct solar radiation can potentially raise temperatures to dangerous levels. Thermal control of spacecraft is therefore important to reduce the absorption of solar radiation as well as dissipate internal heat to proper levels. Temperature control has currently been attained with the use of radiators having thermal control coatings on their surface. Such thermal control coatings typically comprise a potassium silicate binder pigmented with zinc oxide. This white coating exhibits a good initial diffuse reflectance for 380–1000 nm wavelength radiation and a moderate degradation in reflectance upon space environmental exposure. However, potassium silicate is a brittle inorganic glass with very poor flexibility and impact resistance, often showing failures due to film cracking. Another commercially available thermal control coating comprises a methyl silicone binder coating. However, while such a coating has good mechanical properties, it exhibits poor stability in space.
More recently, the use of certain polymers has been proposed for use as coatings in space environments. The use of polymers in thermal control coatings is desirable as they would provide significant weight reduction, good mechanical strength, and exhibit thermal and thermooxidative stability. However, in order to be used as thermal control coatings in space environments, such polymers must also be resistant to degradation by ultraviolet radiation and atomic oxygen.
Accordingly, there is a need in the art for polymers having improved resistance to UV radiation and atomic oxygen degradation which may be used in thermal control coatings.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention meets that need by providing polyaryleneetherketone phosphine oxide compositions incorporating cycloaliphatic units which may be used as polymeric binders in thermal coatings for use in space applications. Methods for synthesizing such compositions are also provided.
The polymeric binders synthesized in accordance with the present invention have improved UV transparency and enhanced UV reflectance, reducing transfer of energy into unwanted heat. The polymeric binders may be used in thermal control coatings for use in low-earth-orbit satellite systems for the delivery of mobile satellite services.
According to one aspect of the present invention, a composition is provided having the formula
where n is greater than 1.0.
According to another aspect of the invention, a composition is provided having the formula
where n is greater than 1.0.
According to another aspect of the invention, a composition is provided having the formula
where n is greater than 1.0.
According to yet another aspect of the invention, a composition is provided having the formula
where n is greater than 1.0.
In another embodiment of the invention, a polymeric binder composition is provided comprising a composition containing an aryleneetherketone block, a triphenylphosphine oxide block, and a cycloaliphatic or cycloaliphatic cage-hydrocarbon structure. In one embodiment of the invention, the polymeric binder comprises a trans-1,4-cyclohexane-based polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide composition. In another embodiment, the polymeric binder comprises a 4,9-diamantane-based polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide composition. In yet another embodiment, the polymeric binder comprises a 1,3-adamantane-based polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide composition. In yet another embodiment, the polymeric binder comprises a 1,4-bicyclo(2.2.2)octane-based polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide composition.
In another embodiment of the invention, a thermal control coating is provided containing a polymeric binder comprising a composition containing an aryleneetherketone block, a triphenylphosphine oxide block, and a cycloaliphatic or cycloaliphatic cage-hydrocarbon structure. The polymeric binder may comprise a trans-1,4-cyclohexane-based polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide composition, a 4,9-diamantane-based polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide composition, a 1,3-adamantane-based polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide composition, or a 1,4-bicyclo(2.2.2)octane-based polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide composition.
The present invention also provides a method of synthesizing a polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide composition incorporating cycloaliphatic or cage hydrocarbon structural units which comprises displacing activated aromatic fluoro groups in 4,4′-difluorotriphenylphosphine oxide with bisphenoxide ions derived from a bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl) hydrocarbon monomer.
Preferably, the monomer is selected from the group consisting of trans-1,4-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl)cyclohexane; 4,9-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl)diamantane, 1,3-bis(r-hydroxybenzoyl)adamantane, and 1,4-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl)bicyclo(2.2.2)octane.
In one embodiment, the synthetic route is
wherein n is greater than 1.0.
In another embodiment, the synthetic route is
wherein n is greater than 1.0.
In yet another embodiment, the synthetic route is
where n is greater than 1.0.
In yet another embodiment, the synthetic route is
wherein n is greater than 1.0.
Accordingly, it is a feature of the present invention to provide polyaryleneetherketone phosphine oxide compositions incorporating cycloaliphatic units for use as polymeric binders in thermal control coatings, and to a method for synthesizing the compositions. These, and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following detailed description, the accompanying drawings, and the appended claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a graph illustrating the TGA and DSC analyses of cyclohexane-based polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide; and
FIG. 2 is a graph illustrating the UV-visible spectra of dilute solutions of the polymers in chloroform.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Reference will now be made in detail to the preferred embodiments of the invention. In the synthesis of the polymeric binder of the present invention, three fundamental structures are used: an aryleneetherketone block, which imparts flexibility, processability and thermooxidative stability; a high temperature stable triphenylphosphine oxide block, which provides fire retardance and resistance to atomic oxygen in low earth orbit space environments; and a cycloaliphatic or cycloaliphatic cage-hydrocarbon structure for enhanced UV/visible transparency. This corresponds to the requirement of an absorption well below the solar absorption radiation maximum of 450 nm, as well as a desired overall UV reflectance due to little or no UV/visible absorptance in the 300–800 nm spectral range.
The present invention relates to the synthesis and characterization of a series of polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxides incorporating a cycloaliphatic unit (trans-1,4-cyclohexylene) or cycloaliphatic cage-like structural units such as 1,3-adamantane-diyl and 4,9-diamantane-diyl moieties.
The present invention also relates to the synthesis of monomers trans-1,4-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl)cyclohexane; 4,9-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl)diamantane, and 1,3-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl)adamantane. The respective cycloaliphatic diacid chloride, derived by the reaction of the corresponding diacid with excess thionyl chloride, may be reacted under Friedel-Crafts acylation conditions with anisole to yield the bis(4-methoxybenzoyl) compound which may be converted to the corresponding bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl) monomer by pyridine hydrochloride-mediated dealkylation.
The preparation of trans-1,4-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl)cyclohexane is illustrated below.
The structures of the 4,9-diamantane and 1,-3-adamantane-based monomers synthesized in accordance with the present invention are shown below.
Polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxides incorporating cycloaliphatic or cage hydrocarbon structural units may be synthesized by the nucleophilic displacement of the activated aromatic fluoro groups in 4,4′-difluorotriphenylphosphine oxide by the bisphenoxide ions derived from the bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl)hydrocarbon monomers described above. The polymerization reaction scheme for the preparation of the various polymers of the present invention is exemplified below for the trans-1,4-cyclohexane-based system.
The methodology described in this invention can also be applied to the preparation of other monomeric compositions, such as 1,4-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl)bicyclo(2.2.2)octane, and the polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide composition derived from the monomer. The chemical structures of the monomer and polymer incorporating the bicycloaliphatic system are shown below.
The polymers obtained from this system have a high molecular weight as evidenced by their dilute solution viscosities in N,N-dimethylacetamide, and polymer films cast from chloroform are transparent, flexible and very tough. These high performance polymers are also suitable for high temperature use as indicated by their Tgs, which range from 192° C. to 239° C. The polymers also exhibit high thermal and thermooxidative stability as they have decomposition temperatures ranging from 468° C. for the cyclohexane-based polymer to 515° C. for the diamantane-based polymer, in TGA in a helium atmosphere, and 469° C. to 493° C. in TGA in air. The solution properties and thermal and thermooxidative characteristics of these polymers are shown below in Table 1.
TABLE 1
Intrinsic
Viscosity
T g
TGA
(dL/g, 30° C.,
Film
(° C., DSC,
T d (max,
T d (max,
Polymer
DMAc)*
Solubility
Properties
N 2 )**
° C., He)***
° C., air)***
cyclohexane-
1.18
CH 2 Cl 2 ,
transparent,
215
468
469
based
CHCl 3 ,
colorless,
DMAc,
flexible,
DMF
very tough
diamantane-
0.43
CH 2 Cl 2,
transparent,
239
515
493
based
CHCl 3 ,
colorless,
DMAc,
flexible,
DMF
very tough
adamantane-
0.38
CH 2 Cl 2 ,
transparent,
192
510
491
based
CHCl 3 ,
colorless,
DMAc,
flexible,
DMF
very tough
*Initial concentration: 0.25 g/dL
**Rescan after heating to 250° C.
***Maximum weight loss for the temperature region
In order that the invention may be more readily understood, reference is made to the following examples of compositions within the scope of the present invention, which examples are intended to be illustrative of the invention, but are not intended to be limiting in scope.
EXAMPLE 1
Materials
4,4′-Difluorotriphenylphosphine oxide was purchased from Daychem Laboratories, trans-1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid and 1,3-adamantanedicarboxylic acid were purchased from TCI America, and 4,9-diamantanedicarboxylic acid was acquired from Fluorochem, Inc. Thionyl chloride, anhydrous anisole, aluminum chloride, potassium carbonate, pyridine hydrochloride, N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) and N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP) were purchased from Aldrich Co. All starting materials were used as received. All the synthesized monomers were characterized by melting point determination as well as by IR, NMR, mass spectral and elemental analyses.
Preparation of trans-1,4-bis(4-methoxybenzoyl)cyclohexane
A diacid chloride of trans-1,4-cyclohexanedicarboxylic acid was prepared by refluxing in thionyl chloride (SOCl 2 ) until a clear solution was obtained and then isolated by evaporation in vacuo. The crude product (6.33 g) was added slowly to a solution of AlCl 3 (9.7 g, 2.4 eq) and anhydrous anisole (33 g, 10 eq), chilled with an ice bath. The ice bath was removed and the reaction mixture was stirred overnight at room temperature under a nitrogen atmosphere. The thick orange mixture that resulted was precipitated in 0.1 M HCl and allowed to stir. The product was filtered, stirred in MeOH to remove traces of anisole, and the resulting fine white powder was vacuum-dried at 98° C. for 24 hours. The crude product was recrystallized from toluene to yield 9.52 g (89%) of the compound. (Melting point was 217–218° C.)
EXAMPLE 2
Preparation of trans-1,4-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl)cyclohexane monomer
The dimethoxy compound from Example 1 (9.0 g) was reacted neat with pyridine hydrochloride (29.5 g, 10 eq) for 3 hours at 225° C. The reaction mixture was cooled to 100° C., precipitated in 0.1 M HCl, and the crude product was recrystallized from MeOH (melting point 260–263° C.). Yield of the off-white platelet-like crystals was 6.2 g, 75%.
EXAMPLE 3
Preparation of 4,9-bis(4-methoxybenzoyl)diamantane
The diacid chloride of 4,9-diamantanedicarboxylic acid was obtained by the reaction of the diacid with excess thionyl chloride under reflux conditions until a clear solution resulted. The solid was isolated by evaporation of the solvent in vacuo. The crude product (6.6 g, 0.0211 mole) was added slowly to a solution of AlCl 3 (6.75 g) and anhydrous anisole (22.8 g), chilled with an ice bath. The reaction mixture was stirred overnight at room temperature under a nitrogen atmosphere. The product was precipitated by pouring into aqueous HCl (0.1M) stirred and filtered. This was further stirred in methanol to remove anisole, and the resulting solid was recrystallized from about 700 ml toluene and 100 ml THF to yield 6.9 g (72%, melting point 213–214° C.).
EXAMPLE 4
Preparation of 4.9-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl)diamantane monomer
In a round-bottomed flask fitted with a condenser, 4,9-bis(4-methoxybenzoyl)-diamantane (13.0 g, 0.0285 mole) was demethylated by heating with excess pyridine hydrochloride (33 g, 0.2850 mole) to 225° C. for three hours and the mixture was cooled. The product was precipitated in 40 ml concentrated HCl diluted with 200 ml water. The resulting solid was filtered and dried. The crude product was dissolved in tetrahydrofuran (THF) and hexane was added to the hot THF solution until the solution became slightly turbid. The solution was then slowly cooled to obtain crystals of the monomer (melting point 313–315° C.). Isolated yield was 7.0 g (57%).
EXAMPLE 5
Preparation of 1,3-bis(4-methoxybenzoyl)adamantane
1,3-Adamantanedicarboxylic acid (10.0 g) was converted into its diacid chloride by refluxing with 40 ml thionyl chloride. The acid chloride was obtained by evaporating off excess thionyl chloride. The diacid chloride (0.0438 mole, 11.45 g) was added slowly to a solution of AlCl 3 (14.03 g, 0.1052 mole) in anhydrous anisole (47.41 g, 0.4384 mole), chilled with an ice bath. The reaction mixture was stirred overnight at room temperature under a nitrogen atmosphere. The mixture was worked up in about 400 ml of 0.2 M HCl, filtered and stirred in methanol to precipitate a crude white solid. The solid was recrystallized from toluene to yield 11.6 grams of the crystals (66%, melting point 148–150° C.).
EXAMPLE 6
Preparation of 1,3-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl)adamantane monomer
11.0 g (0.0272 mole) of 1,3-bis(4-methoxybenzoyl)adamantane was placed in a 250 ml round-bottomed flask fitted with a reflux condenser, along with 31.5 g (0.272 mole) of pyridine hydrochloride. The slurry was heated to 225° C. for three hours and the product was precipitated in 40 ml concentrated HCl diluted with 200 ml water. The solid was filtered and dried. The solid was recrystallized from ethyl acetate. The isolated yield of the purified compound was 6.6 g (64%, melting point 208–209° C.).
EXAMPLE 7
Preparation of trans-1,4-cyclohexane-based polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide
A mixture of trans-1,4-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl)cyclohexane (1.2975 g), 4,4′-difluorotriphenylphosphine oxide (1.2571 g) and potassium carbonate (1.33 g, 2.4 eq) was added to a 100 ml three-neck round bottom flask equipped with a mechanical stirrer, nitrogen inlet/outlet, and a Dean-Stark trap. N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP, 16 ml) and toluene (about 30 ml) were added and the reaction mixture was allowed to reflux with stirring for at least 4 hours. Water was azeotroped off, and the temperature was raised to maintain reflux. After an hour, some of the NMP was collected in the Dean-Stark trap to remove any residual water and achieve a final concentration of 15% by weight. The polymerization was run at reflux temperature (about 215° C.) in NMP for 3 hours and was cooled to about 100° C. before precipitation into 400 ml of 50/50 MeOH/acetic acid (HOAc). The stringy solid was shredded in a blender, soxhlet-extracted with water, and then dried in a drying pistol at 100° C. under vacuum for 24 hours. The yield of the off-white polymer was 2.47 g (98%). The intrinsic viscosity of the polymer, measured in N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) at 30° C. for an initial concentration of 0.25 g/dl, was 1.18. The polymer was redissolved in chloroform and reprecipitated in heptane. After filtration, the polymer was again vacuum dried at 100° C., and then cast into transparent, tough and flexible films of various thicknesses from the chloroform solutions.
EXAMPLE 8
Preparation of 4,9-diamantane-based polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide
A mixture of 4,9-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl) diamantane (1.3212 g) and 4,4′-difluorotriphenylphosphine oxide (0.9689 g) and potassium carbonate (1.022 g, 2.4 equivalents) was added to a 100 mL three-neck round-bottom flask equipped with a mechanical stirrer, nitrogen inlet/outlet, and a Dean-Stark trap filled with dry toluene. DMAc (7.2 ml) and toluene (15 ml) were added and the reaction mixture was allowed to reflux with stirring for at least 4 hours. After removal of the azeotrope and excess toluene, the temperature was raised to 165° C. and the polymerization was allowed to proceed for 16 hours at the reflux temperature of DMAc. The calculated final polymer concentration was about 23 wt %. The polymer was precipitated in water, shredded in a blender and filtered. The solid was dried under vacuum for 24 hours at 100° C. 1.98 g of the polymer was isolated (92% yield). The intrinsic viscosity of the polymer, measured in DMAc at 30° C., was 0.27 dl/g for an initial polymer concentration of 0.0632 g/25 ml.
EXAMPLE 9
Preparation of 4,9-diamantane-based polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide
A mixture of 4,9-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl)diamantane (1.3212 g), 4,4′-difluorotriphenylphosphine oxide (0.9689 g) and potassium carbonate (1.022 g, 2.4 equivalents) was added to a 100 mL three-neck round-bottom flask equipped with a mechanical stirrer, nitrogen inlet/outlet, and a Dean-Stark trap filled with dry toluene. NMP (7.2 ml) and toluene (15 ml) were added and the reaction mixture was allowed to reflux with stirring for at least 4 hours. After removal of the azeotrope and excess toluene, the polymerization was run for 16 hours at 165° C. The calculated final polymer concentration was about 23 wt %. The polymer was precipitated in water, shredded in a blender, and filtered. The solid was dried under vacuum for 24 hours at 100° C. The isolated yield of the polymer was 2.05 g (95%). The intrinsic viscosity of the polymer, measured in DMAc at 30° C., was 0.31 dl/g for an initial polymer concentration of 0.0625 g/25 ml.
EXAMPLE 10
Preparation of 4,9-diamantane-based polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide
A mixture of 4,9-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl)diamantane (2.5711 g, 6×10 −3 mole) and 4,4′-difluorotriphenylphosphine oxide (1.8856 g, 6×10 −3 mole) and potassium carbonate (1.99 g, 14.4×10 −3 moles) was added to a 100 mL, three-neck round-bottom flask equipped with a mechanical stirrer, nitrogen inlet/outlet, and a Dean-Stark trap. N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP, 23 ml) and toluene (about 50 ml) were added and the reaction mixture was allowed to reflux with stirring for at least 4 hours. After removal of the azeotrope and excess toluene, the reaction temperature was raised to 215° C. and the polymerization was run for about 5 hours. The calculated final polymer concentration was about 15 wt %. The mixture was cooled to about 100° C. before precipitation into 500 ml of 50/50 MeOH/HOAc. The stringy solid was shredded in a blender, soxhlet-extracted with water, and then dried in a drying pistol at 100° C. under vauum for 24 hours. The isolated yield of the polymer was 3.89 g (about 93%). The intrinsic viscosity of the polymer, measured in N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) at 30° C. for an initial concentration of 0.25 g/dl, was 0.43. The polymer was redissolved in chloroform, treated with activated charcoal for 15 minutes and filtered. The polymer was reprecipitated in heptane and the filtered polymer was dried in a drying pistol at 100° C. under vacuum overnight. Elemental analysis of the polymer sample for C 46 H 39 O 5 P showed the following, calculated: C, 78.61; H, 5.60; P, 4.41; O, 11.38. found: C, 77.23; H, 5.48; P, 4.10; O, 11.10. 0.03 g of the polymer was redissolved in 10 ml chloroform and a transparent, tough, flexible polymer thin film (about 5μ thick) was cast from the filtered polymer solution by evaporating the solvent from a flat casting dish. FT-IR spectrum of the polymer thin film was corroborative of the expected chemical structure of the polymer. The spectral features are indicative of an aromatic C—H stretch at 3058 cm −1 , the distinct diamantane secondary and tertiary C—H stretching frequencies at 2918 and 2874 cm −1 , an intense carbonyl stretch at 1667 cm −1 due to the aryl adamantyl ketone group, a strong aromatic C═C at 1587 cm −1 , a very intense asymmetric —C—O—C— stretch at 1241 cm −1 due to the diphenylether linkage and a strong P═O stretch at 1170 cm −1 due to the arylphosphine oxide unit.
EXAMPLE 11
Preparation of 1,3-adamantane-based polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide
A mixture of 1,3-bis(4-hydroxybenzoyl)adamantane (2.2589 g, 6×10 −3 mole) and 4,4′-difluorotriphenylphosphine oxide (1.8856 g, 6×10 −3 mole) and potassium carbonate (1.99 g, 14.4×10 −3 mole) was added to a 100 mL, three-neck round-bottom flask equipped with a mechanical stirrer, nitrogen inlet/outlet, and a Dean-Stark trap. N-methylpyrrolidone (NMP, 23 ml) and toluene (about 50 ml) were added and the reaction mixture was allowed to reflux with stirring for at least 4 hours. After removal of the azeotrope and excess toluene, the reaction temperature was raised to 215° C. and the polymerization was run for about 3.5 hours. The mixture was cooled to about 100° C. before precipitation into 500 ml of 50/50 MeOH/HOAc. The stringy solid was shredded in a blender, soxhlet-extracted with water, and then dried in a drying pistol at 100° C. under vacuum for 24 hours. The isolated yield of the polymer was 3.7 g (about 95%). The intrinsic viscosity of the polymer, measured in N,N-dimethylacetamide (DMAc) at 30° C. for an initial concentration of 0.25 g/dl, was 0.38. A transparent, tough, flexible polymer film was cast from the filtered polymer solution in chloroform by evaporating the solvent from a flat casting dish.
In the foregoing specification, the invention has been described with reference to specific embodiments. However, one of ordinary skill in the art appreciates that various modifications and changes can be made without departing from the skill of the present invention as set forth in the claims below. Accordingly, the specification and figures are to be regarded in an illustrative rather than a restrictive sense, and all such modifications are intended to be included within the scope of the present invention.
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Polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide compositions incorporating cycloaliphatic units are provided which may be used as a polymeric binders in thermal control coatings for use in space environments. A method is also provided for synthesizing the polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide compositions. A method is also provided for synthesizing the monomeric compositions used to make the polyaryleneetherketone triphenylphosphine oxide compositions.
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the priority of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/620,701, filed Oct. 21, 2004 (entitled “Electrostatic Air-To-Air Particle Concentrator”), and of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 60/654,781, filed Feb. 18, 2005 (entitled “Electrostatic Gas-To-Gas Particle Concentrator And Collection”), both of which are herein incorporated by reference in their entireties.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention generally relates to the sampling of air, and more particularly relates to the collection of pathogen and aerosol particles from air samples.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Among the challenges facing the nation in the post-Cold War, post-9/11 eras, the threat of biological warfare and subsequent spread of contamination may prove to be the most insidious. Therefore, there is a need for small, inexpensive devices to collect, concentrate, detect and identify airborne biological contaminants (e.g., in buildings, enclosed facilities, and other open areas). Challenges that currently face the deployed and developing biological collection/concentration platforms are at least four-fold.
[0004] A first concern is the power consumption and achievable particle concentration of the collection technology. Existing collection and concentration technologies are based on inertial methods, which use tremendous amounts of power (e.g., several hundreds of watts). Although these technologies can produce high flow rate concentrations, they typically result in low overall particle concentration (e.g., 20-30×) due to inefficient particle collection. Other alternative technologies (e.g., acoustic and electrostatic technologies) do not have the capability to concentrate particles in the desired 50-100× range.
[0005] A second concern relates to biological single-particle triggers and the need for an output stream with a small diameter and low velocity. Existing optical trigger devices require a high particle concentration with a radially confined airflow stream of less than Ø1.5 mm to ensure single particle triggering with high specificity.
[0006] A third concern is the efficiency of methods used to capture sub-micron particles and liquid chemical aerosols. Biological threats could be packaged in sub-micron particulate aerosols and/or liquid chemical aerosols. Existing collection and concentration systems are unable to capture sub-micron particles with appropriate efficiencies (e.g., >50%) in order to be detected. Additionally, existing systems are unable to collect and concentrate liquid chemical aerosols.
[0007] A fourth concern is the ability to obtain statistically meaningful measurements in clean room environments. A class 1 clean room is defined as a space in which only a single particle exists per cubic meter. Most conventional particle size analyzers that can measure single particles have very low input air flow rates (e.g., approximately 1 lpm); consequently, it takes a very long time (e.g., approximately 1000 minutes) to find a single particle. Moreover, a large number of semiconductor lots must be processed. Thus, the sample rate is too low to justify its measurement.
[0008] Small, inexpensive devices to collect, concentrate, detect and identify airborne biological contaminants could also be useful in industry. For example, as semiconductor geometries are reduced well into the sub-micron range, the ever-present anathema of particle contamination onto the surfaces of wafers becomes more problematic. Clean room strategies are changing to meet this problem and increase circuit yields. The typical solution in the clean room has been to segment the clean area into smaller and smaller spaces such that a “clean area” within the clean room is becoming the standard approach for semiconductor processing.
[0009] As the areas and “clean” volumes are reduced, it is more economical to constantly monitor the particulate in the “clean” air such that the information can be reliably used as a process control. The air-to-air concentrator provides and important function for the measurement of the “clean air”.
[0010] The measurement problem is one of accuracy. A class 1 clean room is defined as a space where there exists a single particle per cubic meter. Most particle size analyzers that can measure single particles have very low input air flow rates. Typically the air flow rate into such an instrument is about 1 liter per minute. At this sampling rate, 1000 minutes would be required to find a single particle and many semiconductor lots would have been processed. Thus, the sample rate is too low to justify its measurement. However, if air sampling of a cubic meter of air could take place over three minutes, then a measurement per lot may be possible and contribute to an increase in the yield of the product.
[0011] Thus, there is a need for an airborne particle concentration and collection.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0012] Embodiments of an apparatus for concentrating and collecting airborne particles (e.g., biological aerosols) from an air sample include an inlet adapted for receiving the air sample (e.g., from an external or surrounding environment), a first diffuser coupled to the inlet and adapted to concentrate the airborne particles into a particle flow, and at least a second diffuser coupled to the first diffuser in a cascaded configuration and adapted to further concentrate the particle flow.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0013] So that the manner in which the above recited embodiments of the invention are attained and can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention, briefly summarized above, may be had by reference to the embodiments thereof which are illustrated in the appended drawings. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of this invention and are therefore not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
[0014] FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of one embodiment of an apparatus 100 for collecting and concentrating airborne particles, according to the present invention.
[0015] To facilitate understanding, identical reference numerals have been used, where possible, to designate identical elements that are common to the figures.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0016] Embodiments of the invention generally provide a compact, lightweight, low power and low noise device capable of collecting respirable airborne particles and focusing them into a smaller, more concentrated volume. In one embodiment, the device comprises a plurality of cascaded conical diffusers that employ a careful balance of aerodynamic and electrostatic forces to collect and slow airborne particles into a radially concentrated air stream with entrained particles. Embodiments of the present invention are capable of achieving a particle concentration of approximately 300 times or more, depending on efficiency at particle size.
[0017] FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional view of one embodiment of an apparatus 100 for collecting and concentrating airborne particles, according to the present invention. The apparatus 100 may be incorporated in a particle collection system such as that described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/603,119 (entitled “Method And Apparatus For Concentrated Airborne Particle Collection”), which is herein incorporated by reference in its entirety. In the illustrated embodiment, the apparatus 100 comprises an inlet 102 , a first diffuser 104 , at least a second diffuser 106 and an outlet 108 .
[0018] The inlet 102 is adapted to receive an input gas or air stream containing airborne particles (e.g., from the surrounding environment) and provide the input air stream to the first diffuser 104 for initial concentration. In one embodiment, the inlet 102 is adapted to receive air flows at a volumetric rate of up to 300 L/min.
[0019] The first diffuser 104 is a high-volume diffuser (e.g., where “high” is a relative term in relation to the second diffuser 106 ). The first diffuser 104 is adapted to receive an input air stream from the inlet 102 and uniformly reduce the air flow velocity. The reduction in airflow velocity enables forces other than those associated with the principle gas or air flow to be brought to bear. In one embodiment, the first diffuser 104 reduces the volume of the input air stream by approximately five to ten times (e.g., from 300 L/min to as little as 30 L/min).
[0020] The first diffuser 104 is substantially conical in shape, with the narrower end 110 of the cone interfaced to the inlet 102 . The wider end 112 of the cone-shaped first diffuser 104 is interfaced to the second diffuser 106 via a grounded, small-diameter output tube 114 that receives the reduced-speed air stream and provides the reduced-speed air stream to the second diffuser 106 . The conical shape of the first diffuser 104 aids in uniformly reducing the velocity of the input air stream and particles as they travel through the increasing cross section. The diameters of the first diffuser 104 at the narrower end 110 and the wider end 112 are chosen to ensure laminar flow and substantially prevent recirculation zones at the edges of the walls of the first diffuser 104 . In one embodiment, the ratio of the diameter of the narrower end 110 to the diameter of the wider end 112 is determined by an included cone angle of less than approximately fifteen degrees.
[0021] In addition, the first diffuser 104 includes a first directed air flow inlet 120 positioned near the narrower end 110 of the cone (e.g., near the inlet 102 ). The first directed air flow inlet 120 is adapted to provide a high-velocity sheath of air at the wall of the first diffuser 104 . This high-velocity sheath of air will aid in reducing air flow separation at the narrower end 110 of the cone, thereby helping to keep airborne particles from adhering to the walls of the first diffuser 104 and improving overall particle efficiency of the apparatus 100 . In one embodiment, several directed air flow inlets may be positioned near the narrower end 110 of the cone in order to provide several high-velocity directed air flows.
[0022] In further embodiments still, the first diffuser 104 further comprises a first AC corona discharge component 130 positioned near the wider end 112 of the cone (e.g., around the output tube 114 ). The first AC corona discharge component 130 helps to improve concentration efficiency in the output air stream, as discussed in further detail below.
[0023] The second diffuser 106 is a low-volume diffuser (e.g., where “low” is a relative term in relation to the first diffuser 104 ). The second diffuser 106 is adapted to receive the reduced-speed air stream from the first diffuser 104 (e.g., via the output tube 114 ) and slow down the air flow down even further. In one embodiment, the second diffuser 106 reduces the volume of the input air stream by approximately another sixty times (e.g., from 30 L/min to 0.5 L/min). Thus, the first diffuser 104 and the second diffuser 106 in combination are capable of reducing the input air volume by approximately six hundred times its original volume. In one embodiment, the length, L 2 of the second diffuser, is smaller than the length, L 1 of the first diffuser.
[0024] Like the first diffuser 104 , the second diffuser 106 is substantially conical in shape, with the narrower end 116 of the cone interfaced to the first diffuser 104 (e.g., via the output tube 114 ). The wider end 118 of the cone-shaped second diffuser 106 is interfaced to the outlet 108 . The conical shape of the first diffuser 106 aids in uniformly reducing the velocity of the input air stream and particles as they travel through the increasing cross section. The diameters of the second diffuser 106 at the narrower end 116 and the wider end 118 are chosen to ensure laminar flow and substantially prevent recirculation zones at the edges of the walls of the second diffuser 106 . In one embodiment, the ratio of the diameter of the narrower end 116 to the diameter of the wider end 118 is determined by an included cone angle of less than approximately fifteen degrees.
[0025] In addition, the second diffuser 106 includes a second directed air flow inlet 122 positioned near the narrower end 116 of the cone (e.g., near the output tube 114 ). The second directed air flow inlet 122 is adapted to provide a high-velocity sheath of air at the wall of the second diffuser 106 . This high-velocity sheath of air will aid in reducing air flow separation at the narrower end 116 of the cone, thereby helping to keep airborne particles from adhering to the walls of the second diffuser 106 and improving overall particle efficiency of the apparatus 100 . In one embodiment, several directed air flow inlets may be positioned near the narrower end 116 of the cone in order to provide several high-velocity directed air flows.
[0026] The outlet 108 is adapted to receive the reduced volume (and thus reduced-speed) air stream from the second diffuser 106 and to provide the reduced-speed air stream to any one of a number of bio-detection triggers (not shown, e.g., including bio-detector triggers requiring single-particle interrogation) or to other target surfaces or devices for subsequent analysis. In one embodiment, the outlet 108 is adapted to interface directly to a bio-detection trigger. In further embodiments, the geometry of the outlet 108 is designed to generate higher aerodynamic velocity within the outlet 108 (as compared to within the second diffuser 106 ). In one embodiment, higher aerodynamic velocity within the outlet 108 is generated by reducing the diameter of the end of the outlet 108 (e.g., near the portion that interfaces with a bio-detection trigger). In one embodiment, the outlet 108 has a diameter of approximately 1.5 mm. In further embodiments, the outlet 108 is grounded. In further embodiments still, the outlet 108 further comprises a second AC corona discharge component 128 positioned near the entrance of the outlet 108 (e.g., within the second diffuser 106 ). The second AC corona discharge component 128 helps to improve concentration efficiency in the output air stream, as discussed in further detail below.
[0027] In further embodiments, the apparatus 100 further comprises an electrostatic focusing system for creating a radially concentrated particle stream within the main stream of the input air flow. In one embodiment, the electrostatic focusing system comprises a first radial array 124 of corona electrodes, a second radial array 126 of corona electrodes, the grounded output tube 114 and the grounded outlet 108 . The first radial array 124 is positioned around the wall (e.g., around at least a portion of the circumference) of the first diffuser 104 (e.g., between the narrower end 110 and the wider end 112 ). The second radial array 126 is positioned around the wall (e.g., around at least a portion of the circumference) of the second diffuser 106 (e.g., between the narrower end 116 and the wider end 118 ). In further embodiments, the first and second radial arrays 124 and 126 of corona electrodes may be positioned closer to the entrances of the first and second diffusers 104 and 106 , respectively.
[0028] Although the apparatus 100 is illustrated as comprising two diffusers (i.e., first diffuser 104 and second diffuser 106 ), it will be appreciated that embodiments of the apparatus 100 may comprise more than two diffusers configured similarly to the first diffuser 104 and the second diffuser 106 and collectively arranged in a cascaded orientation to increase the input volume flow rate of the apparatus 100 .
[0029] In operation, the apparatus 100 receives an input air stream, containing airborne particles (e.g., aerosol particles), through the inlet 102 . In one embodiment, the input air stream is drawn in at least in part by a fan in the first diffuser 104 (e.g., positioned near the wider end 112 , but not shown). As the input air stream travels from the inlet 102 into the first diffuser 104 , the directed air flow provided by the first directed air flow inlet 120 provides a sheath of air to keep particles off the walls of the first diffuser 104 , thereby reducing the number of particles that adhere to the diffuser walls. The velocity of the input air stream slows by up to approximately ten times as the input air stream travels from the narrower end 110 of the first diffuser 104 to the wider end 112 . In addition, the incoming particles are charged to a common polarity by the first radial array 124 of corona electrodes, which creates a large ion density that attaches ions to the surfaces of the particles. In the case where the first radial array 124 of corona electrodes is positioned near the entrance of the first diffuser 104 , the particles will be charged as they enter the diffuser. Moreover, an electrostatic field generated between the first array 124 of corona electrodes and the grounded output tube 114 focuses the particles into roughly the center of the air flow through the first diffuser 104 , thereby providing a higher concentration of particles to the second diffuser 106 .
[0030] In one embodiment, particles are extracted out of the first diffuser 104 through output tube 114 by a fan (not shown) positioned near the wider end 118 of the second diffuser 106 . The excess air in the first diffuser 104 exits through the wider end 112 of the first diffuser 104 via a fan (not shown) positioned near the wider end 112 , leaving a more concentrated particle-to-air volume ratio than the originally input particle-to-air volume ratio. The first AC corona discharge component 130 helps to discharge extracted particles upon exit from the first diffuser 104 , preventing the particles from adhering to the grounded output tube 114 .
[0031] At the output tube 114 , the first AC corona discharge component 130 produces ions of both positive and negative polarity. The alternating electric field and ion current neutralizes particles entering the output tube 114 , thereby substantially reducing the number of particles that adhere to the walls of the output tube 114 . Particle extraction from the output tube 114 is also enhanced by the geometry of the output tube 114 itself, which generates higher aerodynamic velocity within the output tube 114 . The localized particle discharge achieved by the first AC corona discharge component 130 , combined with the aerodynamic extraction achieved by the geometry of the output tube 114 further improves the efficiency of the apparatus 100 by providing improved particle concentration in particles in the output air stream. Excess air (e.g., substantially depleted of airborne particles) is discharged though the wider end 112 of the first diffuser 104 (e.g., around the output tube 114 ).
[0032] Air flow through the second diffuser 106 is affected by much the same forces. The slowed down, radially concentrated air flow from the first diffuser 104 is received by the second diffuser 106 via the output tube 114 . This radially concentrated flow is additionally slowed as is travels from the narrower end 116 of the second diffuser 106 to the wider end 118 , where the electrostatic forces now dominate the aerodynamic forces, thereby allowing the particles to be concentrated into the center of the second diffuser 106 . Directed air flow provided by the second directed air flow inlet 122 reduces the number of particles that adhere to the diffuser walls. The second radial array 126 of corona electrodes recharges the discharged particles from the previous stage, and, via electrostatic fields created between the second radial array 126 of corona electrodes and the grounded outlet 108 , pushes the charged particles to the center of the second diffuser 106 , further concentrating the particles. The further concentrated particles are then extracted (e.g., by suction created through the outlet 108 by a fan or pump, not shown) via the grounded outlet 108 , in a manner similar to the extraction from the grounded output tube 114 described above. The excess, substantially particle-free air exits the second diffuser 106 through the wider end 118 of the second diffuser 106 (e.g., assisted by a fan). Thus, a significantly reduced volume of air having a high particle concentration (e.g., approximately 300 to 600 times the original input airflow) is ultimately provided to the outlet 108 .
[0033] At the outlet 108 , the particles are extracted in a manner similar to extraction through the output tube 114 (e.g., implementing the second AC corona discharge component 128 in conjunction with the geometry of the outlet 108 itself, which, as described above, generates higher aerodynamic velocity within the outlet 108 ). Excess air (e.g., substantially depleted of airborne particles) is discharged though the wider end 118 of the second diffuser 106 (e.g., around the outlet 108 ).
[0034] In an alternative embodiment, where the output concentrated particle flow is to be deposited onto a target or test surface, a high voltage (e.g., approximately −10 Kv) is applied to the outlet 108 to produce a corona discharge at the tip of the outlet 108 . The exiting particles are then charged and can be selectively deposited onto a grounded substrate.
[0035] The design of the apparatus 100 thereby provides improved particle concentration in a sampled air flow by using a multi-stage cascaded diffuser design enhanced with electrostatic and aerodynamic manipulation of incoming particles. Moreover, the design is easily scalable to higher flow rates, maintaining concentration and efficiency at low power by adding extra cascaded diffusers. In one embodiment, scalability is enhanced relative to the first diffuser 104 by adding more corona electrodes to the first radial array 124 of corona electrodes, by increasing the electric potential of the corona electrodes in the first radial array 124 , and by increasing the ion current between the first radial array 124 of corona electrodes and the grounded output tube 114 when enlarging the size of the first diffuser 104 . Both the first diffuser 104 and the second diffuser 106 employ the same principles of aerodynamics and electrostatics to collect and slow down incoming air flows (including airborne particles) into a radially concentrated particle stream.
[0036] The second diffuser 106 consumes less power (e.g., less than approximately 10 Watts) that the first diffuser 104 (e.g., less than approximately 30 Watts) because the distance from the second radial array 126 of corona electrodes in the second diffuser 106 is a shorter distance from the grounded outlet 108 than the first radial array 124 of corona electrodes in the first diffuser 104 is from the grounded output tube 114 .
[0037] Moreover, the ability to manipulate particle flow more precisely (e.g., through use of the aerodynamic and electrostatic manipulation of particles into a concentrated, low velocity airflow) may be applied to advantage in other scenarios, such as the localization of particle samples for processing (e.g., deposit onto a test or target surface) and the sorting of particles (e.g., removal from a main gas or air flow).
[0038] Thus, the present invention represents a significant advancement in the field of bio-aerosol collection. The present invention provides a simple, yet powerful approach for concentrating particulates while maintaining high collection efficiency through a balance of electrostatic and aerodynamic forces. Moreover, the present invention achieves advanced charging and focusing of airborne particles through electrostatic control and low-volume particle extraction based on discharging and aerodynamic extraction. The inherent scalability of the present invention also makes it practical for use in a wide variety of applications, including field applications in which pollutants, chemical, biological and nuclear threats must be removed or detected (e.g., from building ventilation systems, stadiums, public gathering points and other sites in which large amounts of human traffic pass).
[0039] While the foregoing is directed to embodiments of the invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic scope thereof, and the scope thereof is determined by the claims that follow.
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Embodiments of an apparatus for concentrating and collecting airborne particles (e.g., biological aerosols) from an air sample include an inlet adapted for receiving the air sample (e.g., from an external or surrounding environment), a first diffuser coupled to the inlet and adapted to concentrate the airborne particles into a particle flow, and at least a second diffuser coupled to the first diffuser in a cascaded configuration and adapted to further concentrate the particle flow.
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CLAIM OF PRIORITY
[0001] The present application claims priority from Japanese Patent application serial no. 2013-234681, filed on Nov. 13, 2013, the content of which is hereby incorporated by reference into this application.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] The invention relates to a fabrication method of a steam turbine blade equipped with an erosion shield, and in particular, to a method of fabricating a steam turbine blade by joining an erosion shield to a steam turbine blade by means of welding.
BACKGROUND ART
[0003] With a steam-power steam turbine or a nuclear power generation steam turbine, an erosion protection material is jointed to the leading edge of a steam turbine blade, on a side thereof, adjacent to steam-inflow with a shim material interposed therebetween through GTAW (Gas Tungsten Arc Welding) or electron beam welding in order to prevent erosion from occurring at the leading edge of the steam turbine blade for use in wet steam, as described in Patent Literatures 1 through 3.
[0004] In general, in the case of joining executed by single-layer welding, using an electron beam, a welding condition, such as an acceleration voltage, an electron beam current, a welding speed, a focal length, etc., is finely adjusted against the type and the board thickness of a constituent material to thereby select an optimum condition for preventing occurrence of burn through before the joining is executed.
CITATION LIST
[0005] [Patent Literature 1] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. S62(1987)-250124
[0006] [Patent Literature 2] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. S63(1988)-97802
[0007] [Patent Literature 3] Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. Hei 05(1993)-23920
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Technical Problem
[0008] As higher efficiency of the steam turbine has been attained in recent years, there have been advances in trends toward a longer length of the blade of a turbine blade, and rendering of the turbine blade in a three-dimensional shape, for the purpose of attaining flow optimization, resulting in an increase of the board thickness of the erosion protection material. In the case where the single-layer welding by use of downward electron beam welding is applied to a blade material, an erosion protection material, and a shim material, each of which is larger in thickness, metal melted by heat of the electron beam is caused to flow downward due to empty weight, concurrently with the electron beam penetrating through the board, thereby causing occurrence of burn through of molten metal. A resultant occurrence of an undercut of a bead surface will pose an important issue in the joining of the erosion protection material from a fabrication point of view.
[0009] Further, with welding using an electron beam, the larger the thickness of a weldment as a target is, the greater will be the need for increasing a welding current value, that is, an output. Still further, with a low-voltage electron beam welding machine, there is the need for rendering a working current value larger than that for a high-voltage electron beam welding machine. As the output is increased, so does a deviation of an electron beam output, and the range of an optimum welding condition for the single-layer welding will become narrower. The deviation in a welding current will become the cause of a defect due to the burn through of the molten metal and incomplete fusion, thereby causing the joining of the erosion protection material through the single-layer welding using the electron beam welding to be extremely difficult.
[0010] There is conceivably a method whereby a stiffening plate is placed on the back side of a groove, in a joint geometry, to thereby prevent occurrence of the burn through in order to cope with the burn through occurring at the time of application of the electron beam welding. With this method, however, there arises the need for preparing a backing material aside from those materials for use in fabrication, resulting in occurrence of a supply cost of the backing material, so that the method has demerits in terms of a fabrication cost.
[0011] It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a fabrication method of a steam turbine blade equipped with an erosion shield, whereby an erosion shield can be welded to the leading edge of a steam turbine blade by electron beam welding without separately preparing a backing material, while preventing occurrence of burn through.
Solution to Problem
[0012] According to one aspect of the present invention, there is provided a method of fabricating a steam turbine blade equipped with an erosion shield. The method includes the steps of preparing constituent elements including the steam turbine blade having a blade part, the erosion shield, and a shim, wherein any of the constituent elements has a backing part to serve as a backing for preventing burn through of molten metal at the time of the electron beam welding; assembling the constituent elements so that the backing part is arranged on the back side of a groove; performing electron beam welding to the leading edge part of the blade part, the erosion shield and the shim while utilizing the backing; and applying a machining work including removal of the backing part after the electron beam welding so as to be finished up in the final shape of the blade part as a target.
Advantageous Effects of Invention
[0013] With the present invention, an erosion shield can be welded to the leading edge of a steam turbine blade without separately preparing a backing material, while preventing occurrence of burn through.
[0014] Other problems, configurations, and effects of the invention will be apparent from the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0015] FIGS. 1 ( a ) through 1 ( d ) each are a view illustrating the flow of a joining process for an erosion protection material, according to an embodiment of the present invention (a first embodiment);
[0016] FIGS. 2 ( a ) through 2 ( d ) each are a view illustrating the flow of a joining process for an erosion protection material, according to another embodiment of the present invention (a second embodiment);
[0017] FIGS. 3 ( a ) through 3 ( d ) each are a view illustrating the flow of a joining process for an erosion protection material, according to still another embodiment of the present invention (a third embodiment); and
[0018] FIG. 4 is a general view of a steam turbine blade as an example of the steam turbine blade to which each embodiment of the present invention is applied.
DESCRIPTION OF EMBODIMENTS
[0019] Embodiments of the present invention are described below with reference to the accompanied drawings.
[0020] FIG. 4 is a general view of a steam turbine blade, as an example of a steam turbine blade to which each of the embodiments of the present invention is applied. FIG. 4 illustrates the turbine blade in the final stage of the steam turbine in the case of a low pressure turbine. The steam turbine blade has a blade part 1 , a shroud cove 7 , a coupling part 8 to be coupled with a turbine rotor, and an erosion shield 2 provided at a leading edge part of the blade part (on the steam inflow side of the steam turbine blade), on the tip side thereof. In each of FIGS. 1( a ) through 3( d ) to be referred to later on, there is shown the blade part of the steam turbine blade, in cross section, taken on line A-A of FIG. 4 .
First Embodiment
[0021] FIGS. 1 ( a ) through 1 ( d ) each illustrate a fabrication process of a steam turbine blade, according to a first embodiment of the present invention. A leading edge part of the tip of the steam turbine blade is shown in the respective figures. Constituent materials (constituent elements) that constitute the steam turbine blade are composed of the blade part 1 of the steam turbine blade, the erosion shield 2 , and a shim 3 disposed between the blade part 1 and the erosion shield 2 , as shown in FIG. 1 ( a ) . For the turbine blade, use is made of a Ti alloy (for example, a Ti alloy containing 16% Al, and 4% V), 12-Cr stainless steel, etc. For the erosion shield, use is made of an erosion-resistant Ti alloy (for example, a Ti alloy containing 15% Mo, 5% Zr, and 13% Al) if the turbine blade is made of the Ti alloy, while use is made of a Co alloy if the turbine blade is made of 12-Cr stainless steel. For the shim, use is made of a Ti-made shim or an Ni alloy-made shim, both lower in hardness than the turbine blade and the erosion shield.
[0022] The blade part 1 , the erosion shield 2 , and the shim 3 are assembled, as shown in FIG. 1 ( b ) . With the present embodiment, a mechanism for prevention of burn through occurring at the time of the electron beam welding is provided in the shim 3 . More specifically, a part of the shim 3 is used to serve as the mechanism for prevention of the burn through, provided on the back side of a groove, that is, on the outlet side of the electron beam. With the present embodiment, the shim 3 is in a sectional shape resembling the letter T as inverted. And tack welding 9 using GTAW is applied to respective back surfaces of the blade part 1 , the erosion shield 2 , and the shim 3 , opposite from an incidence side of the electron beam, (on the upper side in the figure), and the blade part 1 , the erosion shield 2 , and the shim 3 are attached to each other in such a way as to minimize a gap therebetween so as to have no opening in the gap.
[0023] Thereafter, the single-layer welding by use of the electron beam welding is applied ( FIG. 1 ( c ) ). With the electron beam welding according to the present embodiment, the single-layer welding is applied to the blade part 1 , the erosion shield 2 , and the shim 3 by use of low-voltage electron beam welding (for example, up to 60 KW) using the low-voltage electron beam welding machine. At this point in time, occurrence of burn through at a weld metal part 4 is prevented by means of the mechanism for prevention of the burn through, composed of the part of the shim 3 . By so doing, it is possible to expand tolerance of an electron beam condition in the case of the low-voltage electron beam welding.
[0024] Subsequently, portions of the respective constituent materials, including the mechanism for prevention of the burn through, are removed by a machining work so as to be finished up in the shape of the blade part as a target ( FIG. 1 ( d ) ). In this machining work, removal of the mechanism for prevention of the burn through, provided in the shim 3 , including removal of portions denoted by reference sign 10 shown in FIG. 1 ( c ) is executed. The removal of the portions denoted by the reference sign 10 is executed so that the blade part of the turbine blade can have the three-dimensional shape for the purpose of flow optimization. A finish processing is executed as appropriate after the machining work.
[0025] In the machining work shown in FIG. 1 ( d ) , a weld tip at the time of the electron beam welding, are also removed. The weld tip is susceptible to formation of a blowhole, however, since the portions denoted by reference sign 10 , including the weld tip, are removed, the soundness of a welded joint is secured.
[0026] With the present embodiment, as a backing function is imparted to a constituent material (the shim in the case of the present embodiment) by making use of the constituent material, joining of the erosion shield to the leading edge of the steam turbine blade (joining of an erosion protection plate to the board of the blade material as a target by means of one-time welding) is enabled by the single-layer welding of the low-voltage electron beam welding without separately preparing the backing material, while preventing occurrence of the burn through. Accordingly, a cost for preparing a separate backing material is saved, and a fabrication cost can be reduced. In the case of an increase in board thickness with respect to the blade part, the erosion shield, and the shim, respectively, in particular, (at the time of an increase in the board thickness, burn through is liable to occur), the joining of the erosion shield can be easily executed. Accordingly, it is possible to fabricate a steam turbine blade designed to suit for a longer turbine blade, and a more complex three-dimensional shape by use of the electron beam welding.
[0027] Further, with the present embodiment, the steam turbine blade excellent in strength can be obtained owing to lack of an unwelded part. Still further, since the groove shape of the blade part 1 as well as the erosion shield 2 will be linear, it is also possible to obtain advantageous effects in that the groove shape can be easily formed.
Second Embodiment
[0028] A second embodiment of the present invention is described below with reference to FIGS. 2 ( a ) through 2 ( d ). Description of parts in the second embodiment, identical to those in the first embodiment, is omitted.
[0029] With the present embodiment, a part of the constituent material of a blade part 1 , is used as the mechanism for prevention of burn through, provided on the back face of a groove, that is, on the outlet side of an electron beam. With the present embodiment, a joining area between the part of the constituent material of the blade part 1 , and an erosion shield 2 is formed in a shape resembling the letter L. A shim 3 and the erosion shield 2 are fitted to a protrusion (pedestal) of the blade part 1 , in a shape resembling the letter L. The protrusion in the shape resembling the letter L acts as the mechanism for prevention of the burn through. Otherwise, the present embodiment is similar to the first embodiment, and after the electron beam welding, a machining work including removal of the protrusion of the blade part 1 , in the shape resembling the letter L, is executed so as to be finished up in the shape of a turbine blade as a target.
[0030] With the present embodiment as well, advantageous effects basically identical to those of the first embodiment are obtained.
Third Embodiment
[0031] A third embodiment of the present invention is described below with reference to FIGS. 3 ( a ) through 3 ( d ). Description of parts in the third embodiment, identical to those in the first embodiment, is omitted.
[0032] With the present embodiment, part of the constituent material of an erosion shield 2 is used as the mechanism for prevention of burn through, provided on the back of a groove, that is, on the outlet side of an electron beam. With the present embodiment, a joining area between the part of the constituent material of the erosion shield 2 and a blade part 1 is formed in a shape resembling the letter L when viewed from the back side of the drawing in FIGS. 3( a ) and 3( b ) . A shim 3 and the erosion shield 2 having a protrusion (pedestal) in the shape resembling the letter L are fitted to the blade part 1 . The protrusion in the shape resembling the letter L acts as the mechanism for prevention of the burn through. Otherwise, the present embodiment is similar to the first embodiment, and after the electron beam welding, a machining work including removal of the protrusion of the erosion shield 2 , in the shape resembling the letter L, is executed so as to be finished up in the shape of a turbine blade as a target.
[0033] With the present embodiment as well, advantageous effects basically identical to those of the first embodiment are obtained.
[0034] Now, it is to be pointed out that the present invention be not limited to the embodiments described as above and that the invention may include various changes and modifications. For example, the embodiments described as above are explained about in detail simply for the purpose of assisting easy understanding of a configuration with respect to the respective embodiments of the invention, and it is to be understood that the invention is not necessarily limited to the embodiments having all the configurations as described. Further, a part of the configurations of a certain embodiment can be replaced with a configuration of another embodiment. Still further, the configuration of another embodiment can be added to part of the configuration of a certain embodiment. Furthermore, addition·deletion·replacement with the use of another configuration can be applied to part of the configuration of each of the embodiments described as above.
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A fabrication method of a steam turbine blade equipped with an erosion shield includes the steps of preparing constituent elements including the steam turbine blade having a blade part, the erosion shield to be joined to a leading edge part of the blade part on the tip side thereof, and a shim to be disposed between the blade part and the erosion shield, any of the constituent elements having a backing part to serve as a backing for preventing burn through of molten metal at the time of the electron beam welding; assembling the constituent elements; performing electron beam welding to the leading edge part of the blade part, the erosion shield and the shim while utilizing the backing; and machining including removal of the backing part, after the electron beam welding, thereby forming the steam turbine blade in the shape of a final product thereof.
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TECHNICAL FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to coaxial jacks and, for example, to high frequency single coaxial jacks.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Various types of coaxial jacks are well known. Such coaxial jacks generally include at least one center conductor disposed within a grounded electrically conductive housing to establish a signal path between first and second ports at opposing ends of the housing. The first port is arranged to receive a plug, and the second port is arranged to receive a connector. When no plug is inserted into the first port of the housing, the center conductor is typically terminated to ground through a terminating resistor. Thus, a connector in the second port is also terminated to ground. However, when a plug is inserted into the first port of the housing, the termination to ground is broken, allowing a signal to pass between a connector in the second port and the plug in the first port of the housing.
[0003] Prior coaxial jacks have a number of problems. These coaxial jacks typically rely on complicated switches to control the termination of the center conductor. Such switches add to the cost and labor required to produce coaxial jacks. Also, the switches typically used in prior art coaxial jacks are unreliable.
[0004] The jack of the present invention overcomes one or more of these or other problems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0005] In accordance with an aspect of the present invention, a coaxial jack comprises an electrically groundable housing including first and second ports, a printed circuit board supporting conductive traces, and a center conductor that is disposed within the electrically groundable housing so as to extend through a hole in the printed circuit board and so as to contact at least one of the conductive traces.
[0006] In accordance with another aspect of the present invention, a coaxial jack comprises an electrically groundable housing including first and second ports, a center conductor, and a grounding spring. The center conductor is disposed within the electrically groundable housing so as to extend through a hole in the printed circuit board and so as to contact at least one of the conductive traces. The grounding spring is within the first port and is arranged so that a plug received in the first port is received within the grounding spring. The grounding spring includes a contact to control signal flow between the first and second ports.
[0007] In accordance with still another aspect of the present invention, a coaxial jack comprises an electrically groundable housing including first and second ports, a printed circuit board supporting a terminating element and conductive traces, and a center conductor that is disposed within the electrically groundable housing so as to extend through a hole in the printed circuit board and so as to be normally coupled to the electrically groundable housing contact through the terminating element and the conductive traces.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] These and other features and advantages will become more apparent from a detailed consideration of the invention when taken in conjunction with the drawings in which:
[0009] FIG. 1 is an isometric view of a jack according to one embodiment of the present invention;
[0010] FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the jack of FIG. 1 ;
[0011] FIG. 3 is a cross sectional side view of the jack of FIG. 1 ;
[0012] FIG. 4 illustrates a detail of the jack as shown in FIG. 3 ;
[0013] FIG. 5 is a cross sectional side view of the jack of FIG. 1 with a plug inserted into the jack;
[0014] FIG. 6 illustrates a detail of the jack as shown in FIG. 5 ;
[0015] FIG. 7 is an isometric view of a printed circuit board used in the jack of FIGS. 1-6 ; and,
[0016] FIG. 8 is an isometric view of a patchbay having a plurality of jacks, such as shown in FIGS. 1-6 , inserted therein.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0017] A single self-terminating jack 10 according to one embodiment of the present invention is shown in FIGS. 1-7 . The single self-terminating jack 10 includes a conductive housing 12 having a first port 14 at a first end of the conductive housing 12 and a second port 16 at a second end of the conductive housing 12 . The first port 14 may be arranged to accept a plug such as a WECO plug, and the second port 16 may be arranged to accept a connector such as a BNC connector.
[0018] A center conductor 18 extending between the first and second ports 14 and 16 is provided within the conductive housing 12 . The center conductor 18 is centered within the conductive housing 12 by an insulating member 20 and a printed circuit board 22 .
[0019] As shown in FIGS. 3 and 5 , the center conductor 18 extends through a center hole in the insulating member 20 to support one end of the center conductor 18 within the second port 16 . The outer perimeter of the insulating member 20 substantially matches the inner perimeter of the second port 16 so that the insulating member 20 centers its corresponding end of the center conductor 18 within the second port 16 . Although these perimeters may have any desired shapes, these perimeters may be relatively circular as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 such that the insulating member 20 may be in the form of an insulating disc. The center conductor 18 , when extending through the center hole of the insulating member 20 , may, for example, be substantially perpendicular to the insulating member 20 .
[0020] The conductive housing 12 also includes a conductive grounding spring 24 which has an outer perimeter that substantially matches the inner perimeter of the first port 14 . As shown in FIGS. 3-6 , the conductive grounding spring 24 butts up against the printed circuit board 22 . The outer perimeter of the printed circuit board 22 substantially matches the inner perimeter of the first port 14 , and the center conductor 18 extends through a center hole 26 of the printed circuit board 22 . Consequently, the conductive grounding spring 24 electrically engages the first port 14 of the conductive housing 12 , and the printed circuit board 22 centers its corresponding end of the center conductor 18 within the first port 14 . Again, although these perimeters may have any desired shapes, these perimeters may be relatively circular as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 .
[0021] As shown in FIG. 7 , the printed circuit board 22 includes an insulating board 28 having the center hole 26 extending there through to receive the center conductor 18 . The center conductor 18 , when extending through the center hole 26 , may, for example, be substantially perpendicular to insulating board 28 .
[0022] The circular wall of the insulating board 28 that forms the center hole 26 has a conductive trace 30 extending there around. A terminating element 32 is supported on the insulating board 28 . The terminating element 32 , for example, may be a resistor. The insulating board 28 also supports conductive traces 34 and 36 . The terminating element 32 , for example, may be a 75Ω resistor.
[0023] The conductive trace 34 has a first end that electrically engages a first end of the terminating element 32 and a second end that electrically engages the conductive trace 30 . The conductive trace 36 has a first end that electrically engages a second end of the terminating element 32 and a second end that electrically engages a conductive trace 38 . The conductive trace 38 is provided along a perimeter wall of the insulating board 28 that is formed by a recess 40 .
[0024] As perhaps best shown in FIGS. 2, 4 , and 6 , the conductive grounding spring 24 has a conductive leaf spring 42 that is of sufficient length to extend into the recess 40 of the printed circuit board 22 . As explained hereinafter, the leaf spring 42 may be a contact and/or may perform the function of a switch.
[0025] With no plug inserted into the first port 14 of the single self-terminating jack 10 as shown in FIGS. 3 and 4 , the conductive leaf spring 42 is pre-loaded to engage the conductive trace 38 on the printed circuit board 22 . Accordingly, an electrical circuit is established from the conductive housing 12 through the conductive grounding spring 24 , through the conductive leaf spring 42 , through the conductive trace 38 , through the conductive trace 36 , through the terminating element 32 , through the conductive trace 34 , through the conductive trace 30 , and to the center conductor 18 . Thus, with the conductive housing 12 coupled to ground, the center conductor 18 is coupled to ground through the terminating element 32 when no plug is inserted into the second port 16 , and any connector inserted into the second port 16 is also coupled to ground through the terminating element 32 .
[0026] When a plug 50 is inserted into the first port 14 of the single self-terminating jack 10 as shown in FIGS. 5 and 6 , the conductive leaf spring 42 is pushed away from the conductive trace 38 on the printed circuit board 22 by the plug 50 . Accordingly, the electrical circuit from the conductive housing 12 through the conductive grounding spring 24 , through the conductive leaf spring 42 , through the conductive trace 38 , through the conductive trace 36 , through the terminating element 32 , through the conductive trace 34 , through the conductive trace 30 , and to the center conductor 18 is broken. Thus, the center conductor 18 is no longer coupled to ground through the terminating element 32 , and instead a signal from a connector inserted into the second port 16 is coupled through the center conductor 18 to the plug 50 .
[0027] As can be seen from FIGS. 2, 5 , and 6 , the conductive grounding spring 24 is shaped so that the plug 50 is received within the conductive grounding spring 24 and so that the inside perimeter of the conductive grounding spring 24 substantially matches an outside perimeter of the plug 50 . Accordingly, the outer conductive sheath of the plug 50 is coupled to ground by the first port 14 .
[0028] As shown in FIG. 8 , a plurality of the single self-terminating jacks 10 are attached to a patchbay 60 . Each of these single self-terminating jacks 10 is attached to the patchbay 60 by use of a fastener 62 . The fastener 62 , for example, may be a screw that is inserted through a flange post 64 of the conductive housing 12 and is threaded into a corresponding hole in the patchbay 60 . As can be seen in FIG. 8 , some of the single self-terminating jacks 10 are longer than others of the single self-terminating jacks 10 . This difference in length between adjacent ones of the single self-terminating jacks 10 may be provided to accommodate the size of the BNC connectors of the cables that are to be coupled to the patchbay 60 .
[0029] Examples of materials that may be used for the single self-terminating jack 10 are described below in this paragraph. However, it should be understood that other materials could be used without departing from the scope of the present invention. Accordingly, the conductive housing 12 including the first and second ports 14 and 16 may comprise a brass alloy plated with nickel. The fastener 62 may comprise a steel alloy plated with zinc. The conductive grounding clip 26 may comprise beryllium copper finished with gold or nickel plating. The insulating member 20 may comprise PTFE. The insulating board 28 may comprise PCB-FR-4 having conducting conductive traces made of copper finished with gold over nickel plating. The center connector 18 may be beryllium copper finished with gold over nickel plating.
[0030] Certain modifications of the present invention have been disclosed above. Other modifications will occur to those practicing in the art of the present invention. For example, the jack described above may come in a variety of sizes.
[0031] Moreover, the jack described above may be used as an audio, a video, and/or other jack.
[0032] Furthermore, as disclosed above, the terminating element 32 of the single self-terminating jack 10 is a resistor. Instead, one or more other passive and/or active devices may be used as the terminating element 32 in the single self-terminating jack 10 .
[0033] Also, the present invention may be used in connection with jacks having more than two ports.
[0034] Additionally, the first and second ports 14 and 16 are shown in FIG. 2 as separate elements that make up the conductive housing 12 . Instead, the first and second ports 14 and 16 may be integrally formed as the conductive housing 12 so that the conductive housing 12 is a single continuous member.
[0035] Accordingly, the description of the present invention is to be construed as illustrative only and is for the purpose of teaching those skilled in the art the best mode of carrying out the invention. The details may be varied substantially without departing from the spirit of the invention, and the exclusive use of all modifications which are within the scope of the appended claims is reserved.
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A coaxial jack has an electrically groundable housing including first and second ports, a printed circuit board supporting a terminating element and conductive traces, and a center conductor disposed within the electrically groundable housing. The center conductor extends through a hole in the printed circuit board and is normally coupled to the electrically groundable housing contact through the terminating element and the conductive traces. A grounding spring has a leaf spring that acts as switch to break the coupling when a plug is inserted into the first port.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
(1) Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to telephone subscriber loop power supplies and more particularly to a program controlled system which supplies all of the loop circuit power requirements.
(2) Description of the Prior Art
Telephone subscriber loop circuits require a wide variety of control voltages, for such functions as talking battery, ringing, coin collect, coin return, etc. Typical voltages for these functions are -50 V, 88 V @20 Hz superimposed on 40 V, +130 V and -130 V.
In conventional analog systems these voltages are switched through the network from service circuits specially designed to provide these functions. This technique is generally not possible with a digital network because the relatively high voltages involved cannot be passed through the network. It is possible to use an analog serice network completely separate from the digital network but this approach is not economical for small remote digital offices.
Another solution has been to apply these voltages at the line card. It is not practical to employ a single line card to switch in all of the required voltages since not all lines require all voltages, the approach has been to use different line circuits for different applications. This requires a multiplicity of different line circuits which is not an economical solution in terms of both initial cost and maintenance.
The present invention solves this problem by using small low-cost digitally programmable power supplies associated with each line to supply all of the power requirements of the subscriber's loop circuit.
Accordingly, it is the object of this invention to provide an economical solution to the problem of supplying subscriber loop circuit power requirements without the need for specialized line circuits, service circuits or analog networks.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is a circuit which controls the application of power to the telephone subscriber loop circuits in a digital switching system. This circuit is connected between a central or peripheral processing unit and each telephone subscriber's loop circuit so that the processing unit can control the application of power to each telephone subscriber's loop circuit by transmitting digital data representative of desired power levels to a selected programmable power supply.
The programmable power supply system includes a clock circuit connected to an address counter. Each programmable power supply includes a gating circuit connected to a presettable counter, both of which are connected to a power switching circuit. The presettable counter is also connected to a processing unit and a clock circuit, and the gating circuit is connected to the address counter. The power switching circuit is connected to the loop circuit and includes a flip-flop circuit connected to a high voltage interface circuit which is connected to two high voltage switching transistors, each of which are connected to an L-C filter circuit.
The gating circuit in each individual programmable power supply generates an enable signal in response to a unique combination of address signals from the address counter. Digital data representative of a desired power level is stored in the presettable counter by the processing unit while the enable signal is active. The enable signal causes the power switching circuit to apply a first characteristic of power to the filter circuit. The counter then counts down to a reset position and generates a reset signal which causes the power switching circuit to apply a second characteristic of power to the filter circuit. The filter circuit then applies the average of these power characteristics to the telecommunication loop circuit.
Once the processing unit loads the presettable counter, power representative of that data will be applied to the loop circuit until the register is loaded with different data. In this way, DC power can be applied until the register is reloaded and AC power can be applied by frequently changing the data in the register.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a schematic circuit diagram of a programmable power supply system in accordance with the present invention;
FIG. 2 is a schematic circuit diagram of the gate circuit of FIG. 1;
FIG. 3 is a schematic circuit diagram of the power switching circuit of FIG. 1 which provides for passive current limiting; and
FIG. 4 is a modification of the circuit of FIG. 2 which provides for active current limiting.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring now to FIG. 1, the programmable power supply system is shown connected to a loop circuit and a processing unit 110. The programmable power supply system includes a clock circuit 120 connected to a plurality of programmable power supplies including 140.
Programmable power supply 140 consists of presettable electronic counter 142 connected to processing unit 110 and clock circuit 120. Gate 143 is connected to address counter 130, presettable counter 142 and power switch 144 which is connected to the loop circuit.
Clock circuit 120 drives address counter 130 which generates address signals for programmable power supplies 140. Gate circuit 143 of each programmable power supply is connected to address counter 130 via connections 147. The detailed circuitry of gate circuit 143 is shown in FIG. 2. A unique combination of the address signals, on eight of these connections 147, is decoded by gates 210, 220, and 230 as shown in FIG. 2. Upon decoding its unique address, gate 230 generates enable signal EN1 on lead 145. Gate 240 responds to enable signal EN1 by generating enable signal EN2 on lead 146. Presettable counter 142 is enabled by signal EN2 to allow processing unit 110 to transfer data representative of a new desired power level to presettable counter 142 when the processing unit 110 generates the load control signal on lead 141.
Power switch 144 responds to enable signal EN1 by applying a first polarity of power to choke 361, as shown in FIG. 3. When presettable counter 142 counts down to its reset position, in response to clock pulses on lead 121 and the initial count transferred from Processing Unit 110, it generates a reset signal RST on lead 148. Power switch 144 responds to reset signal RST by applying a second polarity of power to choke 361. A filter circuit comprising choke 361 and capacitor 362 then applies power equal in magnitude to the average of the duration of these two polarities of power to the loop circuit.
The period of the address counter 130 is such that a given programmable power supply will be re-enabled before presettable counter 142 can count down to its reset position from its maximum initial value. This allows maximum power of the first polarity to be applied to the loop circuit.
The presettable counter 142 is only initialized once for a selected power level since the power applied to the load circuit is a function of the time between enable signal EN1 and reset signal RST. Since the presettable counter 142 is loaded during enable signal EN1, the initialization value determines a skew between the reset pulse RST and the enable signal EN1. This skew will remain constant since both the address counter 130 and presettable counter are both driven by clock circuit 120.
Passive current limiting is provided by the circuitry of power switch 144 as shown in FIG. 3, and active current limiting is provided by the circuitry of power switch 144, as shown in FIG. 4. Enable signal EN1 generated by gate 143 is a pulse derived from address signals generated by address counter 130. Utilizing the circuitry of FIG. 3 a latch comprising gates 311 and 312 stores the enable signal pulse and the resulting logic level "1" at the output of gate 312 is converted to a high voltage signal by a high voltage interface circuit consisting of transistors 321 through 332 and their associated biasing resistors.
This interface circuit then turns on high voltage switching transistor 341. The current through this transistor is passively limited by resistor 351. This first polarity of power is applied to choke 361 until data counter 142 generates a reset signal RST which resets the latch comprising gates 311 and 312. The resulting logic level "0" at the output of gate 312 is converted to a high voltage signal which turns on high voltage switching transistor 342 and turns off transistor 341. The current through transistor 342 is passively limited by resistor 352. The duration of the two polarities of power generated by transistors 341 and 342 are averaged by a filter circuit consisting of choke 361 and capacitor 362 to apply the resulting average magnitude of power to the loop circuit.
The use of active current limiting is facilitated by the circuitry shown in FIG. 4. The circuitry of FIG. 4 is identical to that shown in FIG. 3 with the addition transistors 471 through 481 and their associated biasing resistors, and gates 491 and 492. Transistors 471 and 472 detect current flow through resistors 451 and 452 and operate through gates 491 and 492 to switch the latch to its opposite state when the current threshold is reached.
The programmable power supply system of the present invention, FIGS. 1 through 4, provide processor control of the power applied to a telephone subscribers loop circuit and eliminate the need for a wide variety of power supplies to meet the range of power requirements of each loop circuit.
It will be obvious to those skilled in the art that numerous modifications of the present invention can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention which shall be limited only by the scope of the claims appended hereto.
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A programmable power supply system which supplies all of the power requirements of a telephone subscriber's loop circuit in a digital telephone switching system. An associated processing unit generates digital control signals to select a particular power supply which generates power, of a particular magnitude in response to the control signals and applies same to a telephone subscriber's loop circuit.
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FIELD OF INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to plastic panel storm shutter and, more particularly, to a system of plastic panels with mounting methods to protect glass window and door openings in homes, office buildings and other walled structures from the destructive force of storm systems, such as hurricanes.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Violent storms are natural phenomena that often generate winds having the potential for destruction of property and life. This potential is evidenced upon review of the storm systems known as hurricanes that struck the United States in 2004 and 2005. Those hurricanes were especially destructive taxing the entire nation in the form of rebuilding costs and increased insurance rates. In light of the escalating costs for rebuilding, home owners, business owners and insurance companies alike have a common goal in protecting property. Proper shuttering of window and door openings, typically the weakest portion of a structure, has become a necessity if the structure's contents are to be protected.
[0003] The study of storms has determined that storm shutters must withstand more than just high winds. In reality the majority of the destruction is a direct result of impacts by debris carried by these high winds. In an effort to reduce the destructive effect of such windborne debris, changes to the building codes in areas frequently subjected to these type storms have been made, notably first in Florida, then throughout the coastal United States, with the introduction of the new Florida statewide code and next the International Building Code. One change made included in these codes requires that storm shutters withstand a large missile impact. Testing is performed by projecting a nine pound wood two by four at a velocity of 50 feet per second or higher, against the storm shutter being tested, this is intended to simulate the impact of windborne debris in a hurricane or similar storm. Then the shutter is wind resistance tested with 4500 cycles of wind up to one and one-half times the shutter design load to simulate the 3 second pulsating wind of a hurricane. To successfully pass, the shutter must remain intact after the testing.
[0004] Along with providing protection from such storms or hurricanes, it has been found desirable for storm shutters to be constructed of translucent materials so as not to nullify the main purpose of transparent glass window and door openings, especially when the electricity has been lost in a storm. The transparent materials prevent claustrophobic tendencies of occupants secured within the structure; yet permit law enforcement officials to inspect shuttered structures.
[0005] A number of U.S. patent numbers, notably U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,685,261, 4,175,357, 5,228,238 and 5,457,921, disclose various types of translucent storm shutter assemblies having a transparent panel constructed of flat plastic such as polycarbonate and mounted in a frame of aluminum or steel or a corrugated plastic such as polycarbonate and mounted in a frame of aluminum or steel. The plastic sheet used in the '261 and '357 patents is firmly secured to a frame with little if any allowance for expansion and contraction relative to the frame. Such restriction can cause the shutter assembly to become damaged even without exposure to storms. The plastic sheet used in the '238 patent, on the other hand, is mounted to its frame so as to allow each sheet relative freedom to expand and contact. As taught by the '238 patent, this problem may be avoided by mounting each plastic sheet in a frame so that it is relatively unrestricted and free to change in size in response to temperature changes. In order to accomplish this, however, the '238 patent discloses a very elaborate and thus relatively expensive storm shutter assembly. The '921 discloses a corrugated sheet of plastic such as polycarbonate, that was made of material 0.062 to 0.125 thick about 13 inches wide. The '921 patent shows a storm shutter that had to be put up in pieces and reinforced with aluminum or steel braces. This made the shutter very consumer unfriendly, unable to pass the new building codes and worse yet, no method of overcoming the loosing of the bolts used to hold the panel in place when the material contracted in size in response to temperature changes.
[0006] A common problem shared by transparent storm shutters of the prior art is that in order to successfully pass the current missile impact test, like previously described, each plastic sheet is relatively thick, typically on the order of a 0.5 inch or more, with a jigsaw puzzle of reinforcement. Since impact plastics such as polycarbonate are relatively expensive and heavy, these designs cannot compete in the market.
[0007] Therefore, there is a need for a transparent storm shutter that is relatively inexpensive to manufacture, is compatible with current shutter systems, is easy to install, overcomes the new architectural opening surround décor that protrudes from the wall and prevents the use of old mounting methods, yet capable of withstanding direct impacts from windborne debris during a storm.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] The present invention is directed to a relatively inexpensive corrugated transparent impact plastic such as thin lightweight polycarbonate, this shutter is made to replace multiple narrow panels with a panel large enough to cover an opening with one piece and eliminate the need for jigsaw puzzle reinforcement, making it consumer friendly. It is shaped with radius topped corrugations making it stronger with less weigh per square foot of coverage. When the radius corrugation top is wind loaded it flattens causing the perpendicular sides to go more perpendicular to the surface, thereby adding strength without adding weigh to the panel. The one piece panel eliminates panel joints, the weakest point in all prior art.
[0009] The present invention is a system of installations that are compatible with existing methods with changes that make it able to pass the needed code testing to become a viable product in today's hurricane protection market. The present invention lightweight polycarbonate panel cannot be bolted in place using the industry standard bolt and wingnut because the bolt thread will saw the hole open and the wingnut will spin off because when the plastic shrinks with temperature changes, the wingnut loosens and the hurricane force winds spin it off. The present invention system uses a rubber washer with all bolt and wingnut fastenings that acts as a shock absorber, prevents the screw from sawing the panel and is a lock washer to keep the wingnut from spinning off when the material shrinks due to changes in the temperature. This is accomplished by using a one-half inch diameter hole in the panel for a one-quarter inch diameter screw allowing room around the screw to squeeze the rubber washer between the screw and panel when the wingnut is applied. The shrinkage in the panel thickness is compensated with the rubber washer and it becomes a locking device for the wingnut thusly preventing it from spinning off.
[0010] The present invention is to a system of installations that eliminate the most common problems in installation of panel over décor surrounded openings. The present invention system using a “h” header that is an adjustable distance out from the wall of the structure in one-sixteenth inch increments. The “h” header is made of aluminum angle with segregations that meshes with an “u” shaped aluminum extrusion that has mating segregations, this allows the “u” part to be moved in and out, then screwed in place when the exact distance needed from the wall is obtained. The present invention system uses a matching “F” track sill that is an adjustable distance out from the wall of the structure in one-sixteenth inch increments. The “F” track sill is made of aluminum angle with segregations that meshes with a “F” shaped aluminum extrusion that has mating segregations, this allows the “F” part to be moved in and out, then screwed in place when the exact distance needed from the wall is obtained.
[0011] In one embodiment of the present plastic panel hurricane protection system it can be used with current standard mounting with the addition of the rubber washer. In other embodiments, the system can stand alone using the adjustable “h” headers and “F” tracks with rubber washers when bolted to the wall or mounting extrusions. This plastic panel hurricane protection system will give building occupants, when a storm is imminent and the shutters are mounted, light inside and the ability to see outside conditions. Still being secure by knowing the envelope of their building cannot be breached and flying debris will be deflected. Further, security after the storm, because the panels can be left up and not block the light at a time when electric is most likely to be out.
[0012] It has also been found that an additional benefit of the particular system is that it take an average of 12 panels with no reinforcement for the averages home, prior systems took 100 or more panels and elaborate reinforcement systems for the average home. The present plastic panel hurricane protection system takes about hour to install when a storm is imminent, prior systems take days instead of hours to install.
[0013] Another objective of the present invention is to teach a plastic panel may be secured in place and not restrict the thermal expansion and contraction of thin lightweight corrugated plastic panels with no chance of damage.
[0014] Other objects and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings wherein are set forth, by way of illustration and example, certain embodiments of this invention. The drawings constitute a part of this specification and include exemplary embodiments of the present invention and illustrate various objects and features thereof.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0015] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of several embodiments of the present plastic panel hurricane protection system, it shows several ways a panel could be mounted and used to cover and protect a window or door opening in a structure.
[0016] FIG. 2 is a cross-section of plastic panel showing direct attachment and depicting the radii that gives the panel its strength.
[0017] FIG. 3 is a cross-section of fastener using a bolt or stud, a washer wingnut or sidewalk bolt and rubber washer, it depicts how the rubber washer is squeezed into the panel to act as a shock absorber on impact and a lockwasher when tightened.
[0018] FIG. 4 is a cross-section of an adjustable “h” header used in the present plastic panel hurricane protection system when a panel must mounted away from the wall to avoid décor around an opening.
[0019] FIG. 5 is a cross-section of an adjustable “F” track sill used in the present plastic panel hurricane protection system when a panel must mounted away from the wall to avoid décor around an opening, also the use of a rubber washer with bolt and wingnut.
REFERENCE NUMBERS IN DRAWINGS
[0020]
11
Serrated large angle
14
Serrated “h” header
17
Serrated “F” track
20
Serrated small angle
23
Corrugated plastic panel
26
“h” header-industry standard
29
“F” track-industry standard
32
Extended “F” track-industry
standard
35
Studded angle-industry standard
38
Tapcon screw
41
Bolt
44
Rubber washer
47
Washer wingnut
50
PanelMate Plus fastener
53
Stud
56
Tek screw
59
Sidewalk bolt
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0021] Although the invention has been described in terms of a specific embodiment, it will be readily apparent to those skilled in this art that various modifications, rearrangements and substitutions can be made without departing from the spirit of the invention. The scope of the invention is defined by the appended hereto.
[0022] The present invention is directed to a system using a transparent panel 23 that is mounted over window and door openings in buildings protecting the window and door glass (not shown) from the high force winds and windborne debris typical of storm systems such as hurricanes.
[0023] Referring in general to FIG. 1 , one embodiment of the present plastic panel hurricane protection system allows mounting the panel several ways, using past industry standards, past industry standards with modifications and new methods that are part of this invention. At the top of the panel we can use the “h” header 26 an industry standard that is attached to the building with Tapcon screws 38 and the plastic panel 23 slides into the “h” header 26 or a “F” track 29 an industry standard that can be used at the head or sill (as shown) is attached to the building with Tapcon screws 38 , the Plastic panel 23 is then bolted to the “F” track 29 using Bolt 41 , Rubber washer 44 & Washer wingnut 47 , the Rubber washer 44 being a key ingredient of this invention because it allows the use of thin lightweight Plastic panel 23 that expands and contracts with temperature changes, it also acts as a shock absorber in the one-half inch diameter hole in the Plastic panel 23 for a One-quarter inch diameter screw and a locking device for the Washer wingnut 47 . This use of the Rubber washer 44 also applies in its uses further described herein. At the sill it shows the option to use the Extended “F” track 32 , an industry standard which can also be used at the head (not shown), it builds the panel out from the wall a certain distance, the Extended “F” track 32 is mounted to the wall with Tapcon screws 38 , the panel is then bolted to the Extended “F” track 32 using Bolt 41 , Rubber washer 44 & Washer wingnut 47 , the Rubber washer 44 being a key ingredient of this invention because it allows the use of thin lightweight Plastic panel 23 as stated above. At the sill it shows the option to use the Studded angle 35 an industry standard which can also be used at the head (not shown), Tapcon screws 38 are used to mount the Studded angle 35 to the building, the panel is then bolted to the Studded angle 35 using Stud 53 , Rubber washer 44 & Washer wingnut 47 , the Rubber washer 44 being a key ingredient of this invention because it allows the use of thin lightweight Plastic panel 23 as stated above. At the head and sill an optional direct mounting method is shown using a PanelMate plus 50 fastener, Rubber washer 44 and Washer wingnut 47 , the Rubber washer 44 being a key ingredient of this invention because it allows the use of thin lightweight Plastic panel 23 as stated above.
[0024] Referring to FIG. 2 , one embodiment showing a cross-section of Plastic panel 23 that depicts direct attachment with PanelMate plus 50, Rubber washer and Washer wingnut 47 . It show the unique radii on corrugation that gives it more strength per pound making the Plastic panel 23 , such as polycarbonate, able to withstand the high winds associated with hurricanes.
[0025] Referring to FIG. 3 , one embodiment showing an exploded view of the typical fastener using Bolt 41 or Stud 53 , Washer wingnut 47 shown or Sidewalk bolt 59 and Rubber washer 44 . It depicts the importance and uniqueness of the Rubber washer 44 being squeezed into the Plastic panel 23 between the Bolt 41 or Stud 53 such as one-quarter inch and the mounting hole in the Plastic panel 23 such as one-half inch by tightening the fastener so it may act as a shock absorber when the Plastic panel 23 is impacted. The Rubber washer 44 also acts as a lockwasher when tightened, this very important since Plastic panel 23 , such as polycarbonate shrinks and expands with temperature changes, otherwise the fastener would loosen.
[0026] Referring to FIG. 1 , one embodiment shown at the top is the use of Serrated large angle 11 and Serrated “h” header 14 used together to create an adjustable “h” header is a unique and innovative part of this plastic panel hurricane protection system patent and is better shown in FIG. 4 , it is an adjustable “h” header that can be adjusted in one-sixteenth inch increments to build-out the panel from the wall a distance exactly as needed instead of a certain dimension, that may not fit, that current industry standard extended “h” header offer. The Serrated large angle 11 is mounted to the building with Tapcon screws 38 , the Serrated “h” header 14 is meshed with the serrations in Serrated large angle 11 and set to the distance from the wall needed and locked in place with Tek screws 56 , and the Plastic panel 23 slides into the “h” header 14 .
[0027] Referring to FIG. 1 , one embodiment shown at the bottom is the use of the Serrated small angle 20 and Serrated “F” track 17 used together to create an adjustable “F” track that is a unique and innovative part of this plastic panel hurricane protection system patent and is better shown in FIG. 5 , a cross-section of an adjustable “F” track that can be adjusted in one-sixteenth inch increments to build-out the panel from the wall a distance exactly as needed instead of a certain dimension, that may not fit, that the current industry standard extended “F” track offer. The Serrated small angle 20 is mounted to the building with Tapcon screws 38 , the Serrated “F” track 17 is meshed with the serrations in Serrated small angle 20 and set to the distance from the wall needed and locked in place with Tek screws 56 , the panel is then bolted to the “F” track 29 using Bolt 41 , Rubber washer 44 & Washer wingnut 47 , the Rubber washer 44 being a key ingredient of this invention because it allows the use of thin lightweight Plastic panel 23 that expands and contracts with temperature changes.
[0028] Several exemplary Plastic panel 23 , such as one-sixteenth to five-thirty second inches thick polycarbonate using this Plastic Panel Hurricane Protection System have successfully passed a large missile impact test performed according to the International Building Code (ICC), Florida Building Code (FBC) and ASTM International standards. The exemplary Plastic panel 23 teaches how to fasten lightweight to a structure that withstood the impact of a length of 2×4 lumber weighing nine pounds, traveling at a speed of 50 feet per second. Storm shutters using corrugated or flat sheet of polycarbonate with hard to install aluminum or steel reinforcements have not been able to pass this test unless the material thickness was too thick and heavy for practical applications.
[0029] Because the present Plastic Panel Hurricane Protection System uses existing standards with new and unique methods Plastic panel 23 can be mounted with less elaborate and less expensive mounting mechanisms makes it much more consumer friendly the methods previously used to mount panels. The Plastic panel 23 has the added benefit of enabling thinner and lighter sheets of the plastic material to be used while still providing the same of better degree of impact resistance afforded by much thicker flat or corrugated sheets of the same plastic material.
[0030] From the above disclosure of the general principles of the present invention and the preceding detailed description, those skilled in the art will readily comprehend the various modifications to which the present invention is susceptible. Therefore, only the following claims and equivalents should limit the scope of the invention thereof.
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A hurricane protection system, specifically for protection of the window and door openings in a building using transparent plastic panels attached in a manner that accommodates new and old architectural designs. The present system uses old standards and new unique methods, a transparent panel shaped to grow in strength when wind pressure is applied, attached to buildings using standard industry methods with an unique use of a rubber washer that acts as a shock absorber and lock washer on all bolted applications. The system has new and unique extrusions that allow the panels to be mounted away from the wall, to avoid protruding decorative trim and sills, in one-sixteenth inch increments.
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application claims the benefit under 35 USC 119 of German patent application 10 2013 009 197.7 filed Jun. 3, 2013, and which is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
TECHNICAL FIELD
[0002] The invention relates to a filter element of a filter for fluid, particularly fuel, oil, water, urea solution or air, particularly of a combustion engine, particularly of an automobile, with a filter medium designed as a filter medium hollow body and closed peripherally at least with respect to an element axis, which is enclosed over at least part of its circumference and at least partially axially by an electrical heating jacket and which has an end member on at least one front side that is connected tightly at least to the filter medium.
[0003] The invention further relates to a method for manufacturing a filter element, particularly a filter element according to the invention, of a filter for fluid, particularly fuel, oil, water, urea solution or air, particularly of a combustion engine, particularly of an automobile, in which a filter medium is structured into a filter medium hollow body that is closed around its circumference at least with respect to an element axis, in which the filter medium hollow body is inserted with a first front side first into an electrical heating jacket, so that the heating jacket is arranged at least over part of the circumference and at least partially axially around the filter medium hollow body, and the first front side of the filter medium hollow body is subsequently provided with a sealing end member.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0004] A filter element of a fuel filter of an automobile for Diesel fuel is known from DE 20 2007 010 602 U1. The filter element comprises a filter body with a filter material. The filter body is substantially cylindrical. A flat heating element is arranged around the filter material in a closed manner. The heating element is connected firmly and non-detachably to the filter body, for which purpose it is attached to an end plate by adhesion, foaming, injection or the like. The heating element comprises an electrical heating wire. Two ends of the heating wire are bent radially inward for an electrical contact. Together with plug pins, a housing injection-molded out of plastic forms an electrical connecting plug.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0005] An object of the invention is to provide a filter element and a method for manufacturing a filter element of the type mentioned at the outset that can be easily implemented and in which the filter element takes up as little installation space as possible, particularly in the radial direction with respect to the element axis. Moreover, the greatest possible heating efficiency is to be achievable with the heating jacket.
[0006] This object is achieved according to the invention by providing the front side of the filter medium hollow body with the end member after insertion of the filter medium hollow body into the heating jacket.
[0007] According to the invention, the electrical connecting element is first arranged radially in a preassembly position on the outside of the filter element before the assembly of the filter element. In this way, the connecting element leaves the front sides of the heating jacket and of the filter medium hollow body free, so that they are freely accessible. The filter medium hollow body can thus be plugged in the axial direction with respect to the element axis into a space enclosed over at least part of its circumference by the heating jacket before connection to the at least one end member. The heating jacket can advantageously be embodied as a hollow body. Advantageously, the heating jacket can be closed circumferentially. Alternatively, the heating jacket can be open on at least one circumferential side. The heating jacket can advantageously have the same axial elongation overall as the filter medium hollow body. In this way, it can cover the filter medium hollow body over its entire axial elongation. Alternatively, the heating jacket can also extend only partially axially, which is to say over a portion of the axial elongation of the filter medium hollow body. Advantageously, a front side of the heating jacket can rest against an end member that is located on the front side with the connecting element, or it can be located at least in the vicinity, so that an electrical connection to the connecting element can easily be implemented there. Alternatively, both front sides of the heating jacket can each be arranged at an axial distance from the front sides of the filter medium hollow body.
[0008] After mounting in the heating jacket, the filter medium can advantageously extend outwardly. Advantageously, the heating jacket can rest against the radially outer circumferential side of the filter medium. The heating jacket and/or the filter medium hollow body can then be connected to the at least one end member. The heating jacket and/or the filter medium hollow body can be connected to the at least one end member by means of adhesion, foaming, injection or with the aid of mechanical connecting elements, particularly clamps or catch mechanisms.
[0009] Advantageously, the heating jacket can have a heating foil, a heating fabric or a nonwoven heating medium. The heating jacket can also have a knitted or crocheted fabric or a textile of another type. The electrical connecting element can be connected to corresponding heating conductors, particularly heating webs, heating layers or heating threads, of the heating jacket, particularly through riveting, soldering, binding or an electrical connection of another kind.
[0010] With the heating jacket, fluid, which can preferably flow from radially outside to radially inside through the filter medium, can be heated before flowing through the filter medium. In this way, the flowability of the fluid can be improved, so that pressure loss between an inflow side, which is to say a raw side, and an outflow side, which is to say a clean side, of the filter medium can be reduced.
[0011] Advantageously, the electrical connecting element can be firmly connected in the final assembly position to the at least one end member. Advantageously, the connecting element can be connected to the end member in a positive and/or nonpositive manner, particularly snapped, locked, clamped, welded or adhered.
[0012] Advantageously, the filter medium hollow body can have approximately the shape of a hollow cylinder. The filter medium hollow body can also taper conically in the axial direction. The filter medium hollow body can have a round, oval, angular or other cross section. Advantageously, the filter element can be a round filter element or a conical-oval round filtered element. With a round filter element, the filter medium hollow body can be implemented as a round hollow cylinder.
[0013] The filter medium can advantageously be folded in the shape of a star and closed circumferentially. A high packing density can be achieved through star-folding, thus improving the ratio of the active surface area for filtering to the required installation space. Instead of the shape of a star, the filter medium can also have a wave-shaped profile in the circumferential direction. Instead, the filter medium can also be flat and circumferentially closed. In particular, the filter medium can be wound.
[0014] Advantageously, the at least one end member can be an end plate. Advantageously, the end plate can have a central outlet to an interior space of the filter medium hollow body through which fluid can emerge from the interior space of the filter medium hollow body or get into it.
[0015] In an advantageous embodiment, the heating jacket can be connected to an electrical connecting element that can be connected to electrical lines for supplying the electrical heating jacket, and the electrical connecting element can be attached by means of a swivel connection to the heating jacket by means of which the connecting element, upon assembly of the filter element, can be swiveled from a preassembly position circumferentially on the outside of the filter element into a final assembly position on the front side of the filter element.
[0016] After the at least one end member is put in place, the electrical connecting element can be swiveled by means of the swivel connection from the preassembly position into the final assembly position on the front side of the filter element. In this way, the installation space of the filter element can be reduced in the radial direction. The connection of the corresponding electrical lines for supplying the electrical heating jacket to the electrical connecting element can be achieved more easily on the front side of the filter element than on the circumferential side.
[0017] Advantageously, the swivel connection can have a kind of hinge, particularly a living hinge. With the swivel connection, the electrical connecting element can advantageously be arranged on a frame part or support part of the filter element and/or of a heating cage, particularly of a supporting hollow body. Advantageously, the swivel connection can be integrally connected to the frame part or support part. Advantageously, the swivel connection and the frame part or support part can be made of a plastic. A bendable swivel connection, particularly a living hinge, can be easily made from plastic. A living hinge can have a simple construction and be easily implemented. In a living hinge, no separate parts are required. Instead of being connected in a swiveling manner via the swivel connection to the frame part or support part, the connecting element can also be merely connected in a swiveling manner via appropriate electrical contact tabs to the heating jacket. In this way, a frame for a heating cage can even be omitted. The contact tabs can advantageously be commensurately stable and flexible. The contact tabs can advantageously be connected integrally to the heating jacket. The contact tabs can advantageously consist of sections of the heating jacket that can be bent radially outward or inward by means of corresponding axial cuts or recesses on a corresponding front side of the heating jacket.
[0018] Advantageously, the heating jacket can be permeable for the fluid. In this way, fluid can pass through the heating jacket from radially inside to radially outside or vice versa. Advantageously, the heating jacket can have a plurality of flow holes for this purpose through which the fluid can flow. In a textile-like, particularly woven, knitted or crocheted, heating jacket, mesh widths can be large enough for the fluid to flow through. In a nonwoven, particularly fleece-like heating material, pore openings can be commensurately large.
[0019] Advantageously, the connecting element can have electrically conducting contact tabs that can be connected mechanically to the swivel connection in order to hold the connecting element on the swivel connection. Alternatively or in addition, a housing of the connecting element can be connected to the swivel connection.
[0020] In an advantageous embodiment, a fluid-permeable supporting hollow body can enclose at least the filter medium hollow body circumferentially and at least partially axially, and the electrical connecting element can be attached by means of the swivel connection to the supporting hollow body. With the supporting hollow body, at least the filter medium can be supported on the outside. The supporting hollow body can thus serve as a frame part or support part of the filter element. In addition or alternatively, the supporting hollow body can bear or support the electrical heating jacket. Advantageously, the supporting hollow body can be made of a plastic. Plastic can easily be shaped. The supporting hollow body can thus be implemented with a low weight with respect to its installation space. What is more, plastic can easily be disposed of. Plastic can be physically and chemically resistant to the fluid to be filtered.
[0021] Advantageously, a cross-sectional profile on the radially inner circumferential side of the supporting hollow body can correspond to a cross-sectional profile of the filter medium hollow body and/or of the electrical heating jacket. Advantageously, the supporting hollow body can be cylindrical. It can advantageously have a round, oval or angular cross section.
[0022] The supporting hollow body can advantageously be constructed in the manner of a skeleton or scaffolding. In this way, it can have outlet openings of sufficient size and number through which the fluid can flow. Pressure loss between the inflow side and the outflow side of the supporting hollow body can thus be reduced. Advantageously, the supporting hollow body can have a plurality of circumferential supports running in the circumferential direction that are spaced apart axially with respect to each other and that can be connected to each other using axial supports that extend in the axial direction.
[0023] Advantageously, the connecting element can be easily and stably connected to the supporting hollow body by means of the swivel connection. When viewed radially from the outside, the supporting hollow body can advantageously have a recess in which the swivel connection can be attached and the swivel connection and/or sections of the connecting element can be counter-sunk in the final assembly position. In this way, the installed space of the filter element can be further reduced in the radial direction.
[0024] In another advantageous embodiment, the heating jacket can be arranged between a circumferential side of the filter medium hollow body and a circumferential side of the supporting hollow body. In this way, the heating jacket can be arranged so as to be protected toward the outside. The heating jacket can thus be held and supported between the filter medium hollow body and the supporting hollow body. In this way, close contact can be achieved between the heating jacket and the filter medium. The heating efficiency can thus be improved. Advantageously, the heating jacket can be connected to the supporting hollow body. Alternatively, the heating jacket can be embedded at least partially in the supporting hollow body. Alternatively, the heating jacket can be arranged on the radially outside circumferential side of the supporting hollow body.
[0025] In another advantageous embodiment, the at least one end member can have a holding device at least for positioning, preferably for holding, the electrical connecting element. In this way, the precision of the positioning of the connecting element can be improved. Advantageously, at least one end member can be a plastic body, particularly a plastic injection-molded body on which raised areas and/or recesses can be embodied that can cooperate with corresponding recesses and/or raised areas of a housing of the connecting element for positioning and/or holding The holding device can advantageously have a kind of frame that is adapted to a corresponding contour of the housing of the connecting element and can be placed and in/against/on the connecting element. The connecting element and the holding device can also have connecting elements that cooperate with each other, particularly detent elements, which can additionally enable fixation of the connecting element on the at least one end member. The electrical connecting element can be attached by means of the holding device to the at least one end member and by means of the swivel connection to a frame part or support part, optionally the supporting hollow body. The stability of the filter element can thus be further increased.
[0026] In another advantageous embodiment, a fixing element can be connected to the at least one end member, which can fix the electrical connecting element to the end member, and have a seal fixing section that can fix a seal around an opening of the end member. Advantageously, the fixing element can be a kind of covering element, particularly a covering cap. Advantageously, the fixing element can be placed onto the end member after the swiveling-in and positioning of the connecting element and after application of the seal, particularly in the axial direction. The fixing element can cover the seal by means of fastening sections of the connecting element corresponding to the element fixing section, and with the seal fixing section. Advantageously, the fixing element can be one piece. It can advantageously be made of plastic. Advantageously, the seal fixing section can be approximately annular. The annular seal fixing section can advantageously have a U-shaped profile that can cooperate with a seal holder for the seal. The element fixing section can be implemented as a laterally protruding section on the seal fixing section. The element fixing section can be fork-like. In this way, it can enclose the electrical connecting element. The fixing element can advantageously have detent elements, particularly detent openings, that can cooperate with corresponding detent elements, particularly detent lugs, on the end member. A stable connection of the fixing element to the end member can thus be implemented.
[0027] The technical object is achieved in the inventive manufacturing method.
[0028] The advantages and features listed in connection with the filter element according to the invention apply to the inventive method and its advantageous embodiments, and vice versa.
[0029] In an advantageous development of the method, an electrical connecting element can be attached to the heating jacket by means of a swivel connection and be swiveled by means of the swivel connection after insertion of the filter medium hollow body into the heating jacket from the preassembly position into a final assembly position on the front side of the filter medium hollow body. Advantageously, the connecting element can only be brought from its preassembly position into its final assembly position after the arrangement of the filter medium hollow body within the heating jacket. In this way, the filter medium hollow body can easily be arranged in an interior space surrounding the heating jacket, even in the axial direction.
[0030] Advantageously, the filter medium can be folded in a star shape and formed into a filter medium hollow body that is circumferentially closed and approximately cylindrical. Alternatively, the filter medium can also be flat, particularly wound, and be closed circumferentially. Advantageously, the heating jacket can be formed into an at least partially circumferentially closed and at least partially axial heating jacket hollow body, and the filter medium can then be inserted in the axial direction into the heating jacket hollow body. Alternatively, the heating jacket hollow body can be left open initially on a circumferential side and be arranged from a circumferential side around the filter medium hollow body. Advantageously, the electrical heating jacket can be preassembled with the electrical connecting element. Advantageously, after the arrangement of the filter medium hollow body in the heating jacket hollow body, the at least one end member can be arranged on the front side of the filter medium hollow body and/or of the heating jacket hollow body and connected to the filter medium and/or to the heating jacket. The connection of the at least one end members to the filter medium can advantageously be fluid tight. Advantageously, the at least one end member can be connected to the filter medium and/or to the heating jacket in a positive and/or nonpositive manner, particularly by means of adhesion, welding, clamping or locking. The electrical connecting element can then be swiveled to the at least one end member and arranged in its final assembly position on the front side of the filter element.
[0031] In an advantageous development of the method, the electrical connecting element can be attached by means of the swivel connection to a fluid-permeable supporting hollow body, and the filter medium hollow body can be arranged in the supporting hollow body. Advantageously, the connecting element can be premounted on the supporting hollow body by means of the swivel connection. The supporting hollow body can advantageously be implemented as a skeleton- or scaffolding-like frame, which can particularly have a hollow, cylindrical shape. The connecting element can be stably attached to the supporting hollow body. Advantageously, the swivel connection can be integrally connected to the supporting hollow body. The swivel connection can particularly be prefabricated out of plastic integrally with the supporting hollow body. Advantageously, the swivel connection can have a kind of living hinge, which can be easily implemented from plastic.
[0032] In another advantageous embodiment of the method, the heating jacket can be arranged on an inner circumferential side of the supporting hollow body. Advantageously, the heating jacket can be arranged in the supporting hollow body before the filter medium hollow body is arranged in the supporting hollow body. The heating jacket can be arranged in a protected manner on the inside of the supporting hollow body. Moreover, the heating jacket can be clamped between the radially inner circumferential side of the supporting hollow body and the radially outer circumferential side of the filter medium. In this way, a close contact can be established between the heating jacket and the filter medium, as a result of which the heating efficiency can be improved.
[0033] Alternatively, the heating jacket can also be arranged on an outer circumferential side of the supporting hollow body.
[0034] In another advantageous embodiment of the method, the electrical connecting element can be swiveled against/in/on a holding device of the at least one end member. The electrical connecting element can also be put in place, and optionally held, on the end member with the holding device. The stability of the filter element and/or of the connection of the connecting element to the filter medium hollow body can thus be improved.
[0035] In another advantageous embodiment of the method, a fixing element can be connected to the at least one end member, the electrical connecting element can be fixed on the end member with a connecting element fixing section, and a previously mounted seal can be fixed around an opening of the end member with a seal fixing section. Advantageously, the connecting element can first be placed on the end member and the seal can be arranged in a corresponding seal groove of the end member. With only one component, both the connecting element and the seal can then be fixed on the end member. In this way, the assembly-related and material expense can be reduced. Furthermore, the stability of the filter element can thus be further improved, since the fixing element covers a larger area of the end member.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0036] Additional advantages, features and details of the invention follow from the description below, in which exemplary embodiments of the invention are explained in further detail on the basis of the drawing. The person skilled in the art will expediently also consider individually the features disclosed in combination in the drawing, description and claims and combine them into other sensible combinations. Schematic drawing:
[0037] FIG. 1 shows an exploded view of a round filter element of a fuel filter according to a first exemplary embodiment, with a heating cage in which an electrical connecting plug can be swiveled by means of a swivel connection from a circumferential-side preassembly position into a front-side final assembly position into a holding device on the end plate;
[0038] FIG. 2 shows a detailed section of the round filter element from FIG. 1 in the region of the connecting plug and the swivel connection;
[0039] FIG. 3 shows the round filter element from FIG. 1 in a manufacturing phase before the swiveling of the connecting plug into its front-side final assembly position;
[0040] FIG. 4 shows the round filter element from FIGS. 1 and 3 in a manufacturing phase after the swiveling of the connecting plug into its front-side final assembly position;
[0041] FIG. 5 shows the round filter element from FIGS. 1 , 3 and 4 after placement of a fixing element for fixing the connecting plug in its final assembly position and a ring seal on the end plate;
[0042] FIG. 6 shows the round filter element according to a second exemplary embodiment, which is similar to the round filter element from FIGS. 1 and 3 to 5 , in a manufacturing phase before the swiveling of the connecting plug into its final assembly position, with an alternative holding device for the connecting plug on the end plate; and
[0043] FIG. 7 shows the round filter element from FIG. 6 after the swiveling of the connecting plug into its final assembly position.
[0044] In the figures, same components are designated with the same reference symbols.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0045] FIG. 1 shows an exploded view of a filter element 10 of a fuel filter of a combustion engine of an automobile according to a first exemplary embodiment. Preferably, the fuel filter can be arranged in a fuel line for cleaning liquid fuel, such as Diesel fuel. FIGS. 3 to 5 show the filter element 10 in different manufacturing phases.
[0046] The filter element 10 is a so-called round filter element, which has an overall approximately hollow cylindrical shape with a round cross section. The filter element 10 is arranged in a filter housing (not otherwise shown) such that it separates an inlet of the filter housing for fuel to be filtered from an outlet. The filter element 10 can be arranged in the filter housing in an exchangeable or fixed manner.
[0047] The filter element 10 comprises a filter bellows 12 made of a star-shaped, folded filter medium 14 , for example a woven filter medium or a filter paper or another filter medium suited to the filtering of fuel. The filter bellows 12 has the overall shape of a hollow circular cylinder that is coaxial to an element axis 16 . Below, when “radial”, “axial” or “circumferential” is mentioned, then this refers to the element axis 16 unless otherwise indicated.
[0048] A scaffolding-like middle supporting pipe 20 is arranged coaxially in an interior space 18 of the filter bellows 12 . The middle supporting pipe 20 is permeable for the fuel in the radial direction. The middle supporting pipe 20 is open on its front sides, so that fuel can travel in the axial direction out of the interior space of the middle supporting pipe 20 . A radially inner circumferential side of the filter bellows 12 rests on a radially outer circumferential side of the middle supporting pipe 20 , so that the middle supporting pipe 20 supports the filter bellows 12 .
[0049] Radially on the outside, the filter bellows 12 is enclosed by a coaxial heating cage 22 . The heating cage 22 has the overall shape of a hollow circular cylinder. The heating cage 22 has a cage frame 24 , radially on the outside, and an electrically operated heating foil 26 , radially on the inside. The cage frame 24 is made of plastic. The cage frame 24 has a total of five circumferential supports 28 running in the circumferential direction that are arranged in the axial direction spaced apart from each other. The circumferential supports 28 are connected to each other via axial supports 30 , which run in the axial direction. The axial supports 30 are arranged in a circumferentially distributed manner. The heating cage 22 has the same overall axial elongation as the filter bellows 12 , so that the filter bellows 12 is arranged nearly completely within the heating cage 22 . The heating foil 26 rests against the radially inner circumferential side of the cage frame 24 . The heating foil 26 rests with its radially inside circumferential side against the radially outer side circumferential side, which is to say radially outside fold edges, of the filter bellows 12 . The cage frame 24 supports the heating foil 26 . Moreover, the cage frame 24 supports the filter bellows 12 indirectly via the heating foil 26 and thus stabilizes the filter element 10 overall.
[0050] In FIGS. 1 and 3 to 5 top, a round connecting end plate 32 is arranged on a front side of the filter bellows 12 , which faces an outlet connection of the filter housing for filtered fuel when the filter element 10 is installed. The connecting end plate 32 is made of plastic. The connecting end plate 32 is adhered tightly to the filter bellows 12 . The connecting end plate 32 has a central outlet opening 34 for the filtered fuel. A radially outside diameter of the connecting end plate 32 corresponds approximately to the radially inside diameter of the cage frame 24 .
[0051] The connection opening 34 is enclosed on the outer side of the connecting end plate 32 opposite the filter bellows 12 in the axial direction by two coaxial, annular ring projections that extend parallel to each other in the axial direction. The ring projections form a seal holder 36 for a ring seal 38 . The seal holder 36 has a U-shaped profile that is open on the side facing away from the filter bellows 12 .
[0052] In FIGS. 1 and 3 to 5 bottom, a counter end plate 40 is arranged on the front side of the filter bellows 12 opposite the connecting end plate 32 that is also tightly adhered to the filter bellows 12 and connected by means of an appropriate locking connection to the middle supporting pipe 20 .
[0053] The heating foil 26 is flat and rectangular in its original shape. The heating foil 26 has a plurality of flow holes 42 that are distributed circumferentially with respect to the heating cage 22 . The flow holes 42 have a round cross section, for example. However, they can also have another kind of cross section. In a second exemplary embodiment explained further below in connection with FIGS. 6 and 7 , for example, the flow holes 42 have a rectangular cross section.
[0054] On a circumferential side in the region of an axially outer circumferential support 28 of the cage frame 24 facing toward the connecting end plate 32 , the heating foil 26 has two electrical contact tabs 44 with which the heating foil 26 can be electrically contacted, i.e., supplied with an electrical current. The two contact tabs 44 lie next to each other when seen in the circumferential direction and are provided in the figures with only one reference symbol 44 for the sake of clarity. The contact tabs 44 consist of sections of the heating foil 26 that can be bent radially outward by means of appropriate axial recesses on the front side of the heating foil 26 .
[0055] In the region of the contact tabs 44 , the axially outer circumferential support 28 facing toward the connecting end plate 32 has an indentation 45 . The indentation 45 has an approximately U-shaped profile when seen from radially outside, whereas the “U” is open toward the connecting end plate 32 .
[0056] On the side of a circumferentially extending section of the indentation 45 facing toward the connecting end plate 32 , a living hinge 46 is integrally connected to the circumferential support 28 . When seen in the radial direction, the living hinge 46 is located approximately in the middle of the indentation 45 . On the side facing away from the circumferential support 28 , the living hinge 46 has an attachment tab 48 . The attachment tab 48 can be swiveled by means of the living hinge 46 from a preassembly position, shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 , in which it extends radially outward from the cage frame 24 , to a final assembly position, shown in FIGS. 4 and 5 , in which it extends in the axial direction. Together, the living hinge 46 and the attachment tab 48 form a swivel connection 50 that connects an electrical connecting plug 52 to the cage frame 24 .
[0057] The connecting plug 52 , which is shown in a detailed section in FIG. 2 , has a plug housing 54 made of plastic in which the two contact lines made of metal are embedded. On the connection side of the connecting plug 52 , the contact lines are embodied as contact pins 56 . The contact pins 56 turn into corresponding connecting tabs 58 that lead laterally out of the plug housing 54 . Each of the connecting tabs 58 is connected at its free end by means of rivets 60 to the attachment tab 48 . The contact tabs 44 of the heating foil 26 are arranged on the side of the connecting tabs 58 opposite the attachment tab 48 . Each of the contact tabs 44 is electrically connected to one of the connecting tabs 58 . The rivets 60 lead through the contact tabs 44 , the connecting tabs 58 and the attachment tab 48 . The connecting tabs 58 are thus sandwiched between the attachment tab 48 and the contact tabs 44 . The connecting plug 52 is held on the attachment tab 48 with the aid of the connecting tabs 58 and held in a swiveling manner on the cage frame 24 by means of the living hinge 46 .
[0058] An underside 62 of the plug housing 54 facing toward the cage frame 24 is level. The underside 62 of the plug housing 54 runs perpendicular to the longitudinal extension of the attachment tab 48 , the contact tabs 44 there and the connecting tabs 58 there. The attachment tab 48 , the connecting tabs 58 and the contact tabs 44 are located laterally from the underside 62 of the plug housing 54 and, in a projection perpendicularly onto the underside 62 , outside of same. In the preassembly position, the plug housing 54 is located on the side of the attachment tab 48 , the contact tabs 44 and the connecting tabs 58 facing toward the connecting end plate 32 . In the final assembly position, the attachment tab 48 , the contact tabs 44 and the connecting tabs 58 dip into the indentation 45 of the axially outer circumferential support 28 and are thus housed in a space-saving manner when seen in the radial direction.
[0059] The underside 62 of the plug housing 54 has an approximately rectangular circumference with rounded-off corners. On the side facing away from the connecting tabs 58 , the plug housing 54 has a projection 64 whose underside forms a plane with the underside 62 . The projection 64 extends between the rounded-off edges of the plug housing 54 on the side opposite the connecting tabs 58 . On the two opposing sides that adjoin the side with the projection 64 , the plug housing 54 has two positioning lugs 66 that extend outwardly from the outer side of the plug housing 54 . Moreover, a positioning recess 68 that is approximately cross-shaped in cross section is arranged in the underside 62 as shown in FIG. 2 . The positioning recess 68 is located approximately in the center of the underside 62 .
[0060] On its outer side facing away from the filter bellows 12 , the connecting end plate 32 has a holding contour 70 for the underside 62 of the plug housing 54 . The holding contour 70 is located near the circumferential side of the connecting end plate 32 facing toward the connecting plug 52 . It comprises a rib extending in the axial direction from the outer side of the connecting end plate 32 . The rib has a profile with multiple bends. The rib is symmetrical to a radius of the connecting end plate 32 . The profile of the rib of the holding contour 70 corresponds to the profile of the outer side of the plug housing 54 with the projection 64 in the region of the underside 62 . The holding contour 70 is open radially outward on its side facing toward the connecting plug 52 in the preassembly position. A positioning cross 72 in the form of a projection extending in the axial direction is located in the center of the holding contour 70 and fits into the positioning recess 68 of the plug housing 54 .
[0061] In radial extension to the positioning cross 72 , a plate-side positioning nose 74 is arranged on the radially outer circumferential side of the connecting end plate 32 and extends radially outward. In the final assembly position of the connecting plug 52 , the plug housing 54 is located with its underside 62 and its projection 64 within the holding contour 70 of the connecting end plate 32 . The positioning lugs 66 of the plug housing 54 all rest against a free end of the holding contour 70 . The positioning cross 72 is dipped into the positioning recess 68 of the plug housing 54 . The plate-side positioning nose 74 protrudes between the connecting tabs 58 of the connecting plug 52 .
[0062] A respective detent element 76 is located on sides outside of the holding contour 70 that are opposing when seen in the circumferential direction. The detent elements 76 extend from the outer side of the connecting plate 32 in the axial direction. Detent lugs of the detent elements 76 are located on the outer side facing away from the respective other detent element 76 . The detent elements 76 are located approximately on a plane with the positioning cross 72 , which runs perpendicular to a radius of the filter element 10 .
[0063] Moreover, a positioning aid 78 in the form of a projection is arranged radially on the outside on the side of the seal holder 36 transversely opposite the holding contour 70 . The positioning aid 78 extends in the radial direction from the radially outer circumferential side of the radially outer ring projection, which delimits the seal holder 36 , and in the axial direction from the outer side of the connecting end plate 32 .
[0064] A fixing element 80 is plugged onto the outer side of the connecting end plate 32 . The fixing element 80 has an approximately annular seal fixing section 82 and a fork-like plug fixing element 84 . The seal fixing section 82 is arranged coaxially on the seal holder 36 . The plug fixing element 84 extends radially outward from the seal fixing section 82 .
[0065] The seal fixing section 82 has an approximately U-shaped profile. It is plugged with its open side onto the ring projections of the seal holder 36 of the connecting end plate 32 , so that the side walls of the seal fixing section 82 enclose the ring projections of the seal holder 36 . On a radially outer circumferential side, the seal fixing section 82 has a fixing groove 86 into which the positioning aid 78 of the connecting end plate 32 engages when the fixing element 80 is mounted. Furthermore, the seal fixing section 82 has on its side facing away from the connecting end plate 32 a plurality of through-slits 88 through which air can escape upon plugging-on of the fixing element 80 .
[0066] The profile of the plug fixing element 84 on its U-shaped inner side corresponds approximately to the profile of the outer side of the plug housing 54 outside of the projection 64 . When the fixing element 80 is mounted, the plug fixing element 84 encloses the plug housing 54 on the side of the projection 64 facing away from the connecting end plate 32 . The plug fixing element 84 has a locking slot 90 on each of its legs in which the detent elements 76 of the connecting end plate 32 respectively lock when the fixing element 80 is mounted.
[0067] The fixing element 80 fixes both the plug housing 62 to the connecting end plate 32 and the ring seal 38 and an annular disc 92 in the seal holder 36 . The annular disc 92 is arranged between the ring seal 38 and the seal fixing section 82 .
[0068] During operation of the fuel filter, the fuel flows through the filter element 10 from radially outside to radially inside, indicated in FIG. 5 by an arrow 93 . When it passes through the heating foil 26 , the fuel is heated before it reaches the filter medium 14 . The cleaned fuel exits the interior space 18 through the outlet opening 34 in the connecting end plate 32 , indicated in FIG. 5 by an arrow 95 .
[0069] In a method for manufacturing the filter element 10 , the filter bellows 12 is folded in a star-shape out of the filter medium 14 . The cage frame 24 with the swivel connection 50 is fabricated out of plastic.
[0070] The prefabricated heating foil 26 is arranged on the radially inner circumferential side of the cage frame 24 such that the contact tabs 44 point radially outward through the indentation 45 of the axially outer circumferential support 28 . The prefabricated connecting plug 52 is connected with its connecting tabs 58 by means of the rivets 60 to the attachment tab 48 and the contact tabs 44 . As shown in FIGS. 1 to 3 , in the preassembly position, the connecting plug 52 is located circumferentially and radially on the outside of the cage frame 24 .
[0071] The filter bellows 12 is pushed into the heating cage 22 in the axial direction. The middle supporting pipe 20 is plugged in the axial direction into interior space 18 of the filter bellows 12 . Alternatively, the middle supporting pipe 20 is first plugged into the interior space 18 of the filter bellows 12 and then pushed together with the filter bellows 12 into the heating cage 22 .
[0072] The connecting end plate 32 and the counter end plate 40 are then arranged on the corresponding front sides of the filter bellows 12 . The connecting end plate 32 is aligned such that the positioning nose 74 , when seen in the circumferential direction, is located approximately in the middle of the indentation 45 of the axially outer circumferential support 28 . The connecting end plate 32 and the counter end plate 40 are tightly adhered to the front sides of the filter bellows 12 in a manner that is of no further interest.
[0073] The connecting plug 52 is then swiveled by means of the swivel connection 50 to the axial outer side of the connecting end plate 32 . In doing so, the plug housing 54 is guided with the projection 64 on the underside 62 in the holding contour 70 . In the final assembly position, the positioning lugs 66 rest against the holding contour 70 and the positioning cross 72 engages in the positioning recess 68 of the plug housing 54 . FIG. 4 shows the filter element 10 following this method step.
[0074] The ring seal 38 and the annular disc 92 are then placed into the seal holder 36 . The fixing element 80 is placed in the axial direction with its open side first onto the seal holder 36 . In doing so, the fixing element 80 is aligned such that the positioning aid 78 engages in the fixing groove 86 of the seal fixing sections 82 and the plug fixing element 84 encloses the plug housing 54 . The detent elements 76 protrude into the locking slots 90 and lock with them in the end position of the fixing element 80 . The completely assembled filter element 10 is shown in FIG. 5 . The filter element 10 can now be installed in the filter housing.
[0075] FIGS. 6 and 7 show a second exemplary embodiment of a filter element 110 in two different manufacturing phases. Those elements that are similar to those of the first exemplary embodiment from FIGS. 1 to 5 are designated with the same reference symbols plus 100 . Unlike in the first exemplary embodiment, a seal fixing element 182 for fixing the ring seal is embodied as a separate component distinct from a plug fixing device 184 for fixing the connecting plug 152 . The seal fixing element 182 comprises an annular disc with a U-shaped profile with the through-slits 88 and the fixing groove 86 . The plug fixing device 184 comprises two detent elements 185 that extend in the axial direction from the outer side of the connecting end plate 132 . Detent lugs of the detent elements 185 are facing each other. Each of the sides of the plug housing 154 corresponding to the detent elements 185 has a grading that serves as locking receptacles 187 for the detent lugs of the detent elements 185 . The detent elements 185 additionally have the function, together with the positioning cross 72 and the positioning recess 68 , of positioning the plug housing 154 on the connecting end plate 132 .
[0076] In the method for manufacturing the fixing element 110 , analogously to the procedure with the filter element 10 according to the first exemplary embodiment, the filter bellows, which is covered in FIGS. 6 and 7 , is first arranged in the heating cage 22 . The connecting end plate 132 and the counter end plate 140 are then attached to the filter bellows. Subsequently, the ring seal and the annular disc 92 are arranged in the seal holder 136 , and the seal fixing element 182 is attached to the connecting end plate 132 . FIG. 6 shows the filter element 110 following this manufacturing phase. Finally, the plug housing 154 is swiveled by means of the swivel connection 50 to the connecting end plate 132 and fixed with the detent elements 154 and the locking receptacles 187 in its frontside final assembly position. The completed filter element 110 is shown in FIG. 7 .
[0077] In all of the above-described exemplary embodiments of a filter element 10 ; 110 and of a method for manufacturing it, the following modifications are possible, among others:
[0078] The invention is not limited to a filter element 10 ; 110 of a fuel filter of a combustion engine of an automobile. Rather, it can also be used in other types of filter for fluids, for example for oil, water, air or urea. Instead of for Diesel fuel, the fuel filter can also be used for other types of fuel, such as liquid ones. The invention can also be used outside of automobile technology, for example in industrial motors. It can also be used outside of combustion engines.
[0079] Instead of a round cross section, the filter element 10 ; 110 can also have a different cross section, such as an oval or angular cross section. Instead of a cylindrical shape, the filter element 10 ; 110 can also have a different shape, such as a conical shape.
[0080] Instead of being folded in a star shape or bent, the filter medium 14 can also not be folded, for example wound as a so-called wound filter.
[0081] Instead of through adhesion, the connecting end plate 32 ; 132 and/or the counter end plate 40 can also be connected to the filter bellows 12 in another manner, for example by means of welding.
[0082] Instead of the heating foil 26 , another type of flat, electrically operated heating medium such as a heating fabric or a nonwoven heating medium, for example, can also be used.
[0083] Instead of with the aid of rivets 60 , the connecting tabs 58 of the connecting plug 52 ; 152 can also be connected in another manner to the attachment tab 48 of the swivel connection 50 . For example, they can be attached by means of soldering, clamping or by means of another type of stable and electrically conductive connection.
[0084] Instead of with the detent elements 76 ; 185 and the corresponding positioning lugs 66 or locking receptacles 187 , the connecting plug 52 ; 152 can also be fixed positively or non-positively or by material engagement in its final assembly position in another manner, such as by means of adhesion, screwing or welding, for example.
[0085] Instead of plastic, the connecting end plate 32 ; 132 and/or the counter end plate 40 and/or the middle supporting pipe 20 and/or the plug housing 54 ; 154 and/or the cage frame 24 ; 224 and/or the fixing element 80 and/or the seal fixing element 182 can also be made of another type of material, such as metal, for example.
[0086] Instead of having approximately the same overall elongation as the filter bellows 12 , the heating cage 22 can also extend only partially axially, which is to say over a portion of the axial extension of the filter bellows 12 . Advantageously, a front side of the heating cage 22 can rest against the connecting end plate 32 ; 132 , so that a short, electrical connection to the connecting plug 52 ; 152 can easily be implemented there. Alternatively, both of the front sides of the heating cage 22 can also each be arranged at an axial distance from the connecting end plate 32 ; 132 and from the counter end plate 40 .
[0087] Instead of being pivoted by means of the living hinge 46 and the attachment tab 48 to the cage frame 24 , the connecting plug 52 can also be connected in a swiveling manner to the heating foil 26 merely via the contact tabs 44 . For this purpose, the contact tabs 44 can be appropriately stable and flexible. In an alternative embodiment of a heating cage, the cage frame can then also be omitted.
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A filter element ( 10 ) of a filter for fluid, particularly fuel, oil, water, urea solution or air, particularly of a combustion engine, particularly of an automobile, and a method for manufacturing same are described. The filter element ( 10 ) comprises a filter medium ( 14 ) structured as a filter medium hollow body ( 12 ) and closed circumferentially at least with respect to an element axis ( 16 ). The filter medium ( 14 ) is enclosed at least partially circumferentially and at least partially axially by an electrical heating jacket ( 26 ). The filter medium ( 14 ) has, on at least one front side, an end member ( 32 ) that is connected tightly at least to the filter medium ( 14 ). After insertion of the filter medium hollow body ( 12 ) into the heating jacket ( 26 ), the front side of the filter medium hollow body ( 12 ) is provided with an end member ( 32 ).
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
Not Applicable
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable
REFERENCE TO A SEQUENCE LISTING, A TABLE, OR A COMPUTER PROGRAM LISTING COMPACT DISC APPENDIX
Not Applicable
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Technical Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to the correction of clock skew in a data transmissions system.
2. Background of the Invention
As the complexity of integrated circuits (ICs) increases, the speed at which they process information also increases. The speeds at which contemporary systems process data have increased such that a single chip may contain billions of transistors. Synchronized by a single system clock, billion-transistor ICs are often clocked at speeds greater than 2 Gigahertz (GHz). At these speeds, the timing signals for data transmission and data processing have such minute periods that they are easily disrupted or distorted. Variations in temperature, electromagnetic interference from neighbouring transmission lines, and even the minute resistance offered by transmission lines can introduce skew in the timing of data transmissions.
One method for reducing the effects of clock skew while efficiently utilizing the space on an IC is the serial transmission of parallel data between elements on a board. By converting parallel data into a single bit-by-bit sequential stream that travels from chip to chip, the possibility for skew is reduced by decreasing the number of physical channels which connect the source to its destination. Reducing a plurality of transmission lines to a single line eliminates the need to synchronize several datapaths, any one of which may be skewed. Due to the small amount of space allocated for each transmission line, interference or “crosstalk” between lines can occur in parallel transmission; a single transmission line is comparatively isolated and insulated, minimizing the opportunities for interference. Serial transmission is also more efficient in terms of space, as fewer pins are required on the chip to receive or send data. These differences do not only admit less skew in data transmission: the relative resistance of serial data transmission to the effects of clock skew also means that serial data transmissions may be clocked at higher frequencies than parallel data transmissions, as the user can have more confidence that serial data transmissions will not become as skewed as parallel data transmissions. The conversion of parallel data into a serial transmission requires the use of a Serializer/Deserializer (SerDes), which consists of a pair of logic blocks on either side of the transmission system, with one logic block on the transmit side to convert the parallel data into serial data, and another logic block at the receive side to convert the serial data back to parallel data.
Paradoxically, because serial data can be transmitted faster due to its relative resistance to the causes of skew, systems adapted for these higher data rates are more sensitive to variations in timing. Thus it is necessary to introduce additional means on the IC to discover and eliminate any skew that may have occurred in transmission. Employing a phase-locked loop (PLL) or a delay-locked loop (DLL) in the clock path of a circuit are common and effective methods for correcting clock drift. These circuits operate by comparing the input (or reference) signal with a second signal, and using the difference in phase or delay between those two signals to produce a third output signal which is fed back into the input of the circuit and is to be compared with the reference signal. If the difference between the output signal and the input signal drifts too far, the resultant differential signal pushes the frequency in whichever direction is required to correct the error, thereby eliminating skew.
While PLLs and DLLs are effective devices for correcting skew among data signals, they do not necessarily make efficient use of available chip space. Both PLLs and DLLs require a plurality of elements to be installed on an IC in order to function. An analog PLL requires a phase comparator, a low-pass filter, a voltage-controlled oscillator, and a clock divider; digital PLLs replace the oscillator with an additional clock and a counter to perform the same function. DLLs include an array of multiplexers to manipulate the delay of the output clock signal. On ICs where space is already at a premium, it is necessary to find a more space-efficient method of deskewing data signals.
Methods for sampling incoming data signals and deskewing said data signals without resorting to PLLs or DLLs are known in the prior art, but none of the prior art utilises a physical delay line controlled by a state machine to induce pre-existing chip architecture to create samples of an incoming data signal for the purposes of describing the data valid window of the incoming data signal and adjusting the clock signal of said incoming data signal to an optimum position within said data valid window.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention to address the issue of clock skew without resorting to PLLs or DLLs, which do not make efficient use of the space on ICs. The present invention makes use of a delay line controlled by a state machine as well as pre-requisite chip architecture, e.g. in the illustrative embodiment the deserializing block, or Serial-In Parallel-Out (SIPO) block, to correct clock skew in incoming data transmissions. In utilising elements required by the design of the chip itself, the present invention corrects skew without necessitating the addition of elements as complex as those required by PLLs and DLLs. The SIPO block comprises a series of flip-flops which register individual bits of data that are input serially from a transmission line to the input of the first flip-flop in the series; these bits are then read from the output of each flip-flop, generating the parallel data stream. Data are entered individually on a latching edge of the clock signal; in an illustrative embodiment of the invention, wherein the invention is applied to a Single Data Rate (SDR) architecture, this is a positive edge, i.e. when the signal transitions from a low state to a high state. Please note that this embodiment is provided for illustrative purposes only and is not meant to limit the scope of the present invention, as other architectures may be accommodated. For example, the present invention may be applied to a Dual Data Rate (DDR) architecture, where the latching edges of the clock signal may be both positive and negative edges. The flip flops activated by the latching edges of the clock signal sample the incoming serial data and said samples are used to determine if the timing of the data signal has drifted from that of the system clock.
In the present invention, this determination is made by a state machine into which the sampled data are fed. The state machine requests a plurality of samples from the deserializer and adjusts the position of the clock edge after each request via a physical delay line. Doing so provides samples from a variety of positions through the data signal's period. The state machine requests samples until it can see the signal's data valid window, i.e. until it can determine the portion of the period during which valid data can be read. The window lies in a region between transition edges of the signal, free of the uncertainty of jitter that may occur at transitions. The state machine employs an algorithm to determine where the data valid window is located, and the clock signal is adjusted so that any latching edges are aligned with the centre of the data valid window, thereby eliminating the effect of clock skew. The location of the data valid window is stored in a register so that the location of the data valid window may be made visible to the user.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating the circuitry of the present invention.
FIG. 2 depicts the sampling and deserializing of a serial three state data signal in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 3 depicts the data valid window of a three state data signal in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the present invention.
FIG. 4 depicts a deskewed three state data signal and a deskewed timing signal in accordance with an illustrative embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The present invention discloses a method and apparatus for deskewing a serialized data signal in an integrated circuit. The apparatus makes use of existing chip architecture in conjunction with a state machine to repeatedly sample an incoming signal and use the collected samples to determine the incoming signal's data valid window. The state machine decides whether or not the location of the centre of the data valid window is synchronized with the system clock signal and adjusts the data signal accordingly, thereby eliminating the effect of clock skew.
FIG. 1 illustrates the deskew apparatus disclosed by the present invention. Serial data ( 1 ) arrives from an adjoining chip or element (not shown) and is buffered in an input buffer ( 2 ). The buffered data signal, DATAb ( 3 ), is transmitted to an n-bit Serial-In Parallel-Out (SIPO) block ( 9 ), where n is the number of bits to be transmitted in parallel after the signal has been deserialized. The clock signal, CLKin ( 4 ), which times DATAb ( 3 ), is delayed by a physical delay element ( 5 ). The delayed clock signal, CLKd ( 6 ), is sent through an n-clock divider ( 7 ) to generate a clock signal (CLKn) with a period of CLKd/n ( 8 ). CLKd is sent to the SIPO block ( 9 ) to time DATAb ( 3 ).
At the SIPO block ( 9 ), DATAb ( 3 ) is deserialized and sampled in an n-bit demultiplexer within the SIPO block (not shown), comprising a series of n flip-flops triggered on the rising (or positive) edge of CLKd ( 6 ). A second set of n flip-flops utilize CLKn ( 8 ) as a selector clock to pull the data out of the first set of flip-flops according to the state of CLKn ( 8 ). N bits of data are transmitted in parallel as DATAout ( 10 ) after DATAb ( 3 ) has been deserialized. The results of the sampled data are fed through the state machine ( 11 ), which increments the delay of the delay element ( 5 ) a predetermined number of times to obtain additional sample sets. Each increment of delay produces CLKd(x), where x is a consecutive iteration of delay, and each iteration is a regular increment of delay in relation to the original period of CLKin. Each progressive delay of CLKd also alters the delay of CLKn, producing similarly iterative clock signals, CLKn(x).
After the state machine ( 11 ) has sampled DATAb through the predetermined number of iterations of delay, the state machine ( 11 ) uses an algorithm to ascertain the centre of the signal's “flat region,” or the data valid window; this is the portion of the data signal's period between transitions of the data signal during which the data itself is stable. Clock signal transitions should be adjusted such that clock edges which trigger flip-flops or latches occur in the centre of the data valid window, in order to allow the data signal enough time to become stable (this referred to as “setup time”), and stay stable long enough to be acted upon (this is referred to as “hold time”). Having determined the location of the centre of the data valid window, the state machine ( 11 ) uses this location to determine whether the timing of the data signal has become skewed from the expected clock rate. If any skew has become apparent, the state machine ( 11 ) adjusts the delay element ( 5 ) accordingly, adjusting the clock signal ( 3 ) so that transitions occur in the centre of the data valid window. The results of the sampling and the determination of the data valid window are made user-visible by the state machine ( 11 ), by storing the results in a register (not shown) to be read by the user.
DESCRIPTION OF AN ILLUSTRATIVE EMBODIMENT OF THE INVENTION
The following is an illustrative embodiment of the present invention and is not intended to limit the scope, applicability or configuration of the invention in any way. It will be readily apparent to one of ordinary skill in the art that the present invention may be implemented in numerous embodiments.
The illustrative embodiment discloses the sampling and deserialization of a data transmission in a 2-bit SIPO with of a 2-bit demultiplexer, said demultiplexer comprising 2 flip-flops timed by CLKd(x) coupled to 2 additional flip-flops timed by selecting clock CLK 2 ( x ). CLK 2 ( x ) has a period of CLKd(x)/2. The result of the deserialization, DATAout ( 10 ), is a stream of data comprising data transmitted in parallel 2 bits at a time.
FIG. 2 illustrates the process of sampling and deserializing DATAb. In FIG. 2 , DATAb is an exemplary three-state data signal to be sampled by CLKd, where x=0. As described in the detailed description of the invention, samples are taken on the positive edge of CLKd 0 ; this sampling is represented by vertical dotted lines. As illustrated in FIG. 2 , DATAb is shifted by the 2-bit SIPO block from a stream of serial bits of data (a, b, c, d, etc.) into a stream of data where two bits are transmitted in parallel (bc, de, ef, etc.). Although the first bit of DATAb ( 3 ) (a) enters the SIPO ( 9 ), it is not transmitted in parallel as the selecting clock ( 8 ) for the demultiplexer does not begin until after the data has already been transmitted.
As illustrated in FIG. 2 , all the samples taken by CLKd 0 occur before the signal itself has become stable. In the illustrative embodiment, the state machine ( 11 ) increments the delay 16 times in even steps, as shown in FIG. 3 , where values of x=0 . . . 15. Each set of samples provides the state machine ( 11 ) with information about the state of DATAb ( 3 ); once all 16 sets have been received, an algorithm determines where the centre of the data valid window is for DATAb( 3 ). Once the state machine ( 11 ) has determined the centre of the data valid window, as shown in FIG. 4 , it adjusts the delay of CLKd ( 6 ) once more to re-position the clock signal such that the positive edge of CLKd ( 6 ) occurs in the middle of the data valid window, eliminating any skew that may have occurred. The results of the data samples are stored in a register (not shown) in the state machine ( 11 ) to be read by the user.
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The present invention discloses a method and apparatus for addressing the issue of clock skew in a data signal while making efficient use of space on an integrated chip (IC) by utilizing a physical delay line controlled by a state machine in conjunction with pre-requisite chip architecture. The pre-requisite chip architecture samples the incoming data signal in response to a clocking signal input from the physical delay line; the physical delay line responds to commands from the state machine to increment the delay of the physical delay line to produce samples which describe the incoming data signal and delineate its data valid window.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Technical Field
[0002] The present invention relates generally to labeling, and more particularly, to a method of forming a unique three-dimensional label, and the label so formed.
[0003] 2. Related Art
[0004] Many labels for containers, such as beverage containers, food containers, etc., have been limited to two-dimensional designs. Attempts have been made to create three-dimensional designs formed out of the container itself, such as embossing, casting, and so on. Similarly, containers have been formed, as disclosed in the patents to Haughk et al. (U.S. Pat. Nos. 5,937,554, and 6,073,373), wherein a portion of the label is placed within the container to give the label a three-dimensional effect. However, none have provided a three-dimensional label attachable to the surface of a container.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0005] The first general aspect of the present invention provides a three-dimensional label for a container, comprising: a raised portion extending away from a surface of the container; and an adhesive material on a surface of the label attaching the label to the surface of the container.
[0006] The second general aspect of the present invention provides a container having a label affixed to a surface of the container, wherein the label includes a three-dimensional design.
[0007] The third general aspect of the present invention provides a method of forming a three-dimensional label for a container, comprising: creating an image on a first surface of a flexible material; causing at least a portion of the image to become deformed; and adhering a second surface of the flexible material to a surface of the container.
[0008] The foregoing and other features of the invention will be apparent from the following more particular description of the embodiments of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0009] The embodiments of this invention will be described in detail, with reference to the following figures, wherein like designations denote like elements, and wherein:
[0010] [0010]FIG. 1A depicts a container having a three-dimensional label thereon, in accordance with the present invention;
[0011] [0011]FIG. 1B depicts a container having a three-dimensional label thereon, in accordance with the present invention;
[0012] [0012]FIG. 2A depicts the three-dimensional label of FIG. 1A, in accordance with the present invention;
[0013] [0013]FIG. 2B depicts the three-dimensional label of FIG. 1B, in accordance with the present invention; and
[0014] [0014]FIG. 3 depicts a cross-sectional view of the container and the three-dimensional label, in accordance with the present invention.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0015] Although certain embodiments of the present invention will be shown and described in detail, it should be understood that various changes and modifications may be made without departing from the scope of the appended claims. The scope of the present invention will in no way be limited to the number of constituting components, the materials thereof, the shapes thereof, the relative arrangement thereof, etc. Although the drawings are intended to illustrate the present invention, the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale.
[0016] The present invention provides a three-dimensional advertising label 10 on a container 12 , similar to the label 10 illustrated in FIGS. 1A and 1B. The container 12 may be a beverage container, such as a wine bottle, as shown in this example, a soda container, a juice container, a container for food products, a container for health and beauty items such as a shampoo container, or a container for pharmaceuticals and so on. As illustrated more clearly in FIG. 3, which shows a cross-sectional view of the label 10 and container 12 , the label 10 may comprise a flat portion 14 , or a portion laying flush with the surface of the container 12 , and a raised or three-dimensional portion 16 , or a portion extending outward from the surface of the container 12 .
[0017] As illustrated in FIGS. 2A and 2B, the label 10 may also comprise graphics 18 , such as a company name, the contents of the container 12 , a logo, etc. In the examples illustrated herein, the containers 12 are wine bottles. The graphics 18 are printed on the flat portion 14 of the label 10 , and the three-dimensional portion 16 takes the form of splashing wine.
[0018] The flat portion 14 , the three-dimensional portion 16 , and the graphics 18 may be formed using various colors. Likewise, the label 10 may take various shapes and sizes, and is in no way limited by the example illustrated herein. The label 10 may cover a portion of the container 12 , as shown, or the entire container 12 , and may be located on any area of the container 12 desired. Likewise, the label 10 may be formed without the flat portion 14 , wherein the graphics 18 are printed within the three-dimensional portion 16 . The label 10 may be formed without graphics 18 . More than one label 10 may be placed on the container 12 , as desired, and so on.
[0019] The label 10 may be formed using a process referred to as “distortion printing,” or other similar process. For example, a label form and graphic design template is produced using a combination of solid modeling software, e.g., a pro/ENGINEER™ program, a mechanical desktop program, etc., and graphic and/or illustration software, e.g., 3-D studio™ max/viz, Corel™, etc.
[0020] The template is then printed onto the underside of a substantially planar sheet of flexible material, such as a clear PVC, PTEG, or other similar material, to form a printed blank. A screen printing process, offset lithography, flexographic and digital ink jet printing, or other similar process, may be used to print the template image onto the flexible material. Various color inks may be used to print the template onto the material, thereby providing a wide range of flexibility in the design of the finished label 10 . Thermoformable inks, such as UV curable inks, may be used as they exhibit the characteristics necessary to withstand the subsequent processing, such as being malleable with the application of heat, resistant to melting and bubbling, flexible, adhesive, etc. Screen printing allows for a large quantity of templates to be formed on a flat sheet of material at one time, thereby reducing the time required to produce the label 10 , however, other similar processes may also be used.
[0021] An adhesive material, to facilitate adhesion of the label 10 to the container 12 , such as a double-faced adhesive sheet is applied to a back surface of the label 10 prior to formation of the three-dimensional form. The three-dimensional image is then formed into the blank using a thermoforming process, or other similar molding processes. For example, the blank is clamped into a thermoforming machine. Within the thermoforming machine the blank is exposed to an array of “zoned” heating elements that bring various portions of the blank to the appropriate temperature levels. Once the blank reaches the appropriate temperature levels, the blank begins to soften. The softened blank is then placed in contact with a molding tool within the thermoforming machine.
[0022] It should be noted that the label 10 may be formed using a single tool, or multiple tools, such as ganged tools, etc. For instance, for shallow images a male mold may be used wherein the mold is forced into the blank. For deeper images, a female mold may be used in conjunction with a vacuum forming process to draw the blank into the mold.
[0023] The molded label is then cooled, as needed, and removed from the thermoforming machine. When removing the molded label from the machine, there is the risk of ink delamination. This risk may be minimized by adjusting the heating zones within the machine, utilizing a mold-release spray, drying the ink for a longer period of time before attempting removal, etc.
[0024] The label 10 is then trimmed, as needed, using a die-cut process, routing process, or other similarly used process. Thereafter, the label 10 is applied to the container 12 , either by hand, using an automated device, or other similarly used application process.
[0025] While this invention has been described in conjunction with the specific embodiments outlined above, it is evident that many alternatives, modifications and variations will be apparent to those skilled in the art. Accordingly, the embodiments of the invention as set forth above are intended to be illustrative, not limiting. Various changes may be made without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention as defined in the following claims.
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A three-dimensional label for a container and a method of forming the label is disclosed. The label includes a first portion flush with a surface of the container, a second portion extending away from the surface of the container, and graphics.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to a device for adjusting the position of the tube through which a carrier strand passes before being coated with molten polymer in one operation in the production of a composite yarn. The tube acts as the male die and the polymer extrusion orifice functions as a female die; together the dies define an annular space through which the coating polymer passes.
Two variables which can be controlled during application of the coating polymer to the carrier strand in production of a composite yarn are carrier strand velocity, and melted polymer extrusion rate or quantity of resin extruded per unit time. The velocity, however, of the polymer being applied to the carrier strand is not entirely a function of the extrusion rate, but is also affected by the area of the annular space between the carrier tube and the extrusion orifice.
During operation of a machine, in producing a variety of composite yarns, a severe problem became evident. During apparently satisfactory operation, the molten polymer being applied to coat the moving carrier strand would suddenly fail to adhere to the strand. Apparently the velocity of the molten polymer being applied, compared to the velocity of the carrier strand, was at a critical point, and a slight change in running conditions caused the polymer coating to break loose. The polymer, being extruded continuously, would accumulate at the extrusion orifice. After a short interval of time, the accumulated polymer would break loose and jam the mechanism of the machine. Of course, the accumulation or "slug" of polymer, preceded and followed by bare sections of the carrier strand, interrupted the production of satisfactory quality yarn.
In order to correct this type of misoperation, it has been found to be essential that the velocity of the molten polymer being applied to the carrier strand be controllable. This may be accomplished by adjusting the annular space between the tube through which the carrier strand passes and the polymer extrusion orifice, as by having one end of the carrier tube cone shaped and placed concentrically within a funnel shaped die orifice so that movement of one end of the carrier tube from inside the die toward the strand exit reduces the annular space between the tube and the extrusion orifice. Small vertical movement increments can result in proportionally large annular space changes.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention comprises a support which permits adjusting a strand carrier tube longitudinally in very small increments by means of a rotatable fitting with screw threads on one or both ends. The threads may be of different pitch or of right or left hand. One end of the fitting may screw into a movable block and the other end may screw into a support block which is attached to an extruder die housing. The movable block may travel along a guide which is part of the support block and which prevents rotation of the movable block. The strand carrier tube passes through the movable block, the center of the rotatable fitting, and through the support block into the extruder die housing. The tube may be attached to the movable block by conventional means. As the fitting is rotated, the movable block and tube move in a direction along the tube axis by an amount which may be determined by the differential in the pitch or hand between the screw threads. By this means a relatively small and precisely controlled axial movement of the yarn carrier tube may be obtained by rotation of the fitting.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a schematic drawing of a cross section of an extruder die orifice and the end of a strand carrier tube; and
FIG. 2 is a sectional side elevation of the device for adjusting the longitudinal position of a strand carrier tube.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
In FIG. 1 a possible positioning of the end of the hollow strand carrier tube 20 coaxially in the extruder die orifice 23 is shown to illustrate the method by which the longitudinal movement of the guide tube controls the flow of the polymer 24 at the die orifice. The carrier strand 22 is passed through the carrier tube 20 which is axially movable longitudinally along the path of the strand travel in relation to the die head 21 by means of the adjusting device 25. The end 26 of the carrier tube 20 is cone shaped or tapered to a smaller diameter than the main body of the tube. The orifice 23 is funnel shaped, with the smallest area at the exit. The external diameter of the carrier tube 20 may be the same as the internal diameter of the die orifice exit 23, so that the annular area between the orifice 23 and the carrier tube 20 can be adjusted from closed at the lowest position of the carrier tube, to increasing areas as the carrier tube 20 is moved away from the die orifice 23. The total length of adjustment of the carrier tube 20 is about 0.3 inch.
The adjusting device 25 is shown in more detail in FIG. 2. The carrier strand tube 20 is attached by means of a set screw 17 or any other suitable fastener to a movable block 12. The movable block 12 slides toward and away from a support block 14 along a guide 13 which forms an extension of the support block 14. The carrier tube 20 passes concentrically through but is not attached to the support block. The carrier tube 20 also passes through but is not attached to a rotatable fitting 11, which is positioned between the movable block 12 and the support block 14. The fitting 11 may have male screw threads 15, 16 on one or both ends and a center section 18 designed to be turned by use of tools or by hand. The ends of fitting 11 engage respectively with threaded openings in the movable support 12 and in the support block 14. The design of the threads 15, 16 on the two ends of the fitting 11 may be in any manner desired, to obtain an extremely small movement of the tube 20 longitudinally within a given rotation of the fitting, or a relatively larger movement.
The threads 15 may have different pitch than the threads 16 to cause the movable support 12 to shift relatively to support block 14 upon rotation of the fitting 11. Alternatively, the hand of threads 15 may be reversed from that of threads 16. Or, one end of the fitting 11 may be provided with a shoulder or other locking means to permit rotation relative to a block 12 or 14 while preventing separation, so that the opposite threaded end of the fitting can produce the desired movement to the strand carrier tube 20 when the fitting is rotated. By use of this device, very small increments of change in the annular space between the guide tube and the annular spacing of the tube end and die orifice can be effected.
As to a specific example of one design of the rotatable fitting 11 to achieve a desired result, one end 15 of the fitting may have 1/2 inch - 16 R.H. threads/inch, while the other end 16 may have 1/2 inch - 20 R.H. threads/inch. One revolution will then move the fitting 1/16 inch in relation to the support block and extruder head, and move the movable block and carrier tube 1/20 inch in the opposite direction. The movable block and carrier tube will, therefore, move 1/80 inch in relation to the support block and extruder head per 360° of the fitting. The difference in pitch or hand should be selected so that strand carrier tube 20 travels no more than about 0.02 inch for each revolution of the rotatable fitting 11.
In an alternative embodiment, the positioning of the carrier tube may be ascertained through use of vernier scales similar to that found on conventional micrometers. A linear scale with coarse graduations may be attached to the support block or other stationary means and a circular scale may be attached to the fitting for finer graduated readings within the coarse linear graduations on the linear scale. Alternatively, a coarse linear scale may be attached to the movable block 12 of FIG. 2 and a linear vernier scale attached to guide 13 adjacent the coarse scale on block 12. The strand carrier tube may then be calibrated by positioning the carrier tube end flush with the die opening and adjusting the graduations and set screw 17 on FIG. 2 to the desired position.
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In producing a composite yarn which includes a carrier strand and a layer of tacky polymer, provision is made for adjusting the position of a tube through which the carrier strand passes in relation to a polymer extrusion orifice to vary the annular thickness of the polymer layer.
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CLAIM TO PRIORITY
This application is a continuation of application Ser. No. 12/827,833, filed Jun. 30, 2010, now U.S. Pat. No. 8,550,506, which claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 61/221,975 entitled “Multi-point Mortise Lock Mechanism for Swinging Door” filed Jun. 30, 2009, U.S. Provisional Application 61/248,673 entitled “Door Latch with Integrated Latch Lubrication Strip” filed Oct. 5, 2009 and U.S. Provisional Application 61/245,560 entitled “Multi-point Mortise Lock Mechanism for Swinging Door” filed Sep. 24, 2009, the entire contents of all of the above applications being incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to lock mechanisms for doors, and more specifically, to multi-point lock mechanisms for swinging doors.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
While multi-point lock mechanisms for swinging doors are known, devices developed to date have drawbacks and have not entirely fulfilled the needs of the industry.
In the field of swinging door latching devices it is common to have a wedge shaped latchbolt that extends from a cassette or cylindrical cartridge containing an actuating mechanism. The latchbolt is generally spring-loaded and biased toward the extended position, and is retracted against the bias of the spring by operation of a lever or knob. The latchbolt typically contacts a strike plate in a door frame in such a way as to press the spring loaded latchbolt into the cassette until the latchbolt reaches a hole in the strikeplate. The spring loaded latchbolt then engages in the strikeplate hole and secures the door panel to the door frame.
Prior latchbolts are generally made of metal and have a tendency to scratch and mar the corresponding strikeplates, many of which are decorative plated, causing noisy and rough operation when closing the door panel in the door frame, and an unsightly appearance to the strikeplate. Accordingly, what is needed in the industry is a latch mechanism with a latch bolt that does not cause scratching and marring of the strikeplate.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
Embodiments of the invention address the needs of the industry by providing all or certain of these features in a multi-point lock assembly for a swinging door:
In one embodiment the invention includes an Anti-slam mechanism including a detent and rotatable paddle. The detent and rotatable paddle make the anti-slam mechanism bidirectional.
In another embodiment of the invention, the Anti-slam mechanism includes an independent tie in to the remote bolts via a boss and a slot. This permits the remote bolts to be operated independent of whether the deadbolt is locked or not.
In another embodiment of the invention, the Anti-slam mechanism includes an independent tie in to dead bolt via linkage. This permits the deadbolt to be operated whether the remote bolts are locked or not.
Another aspect of the invention permits the Dead bolt and remote bolts to operate independently in extension and retraction.
The invention may include a dead bolt driver that extends the dead bolt and locks out the handle of the lock mechanism with a stop bar.
In another aspect of the invention, both a spring loaded pawl and a dead bolt driver secure the deadbolt in the locked position so that there are two support points to prevent back drive of dead bolt.
The invention further includes a method of lifting spring loaded pawl to bypass support point when retracting dead bolt.
In another embodiment the invention includes a flat spring that provides for detent feel of dead bolt driver and retention of dead bolt in position.
In another embodiment the invention includes a torsion spring for the upper operation bar to hold it in position.
In another aspect of the invention a compression spring is used to return the handle to a neutral position and to control handle droop so that the handle returns reliably to the neutral position.
In another embodiment the invention includes a reversibly handed anti-slam plunger that changes handedness via a rotating paddle.
In another aspect of the invention, the invention includes a rotating latch bolt for interchangeable handing and retaining of the latch bolt at the functional position.
The invention may further include reversed upper and lower drive bars so that gravity assists in balancing the upper and lower tie bars and remote bolts.
In another embodiment, the present invention addresses the need of the industry for a latch mechanism with a latchbolt that does not cause scratching and marring of the strikeplate. According to embodiments of the invention, a lubrication strip made of a lubricious, yet durable material is inset into the latchbolt. The lubrication strip is disposed so as to contact and slide along the strikeplate when the door is closed, thereby preventing contact between the metal portions of the latchbolt with the strikeplate, and as a result, inhibiting scratching and marring of the strikeplate.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention may be more completely understood in consideration of the following detailed description of various embodiments of the invention in connection with the following drawings, in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a multi-point lock assembly according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 1A is a perspective view of a swinging door with the multi-point lock assembly of FIG. 1 therein;
FIG. 2 is another perspective view of a multi-point lock assembly of FIG. 1 ;
FIG. 3 is a partially exploded view of the lock assembly of FIG. 1 ;
FIG. 4 is a side elevation view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 1 with the anti-slam plunger extended;
FIG. 5 is a side elevation view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 1 with the anti-slam plunger depressed;
FIG. 6 is a partially exploded perspective view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 1 ;
FIG. 7 is a fragmentary side elevation view of the lock assembly of FIG. 1 in a first operational disposition;
FIG. 8 is a fragmentary side elevation view of the lock assembly of FIG. 1 in a second operational disposition;
FIG. 9 is a fragmentary side elevation view of the lock assembly of FIG. 1 in a third operational disposition;
FIG. 10 is a fragmentary side elevation view of the lock assembly of FIG. 1 in a fourth operational disposition;
FIG. 11 is a side elevation view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 1 with the dead bolt in a retracted position;
FIG. 12 is a side elevation view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 1 with the dead bolt in an extended position;
FIG. 13 is a perspective view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 1 with the latch bolt in a first rotational position;
FIG. 14 is a perspective view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 1 with the latch bolt in a second rotational position;
FIG. 15 is a perspective view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 1 with the latch bolt in a third rotational position;
FIG. 16 is a perspective view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 1 ;
FIG. 17 is a perspective view of a multi-point lock assembly according to another embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 18 is another perspective view of the multi-point lock assembly of FIG. 17 ;
FIG. 19 is a partially exploded view of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 ;
FIG. 20 is a side elevation view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 with the anti-slam plunger extended;
FIG. 21 is a side elevation view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 with the anti-slam plunger depressed;
FIG. 22 is a partially exploded perspective view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 ;
FIG. 23 is a fragmentary side elevation view of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 in a first operational disposition;
FIG. 24 is a fragmentary side elevation view of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 in a second operational disposition;
FIG. 25 is a fragmentary side elevation view of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 in a third operational disposition;
FIG. 26 is a fragmentary side elevation view of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 in a fourth operational disposition;
FIG. 27 is a vertical sectional view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 with the handle in a neutral position;
FIG. 28 is a vertical sectional view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 with the handle in a downward position;
FIG. 29 is a vertical sectional view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 with the handle in a upward position;
FIG. 30 is a side elevation view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 with the dead bolt in a retracted position;
FIG. 31 is a side elevation view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 with the dead bolt in an extended position;
FIG. 32 is a perspective view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 with the latch bolt in a first rotational position;
FIG. 33 is a perspective view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 with the latch bolt in a second rotational position;
FIG. 34 is a perspective view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 with the latch bolt in a third rotational position;
FIG. 35 is a sectional view of the lock cassette of FIG. 17 taken through section A-A with the anti-slam plunger configured in two different positions according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 36 is a perspective view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 17 .
FIG. 37 is a perspective view of a multi-point lock assembly according to another embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 38 is another perspective view of the multi-point lock assembly of FIG. 37 ;
FIG. 39 is a partially exploded view of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 ;
FIG. 40 is a side elevation view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 with the anti-slam plunger extended;
FIG. 41 is a side elevation view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 with the anti-slam plunger depressed;
FIG. 42 is a partially exploded perspective view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 ;
FIG. 43 is a fragmentary side elevation view of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 in a first operational disposition;
FIG. 44 is a fragmentary side elevation view of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 in a second operational disposition;
FIG. 45 is a fragmentary side elevation view of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 in a third operational disposition;
FIG. 46 is a fragmentary side elevation view of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 in a fourth operational disposition;
FIG. 47 is a vertical sectional view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 with the handle in a neutral position;
FIG. 48 is a vertical sectional view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 with the handle in a downward position;
FIG. 49 is a vertical sectional view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 with the handle in a upward position;
FIG. 50 is a side elevation view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 with the dead bolt in a retracted position;
FIG. 51 is a side elevation view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 with the dead bolt in an extended position;
FIG. 52 is a perspective view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 with the latch bolt in a first rotational position;
FIG. 53 is a perspective view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 with the latch bolt in a second rotational position;
FIG. 54 is a perspective view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 with the latch bolt in a third rotational position;
FIG. 55 is a sectional view of the lock cassette of FIG. 37 taken through section A-A with the anti-slam plunger configured in two different positions according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 56 is a partial side elevation view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 with the dead bolt in an extended position and an anti-backdrive bolt and locking pin in a first operational position;
FIG. 57 is a partial side elevation view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 with the dead bolt in an extended position and an anti-backdrive bolt and locking pin in a second operational position;
FIG. 58 is a partial side elevation view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 with the dead bolt in an extended position and an anti-backdrive bolt and locking pin in a third operational position;
FIG. 59 is a perspective view of the central cassette of the lock assembly of FIG. 37 .
FIG. 60 is a perspective view of a latch cassette with latchbolt according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 61 is a top plan view of a latchbolt according to an embodiment of the invention;
FIG. 62 is a front view of the latchbolt of FIG. 61 ;
FIG. 63 is a bottom plan view of the latchbolt of FIG. 61 ;
FIG. 64 is a left elevation of the latchbolt of FIG. 61 ; and
FIG. 65 is a perspective view of a latchbolt according to an embodiment of the invention.
While the present invention is amendable to various modifications and alternative forms, specifics thereof have been shown by way of example in the drawings and will be described in detail. It should be understood, however, that the intention is not to limit the present invention to the particular embodiments described. On the contrary, the intention is to cover all modifications, equivalents, and alternatives falling within the spirit and scope of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Lock assembly 100 according to an embodiment of the invention is depicted in FIGS. 1-16 . In FIG. 1A , lock assembly 100 is depicted as mounted in the edge of a swinging door 102 . As depicted in FIG. 1 , lock assembly 100 generally includes latch bolt 201 , dead bolt 202 , and anti-slam plunger 203 located in central cassette 204 with two or more remote locking points 205 . Remote locking points 205 can be permanently attached to the center cassette or attachable as a separate module as depicted in FIG. 2 .
Locks at the remote locking points 205 may be tungs, hooks, bolts, etc. that extend horizontally into a vertical door frame and/or may be shoot bolts that extend vertically into a horizontal door frame header and threshold.
As depicted in FIG. 3 , remote locking points 205 may also generally include hook 206 as is commonly known in the art. Further general details of multi-point locking systems are disclosed in PCT International Publication No. WO 2008/153707 hereby fully incorporated herein by reference.
As depicted in FIGS. 1A and 4 , when swinging door 102 is in the open position, swung away from door frame 104 , anti-slam plunger 203 protrudes from central cassette 204 . Anti-slam plunger 203 is biased toward the extended position by compression spring 207 . Boss 208 of anti-slam plunger 203 , depicted in FIG. 6 , engages with slot 209 in upper operation bar 210 , thereby blocking translational movement of operation bar 210 .
As depicted in FIG. 3 , remote locking points 205 are coupled to operation bars 210 and 233 with tie bars 211 and the remote locking points 205 are thereby prevented from being extended when anti-slam plunger 203 is extended.
As depicted in FIG. 4 , pawl 213 is rotatable about boss 282 . Side 212 of anti-slam plunger 203 engages end 219 of pawl 213 in a rotated position, engaging with slot 214 in stop bolt 215 , blocking the stop bolt 215 from translational movement. Stop bolt 215 defines rack 216 that engages gear teeth 217 defined in dead bolt driver 218 , thus blocking dead bolt 202 from being extended.
As depicted in FIG. 5 , when door 102 is closed, anti-slam plunger 203 contacts a strike in door frame 104 , depressing anti-slam plunger 203 . Boss 208 of anti-slam plunger 203 clears slot 209 in upper operation bar 210 enabling translational movement of upper operation bar 210 and extension of remote locking points 205 . Clearance slot 220 in side 212 of anti-slam plunger 203 registers with end 219 of pawl 213 at the same time that anti-slam plunger 203 contacts opposite end 221 of pawl 213 and end 219 rotates out of slot 214 in stop bolt 215 and into clearance slot 220 of anti-slam plunger 203 . Stop bolt 215 is thereby freed for translational movement, enabling rotational movement of dead bolt driver 218 to extend dead bolt 202 .
The effect is that when door 102 is open, remote locking points 205 and dead bolt 202 are blocked from extending, thus preventing remote locking points 205 and dead bolt 202 from “slamming” and damaging the door frame as the door is closed. Remote locking points 205 and dead bolt 202 are free to extend when the door is closed. Compression spring 222 loaded latch bolt 201 has an angled ramp surface 223 that causes it to depress as it contacts a strike in door frame 104 , and extends once it reaches a slot in the strike (not shown) latching the door, similar to latch bolts common in the field.
As depicted in FIGS. 7 and 8 , remote locking points 205 are extended by a rotational input from door handle 224 that is keyed to central spindle 225 . Spindle 225 protrudes and is keyed to crank 227 in central cassette 204 . Crank 227 has upper arm 228 that rotates downward contacting captured pin 229 in upper operation bar 210 and urging upper operation bar 210 in a downward direction. Upper operation bar 210 defines rack 230 at the lower end that drives pinion 231 rotationally, in turn driving rack 232 defined in lower operation bar 233 in an upward direction. Operation bars 210 and 233 are coupled to tie bars 211 by toothed racks 234 . Tie bars 211 are coupled to and drive remote locking points 205 to the extended position into strikes located on the door vertical frame or, in the case of shoot bolts (not shown), drive the bolts vertically into strikes located on the door frame header or threshold. As door handle 224 is released, torsion spring 235 holds operation bars 210 and 233 in the extended position, while crank torsion spring 236 has leg 237 that pushes against crank tab 239 and leg 238 bearing against standoff 242 that drives the crank 227 to the neutral position. It is important to note that remote locking points 205 can be extended regardless of whether dead bolt 202 is extended or retracted.
As depicted in FIGS. 9 and 10 , remote locking points 205 are retracted by a rotational input from door handle 224 keyed to central spindle 225 which protrudes and is keyed to crank 227 in central cassette 204 . Crank 227 has lower arm 244 that rotates upward and contacts captured pin 229 in upper operation bar 210 and pushes upper operation bar 210 in an upward direction. Rack 230 of upper operation bar 210 drives pinion 231 rotationally, thereby driving rack 232 in lower operation bar 233 in a downward direction. Operation bars 210 and 233 drive tie bars 211 via toothed racks 234 . Tie bars 211 drive remote locking points 205 and/or shoot bolts to the retracted position, disengaging remote locking points 205 from strikes in the door frame 104 . Crank 227 defines lobe 245 on upper arm 228 that contacts a corresponding lobe 246 on latch bolt base 247 , thereby retracting latch bolt 201 against the bias of compression spring 222 . When retracted, latch bolt 201 is disengaged from the strikes in door frame 104 . Alternatively, with remote locking points 205 in the retracted position, door handle 224 can be rotated downward and latch bolt 201 retracted.
As all bolts 201 , 202 , 205 , are retracted, door 102 may now be rotated to the open position. As anti-slam plunger 203 moves away from door frame 104 , it is released to the extended position. Boss 208 shifts into slot 209 on upper operation bar 210 , blocking movement of upper operation bar 210 and effectively blocking extension of remote locking points 205 . Simultaneously as depicted in FIG. 5 , wall 249 inside slot 220 of anti-slam plunger 203 bears against ramped surface 250 on pawl 213 , causing end 219 of pawl 213 to rotate out of slot 220 and into engagement in slot 214 on stop bolt 215 , blocking stop bolt 215 from shifting, and thus blocking dead bolt driver 218 from driving dead bolt 202 . As depicted in FIGS. 9 and 10 , when door handle 224 is released, torsion spring 235 retains operation bars 210 and 233 in the retracted position. Crank torsion spring 236 presents leg 238 that pushes against crank tab 240 and leg 237 , bearing against standoff 241 and driving crank 227 to the neutral position. Simultaneously, lobe 245 in upper arm 228 of crank 227 rotates away from latch bolt lobe 246 , enabling the compression spring to extend latch bolt 201 .
Bolt 202 is extended by a rotation of a thumb turn or thumb turn/lock cylinder common in the field (not shown). A spindle (common in the field) protrudes from the thumb turn into slot 248 in dead bolt driver 218 . As dead bolt driver 218 rotates, boss 251 on opposite end 255 engages cam slot 252 , driving dead bolt 202 in a horizontal translational motion. Cam slot 252 presents surface 253 such that, as dead bolt 202 reaches its maximum extension, boss 251 on dead bolt driver 218 reaches a toggle position in the cam slot 252 , blocking dead bolt 202 from being back driven by a force applied to end surface 254 of dead bolt 202 parallel to dead bolt translational motion. Simultaneously, as dead bolt driver 218 rotates, opposite end 255 of dead bolt driver 218 urges lobe 256 on lifter 257 in a rotational motion such that upper lobe 258 contacts and lifts spring loaded pawl 259 . As dead bolt 202 reaches full extension, lifter 257 is enabled to rotate down, dropping pawl 259 below notch 260 in dead bolt 202 to thereby assist in blocking dead bolt 202 from being back driven. Dead bolt driver 218 defines gear teeth 217 that engage rack 216 in stop bolt 215 . As dead bolt driver 218 rotates, it drives stop bolt 215 in a horizontal direction, and engaging protrusion 280 in slot 261 in stop bar 262 , thereby blocking downward translational movement of stop bar 262 . Rack 263 in stop bar 262 engages gear teeth 264 in crank 227 , blocking downward rotation of crank 227 and thus blocking retraction of remote locking points 205 if they are already extended. Slot 261 in stop bar 262 has clearance 265 below stop bolt 215 that enables upward translational movement of stop bar 262 , upward rotation of crank 227 , and extension of remote locking points 205 while dead bolt 202 is extended. Dead bolt 202 can be extended or retracted regardless of whether remote locking points 205 are extended or retracted. Remote locking points 205 cannot be retracted if dead bolt 202 is extended.
Dead bolt 202 is retracted by a rotation of a thumb turn or thumb turn/lock cylinder (not shown). A spindle as is common in the field protrudes from the thumb turn into slot 248 in dead bolt driver 218 . As dead bolt driver 218 rotates, opposite end 255 of dead bolt driver 218 contacts lobe 256 on lifter 257 . Lifter 257 is thereby rotated such that upper lobe 258 lifts spring loaded pawl 259 clear of notch 260 on dead bolt 202 . Boss 251 on the end of dead bolt driver 218 then rotates to surface 266 in cam slot 252 of dead bolt 202 and driving dead bolt 202 to the retracted position. Simultaneously, gear teeth 217 of dead bolt driver 218 are engaged with rack 216 on stop bolt 215 . Stop bolt 15 is driven in a horizontal direction, disengaging protrusion 280 from slot 261 in stop bar 262 and freeing stop bar 262 to move vertically downward and enabling rotation of crank 227 .
It is common in the field to have left hand opening doors and right hand opening doors. It is advantageous for latch bolt 201 and anti-slam plunger 203 to accommodate opposing rotations of the doors either by offering separate hardware with opposing ramps, by offering interchangeability, or by making them non-handed. As depicted in FIG. 13 , this is accomplished for anti-slam plunger 203 of embodiments of the invention by incorporating a symmetrical roller 267 , thus making it non-handed and functional from either direction.
As depicted in FIGS. 13, 14, and 15 , latch bolt 201 of embodiments of the invention is made interchangeable by restricting the translational movement of the latch bolt 201 with torsion spring 268 . Torsion spring 268 has leg 269 extending from central coil 270 . Leg 269 engages into notch 271 in bent up wall 272 of cassette housing 243 . Central coil 270 wraps around standoff 273 secured to the housing 243 , and in the free unloaded position additional leg 274 extends perpendicular to the direction of travel of latch bolt 201 . Additional leg 274 of torsion spring 268 limits latch bolt 201 at the extended position so as not to extend beyond the opening 275 in cassette housing 243 . Torsion spring 268 will apply a resistance force to latch bolt base 247 as latch bolt end 276 is pulled from and clears housing opening 275 . Latch bolt end 276 is then rotated 180 degrees, positioning ramp 223 on latch bolt end 276 for the opposite handed door. Torsion spring 268 is allowed to return to its at rest position, pulling latch bolt end 276 back into housing opening 275 . Housing wall 278 and cover wall 279 hold latch bolt end 276 in rotational position.
A lock 300 according to a second embodiment is depicted in FIGS. 17-36 and 1A . Lock 300 may be mounted in the edge of a swinging door 102 as depicted in FIG. 1A . Looking first to FIG. 17 , latch bolt 301 , dead bolt 302 , and anti-slam plunger 303 are disposed in central cassette 304 with two or more remote locking points 305 . Remote locking points 305 can be permanently attached to center cassette 304 or attachable as a separate module as depicted in FIG. 18 . Locks at remote locking points 305 may be tungs, hooks, bolts, or any other suitable element that extend horizontally into a vertical door frame and may include shoot bolts (not shown) that extend vertically into a horizontal door frame header and threshold. For exemplary purposes, hook 81 is depicted in FIG. 19 , but any of the above elements may be added or substituted.
As depicted in FIG. 20 , when door 102 is in the open position, swung away from the door frame, anti-slam plunger 303 protrudes from central cassette 304 . Anti-slam plunger 303 is held in an extended position by compression spring 307 . Boss 308 , shown in FIG. 22 , on anti-slam plunger 303 keys into slot 309 in upper operation bar 310 blocking translational movement. Upper operation bar 310 has rack 330 that engages pinion 331 , which engages rack 332 in lower operation bar 333 . As in FIG. 19 , remote locking points 305 are coupled to operation bars 310 and 333 by tie bars 311 , and remote locking points 305 are prevented from being extended. As depicted in FIG. 20 , blocker link 313 rotates about pin 382 . End 312 of blocker link 313 is held in position by slot 315 in the side of anti-slam plunger 303 such that other end 314 of blocker link 313 is positioned with respect to lobe 316 of dead bolt driver 318 , thereby preventing dead bolt driver 318 from rotating and extending dead bolt 302 .
When door 102 is closed anti-slam plunger 303 contacts a strike in the door frame (not shown) which depresses anti-slam plunger 303 as depicted in FIG. 21 . As depicted in FIG. 22 , boss 308 of anti-slam plunger 303 clears slot 309 in upper operation bar 310 enabling translational movement of upper operation bar 310 which may in turn drive translation of lower operation bar 333 through racks 330 , 332 , and pinion 331 , thereby resulting in extension of remote locking points 305 . As depicted in FIG. 21 , slot 315 in anti-slam plunger 303 positions blocker link end 312 so that blocker link 313 rotates about pin 382 and rotates other blocker link end 314 clear of lobe 316 of dead bolt driver 318 , thereby enabling rotational movement of dead bolt driver 318 to extend dead bolt 302 .
The overall effect is that when door 102 is open, remote locking points 305 and dead bolt 302 are blocked from extending, thus preventing remote locking points 305 and dead bolt 302 from “slamming” into and damaging the door frame as the door is closed. Remote locking points 305 and dead bolt 302 are freed to extend, however, when the door is closed. Compression spring 322 loaded latch bolt 301 has angled ramp surface 323 that causes it to depress as it contacts a strike in the door frame, and extend once it reaches a slot in the strike (not shown) thereby latching the door, similar to other latch bolts common in the field.
As depicted in FIGS. 23, 24 and 29 , remote locking points 305 and/or shoot bolts (not shown) are extended by an upward rotational input from door handle 324 , which is keyed to central spindle 325 . Spindle 325 protrudes from central cassette 304 and is keyed to crank 327 . Crank 327 has upper arm 328 that rotates downward, contacting captured pin 329 in upper operation bar 310 and pushing upper operation bar 310 in a downward direction. Upper operation bar 310 defines rack 330 at its lower end that drives pinion 331 rotationally, which in turn drives rack 332 of lower operation bar 333 in an upward direction. Operation bars 310 and 333 are connected to tie bars 311 by toothed racks 334 . Tie bars 311 are coupled to and drive remote locking points 305 to the extended position into strikes located on the door vertical frame and/or, in the case of shoot bolts (not shown), drive the bolts vertically into strikes located on the door frame header or threshold. Simultaneously, gear teeth 364 on crank 327 drive rack 363 in crank return bar 321 . Crank return bar 321 defines chamber 317 that longitudinally contains half of compression spring 320 . The other half of compression spring 320 is contained in hollow 319 of crank return housing 336 . As crank return bar 321 is driven vertically up, the compartment defined by chamber 317 and hollow 319 shrinks, compressing spring 320 . As door handle 324 is released, torsion spring 335 biases operation bars 310 and 333 toward the extended position. Compression spring 320 expands the compartment defined by chamber 317 and hollow 319 , returning handle 324 to the neutral position. It is important to note that remote locking points 305 and/or shoot bolts (not shown) can be extended in this way regardless of whether dead bolt 302 is extended or retracted.
As shown in FIGS. 25 and 26 , remote locking points 305 and/or shoot bolts (not shown) are retracted by a downward rotational input from door handle 324 , which is keyed to central spindle 325 and which protrudes through and is keyed to crank 327 . Crank 327 has lower arm 344 that rotates upward and contacts captured pin 329 in upper operation bar 310 , pushing upper operation bar 310 in an upward direction. Rack 330 of upper operation bar 310 drives pinion 331 rotationally, which in turn drives rack 332 in lower operation bar 333 in a downward direction. Operation bars 310 and 333 drive tie bars 311 via toothed racks 334 . Tie bars 311 drive remote locking points 305 and/or shoot bolts (not shown) to the retracted position, disengaging remote locking points 305 and/or shoot bolts (not shown) from strikes in the door frame. Simultaneously, crank 327 has lobe 345 on upper arm 328 that contacts corresponding lobe 346 on latch bolt base 347 , which retracts latch bolt 301 against the bias of compression spring 322 , thereby disengaging latch bolt 301 from strikes in the door frame (not shown). Simultaneously, gear teeth 364 on crank 327 drive rack 363 in crank return bar 321 in a vertically downward direction. Compression spring 320 contained in the shrinking compartment defined by chamber 317 and hollow 319 is compressed. Alternatively, with remote locking points 305 and/or shoot bolts (not shown) in the retracted position, door handle 324 can be rotated downward and latch bolt 301 retracted and compression spring 320 compressed.
As all bolts 301 , 302 , 305 , 306 are retracted, the door 102 may now be rotated to the open position. As anti-slam plunger 303 moves away from the door frame, it is released to the extended position. Boss 308 , as shown in FIG. 22 , on anti-slam plunger 303 moves into slot 309 on upper operation bar 310 , blocking movement of upper operation bar 310 and lower operation bar 333 , it effectively blocks extension of remote locking points 305 and/or shoot bolts (not shown).
Simultaneously as depicted in FIGS. 20, 21, and 27-29 slot 315 anti-slam plunger 303 positions end 312 of blocker link 313 such that other end 314 rotates to a position in proximity to lobe 316 of dead bolt driver 318 to prevent dead bolt driver 318 from rotating and driving dead bolt 302 . As shown in FIGS. 25 and 26 , when door handle 324 is released, torsion spring 335 biases operation bars 310 and 333 toward the retracted position while compression spring 320 drives crank return bar 321 which drives handle 324 back to the neutral position through rack 363 and gear teeth 364 on crank 327 . Simultaneously, lobe 345 in upper arm 328 of crank 327 rotates away from latch bolt lobe 346 , enabling compression spring 322 to extend latch bolt 301 .
As depicted in FIGS. 30 and 31 , dead bolt 302 may be extended by a rotation of a thumb turn or thumb turn/lock cylinder common in the field (not shown). A spindle protrudes from the thumb turn into a slot 348 in dead bolt driver 318 . As dead bolt driver 318 rotates, boss 351 on opposite end 355 fits into cam slot 352 to drive dead bolt 302 in a horizontal translational motion. Cam slot 352 presents surface 353 oriented such that as dead bolt 302 reaches its maximum extension, boss 351 on dead bolt driver 318 reaches a toggle position in cam slot 352 , blocking dead bolt 302 from being back driven by a force placed on end surface 354 of dead bolt 302 parallel to the dead bolt translational motion.
Simultaneously, as dead bolt driver 318 rotates, opposite end 355 of dead bolt driver 318 pushes lobe 356 on lifter 357 in a rotational motion such that upper lobe 358 contacts and lifts spring loaded pawl 359 . As dead bolt 302 reaches full extension, lifter 357 is enabled to rotate down, dropping pawl 359 below notch 360 in dead bolt 302 to assist in blocking dead bolt 302 from being back driven. Simultaneously, lobe 316 of dead bolt driver 318 rotates away from end 337 of link 338 , enabling link 338 to rotate about pin 382 , and enabling boss 339 on another end of link 338 to rotate down. Slot 340 in stop bar 362 is positioned by boss 339 such that when boss 339 rotates downward, stop bar 362 moves vertically downward such that blocking lobe 341 at the other end of stop bar 362 moves in proximity with tab 342 on crank 327 , blocking rotation of crank 327 and inhibiting handle 324 from retracting latch bolt 301 , remote locking points 305 , and/or shoot bolts (not shown).
It is important to note that the dead bolt 302 can be extended or retracted regardless of whether the remote locking points 305 are extended or retracted. Simultaneously, lobe 316 of dead bolt driver 318 has corner 385 that is held in position by flat spring 386 .
Dead bolt 302 is retracted by a rotation of the thumb turn or thumb turn/lock cylinder common in the field (not shown). A spindle protrudes from the thumb turn into slot 348 in dead bolt driver 318 . As dead bolt driver 318 rotates, opposite end 355 of dead bolt driver 318 contacts lobe 356 on lifter 357 , rotating lifter 357 such that upper lobe 358 lifts spring loaded pawl 359 clear of notch 360 on dead bolt 302 . The timing is such that boss 351 on the end of dead bolt driver 318 then rotates to surface 366 in cam slot 352 of dead bolt 302 , driving dead bolt 302 to the retracted position. Simultaneously, as dead bolt driver 318 rotates to retract the dead bolt 302 , lobe 316 on dead bolt driver 318 contacts end 337 of link 338 , rotating boss 339 up which pushes slot 40 up lifting crank stop 62 vertically upward. This moves blocking lobe 341 away from tab 342 on crank 327 , enabling rotation of crank 327 . Simultaneously, lobe 316 on dead bolt driver 318 has surface 387 that is held in position by flat spring 386 .
It is common in the field to have left hand rotating doors and right hand rotating doors (not shown). Latch bolt 301 and anti-slam plunger 303 must be able to accommodate the opposing rotations of the doors either by offering separate hardware with opposing ramps, by offering interchangeability, or by making them non-handed.
As depicted in FIGS. 32, 33, and 34 , latch bolt 301 of this embodiment is made interchangeable by restricting the translational movement of latch bolt 301 with torsion spring 368 . Torsion spring 368 has leg 369 extending from central coil 370 , which inserts into notch 371 in bent up wall 372 in cassette housing 343 . Central coil 370 wraps around standoff 373 secured to housing 343 and, in the free unloaded position, additional leg 374 extends perpendicular to the direction of travel of latch bolt 301 . This additional leg 374 of torsion spring 368 constrains latch bolt 301 at the extended position so as not to extend beyond the opening 375 in cassette housing 343 . Torsion spring 368 applies a resistance force to latch bolt base 347 as latch bolt end 376 is pulled from and clears housing opening 375 . Latch bolt end 376 is then rotated 180 degrees, positioning ramp 323 on latch bolt end 376 for the opposite handed door. Torsion spring 368 is allowed to return to its at rest position, pulling latch bolt end 376 back into housing opening 375 . Housing wall 378 and cover wall 379 hold latch bolt end 376 in rotational position.
As shown in FIG. 35 , accommodation of left handed and right handed doors is accomplished in anti-slam plunger 303 of this embodiment with rotating paddle 341 that rotates about pin 384 . As depicted in FIG. 35 , surface 383 of paddle 341 acts as the ramp for a left handed door. Detent 342 bears against end 367 , holding paddle 341 in place. As shown in FIG. 34 , paddle 341 has rotated such that end 367 is held by detent 342 so that surface 388 now acts as the ramp surface for a right handed door, effectively making anti-slam plunger 303 non-handed.
Referring to FIGS. 37-59 another embodiment of lock assembly 400 is depicted. In the depicted embodiment, latch bolt 401 , dead bolt 402 , and anti-slam plunger 403 are located in central cassette 404 with two or more remote locking points 405 . Remote locking points 405 can be permanently attached to center cassette 404 or attachable as a separate module as depicted in FIG. 38 . Locks at the remote locking points 405 may be tungs, hooks, bolts, etc. that extend horizontally into a vertical door frame and/or may include shoot bolts (not shown) that extend vertically into a horizontal door frame header and threshold.
FIG. 39 depicts an example remote locking point 405 , hook 481 that is common in the field. This example should not be considered limiting. Remote locking points may include any type of remote locking point 405 known in the art.
Referring to FIG. 40 , when a swinging door is in the open position, swung away from the door frame, anti-slam plunger 403 protrudes from the central cassette 404 . In this example, anti-slam plunger 403 is held in an extended position by compression spring 407 .
Referring to FIG. 42 , boss 408 , on anti-slam plunger 403 , keys into slot 409 in upper operation bar 410 blocking translational movement of upper operation bar 410 when anti-slam plunger 403 is in an extended position. Upper operation bar 410 includes lower pin 489 that engages lever 492 via one of two slots 493 . Lever 492 is pivotally coupled at pivot pin 490 . Opposing slot 493 of lever 492 engages pin 491 and lower operation bar 433 .
Referring to FIG. 39 , remote locking points 405 are coupled to operation bars 410 and 433 by tie bars 411 whereby remote locking points 405 are prevented from being extended. Simultaneously, referring to FIG. 40 , blocker link 413 rotates about pin 482 . End 412 of blocker link 413 is held in position by slot 415 in the side of anti-slam plunger 403 such that other end 414 of blocker link 413 is positioned with respect to lobe 416 of dead bolt driver 418 to prevent dead bolt driver 418 from rotating and extending dead bolt 402 .
Referring to FIG. 41 , the door is closed and anti-slam plunger 403 comes into contact with a strike in the door frame (not shown) which depresses anti-slam plunger 403 inwardly into central cassette 404 . Boss 408 , best seen in FIG. 42 , on anti-slam plunger 403 clears slot 409 in upper operation bar 410 allowing translational movement of upper operation bar 410 which then drives lower operation bar 433 in the opposite direction through lever 492 and pins 490 , 491 thus extending remote locking points 405 . Simultaneously, as depicted in FIG. 41 , slot 415 in the anti-slam plunger 403 positions blocker link end 412 so that blocker link 413 rotates about pin 482 thus rotating other blocker link end 414 clear of lobe 416 of dead bolt driver 418 thus allowing rotational movement of dead bolt driver 418 to extend dead bolt 402 from central cassette 404 .
The effect of this operation is that when the door is open, remote locking points 405 and dead bolt 402 are blocked from extending, thus preventing remote locking points 405 and dead bolt 402 from “slamming” into and damaging the door frame as the door is closed. However, remote locking points 405 and dead bolt 402 are freed to extend when the door is closed to secure the door in the closed position.
Latch bolt 401 is biased toward an extended position by compression spring 422 . Compression spring 422 loaded latch bolt 401 presents angled ramp surface 423 that causes latch bolt 401 to depress as it contacts a strike in the door frame, and to extend once it reaches a slot in the strike (not shown) latching the door, similar to latch bolts common in the field.
Referring to FIGS. 43 and 44 , remote locking points 405 and/or shoot bolts (not shown) are extended by an upward rotational input from a door handle 424 (common in the field) that is keyed to central spindle 425 (common in the field). Spindle 425 protrudes and is keyed to crank 427 in central cassette 404 . Crank 427 includes upper arm 428 that rotates downwardly to contact captured pin 429 of upper operation bar 410 and to push upper operation bar 410 in a downward direction.
Referring to FIGS. 45 and 46 , operation bars 410 and 433 are connected to tie bars 411 by tie bar pins 494 . Tie bars 411 are connected to and drive remote locking points 405 to the extended position into strikes located on the door vertical frame and/or, in the case of shoot bolts (not shown), drive shoot bolts (not shown) vertically into strikes located on the door frame header or threshold. Simultaneously, as depicted in FIG. 49 , gear teeth 464 on crank 427 drive rack 463 in crank return bar 421 . Crank return bar 421 defines chamber 417 that longitudinally contains half of compression spring 420 . The other half of compression spring 420 is contained in hollow 419 of crank return housing 436 . As crank return bar 421 is driven vertically up, the compartment formed by chamber 417 and hollow 419 shrinks in length compressing spring 420 . As door handle 424 is released torsion spring 435 holds operation bars 410 and 433 in the extended position. Compression spring 420 resiliently expands the compartment formed by chamber 417 and hollow 419 returning handle 424 to the neutral position. It is notable that remote locking points 405 and/or shoot bolts (not shown) can be extended in this way regardless of whether the dead bolt 402 is extended or retracted.
Referring again to FIGS. 45 and 46 , remote locking points 405 and/or shoot bolts (not shown) are retracted by a downward rotational input from door handle 424 keyed to central spindle 425 which protrudes through and is keyed to crank 427 in central cassette 404 . Crank 427 includes lower arm 444 that rotates upwardly and contacts captured pin 429 in upper operation bar 410 and pushes upper operation bar 410 in an upward direction. Pin 489 of upper operation bar 410 then drives lever 492 rotationally which drives pin 491 in the lower operation bar 433 in a downward direction. Operation bars 410 and 433 drive tie bars 411 via tie bar pin 494 . Tie bars 411 drive remote locking points 405 and/or shoot bolts (not shown) to the retracted position disengaging remote locking points 405 and/or shoot bolts (not shown) from strikes in the door frame. Simultaneously, crank 427 has lobe 445 on upper arm 428 that contacts corresponding lobe 446 on latch bolt base 447 which retracts latch bolt 401 that is preloaded by compression spring 422 , disengaging latch bolt 401 from strikes in the door frame (not shown). Also simultaneously, as depicted in FIG. 48 , gear teeth 464 on crank 427 drive rack 463 in crank return bar 421 in a vertically downward direction. Compression spring 420 contained in the shrinking compartment formed by chamber 417 and hollow 419 is compressed. Alternatively, with remote locking points 405 and/or shoot bolts (not shown) in the retracted position, door handle 424 can be rotated downwardly and latch bolt 401 retracted and compression spring 420 compressed.
As all bolts 401 , 402 , and 405 and/or 406 are retracted the door panel may now be rotated to the open position. As anti-slam plunger 403 moves away from the door frame it is released to the extended position. Boss 408 , as depicted in FIG. 42 , on anti-slam plunger 403 moves into slot 409 on upper operation bar 410 blocking movement of upper operation bar 410 and lower operation bar 433 , effectively blocking extension of remote locking points 405 and/or shoot bolts (not shown). Simultaneously, as depicted in FIGS. 40 & 41 , slot 415 in anti-slam plunger 403 positions end 412 of blocker link 413 such that other end 414 of blocker link 413 rotates to a position in proximity to lobe 416 of dead bolt driver 418 to prevent dead bolt driver 418 from rotating and driving dead bolt 402 .
As shown in FIGS. 47 and 48 , when door handle 424 is released torsion spring 435 holds operation bars 410 and 433 in the retracted position while compression spring 420 drives crank return bar 421 which drives handle 424 back to the neutral position through rack 463 and gear teeth 464 on crank 427 . Simultaneously, lobe 445 in upper arm 428 of crank 427 rotates away from latch bolt lobe 446 allowing compression spring 422 to extend latch bolt 401 .
As in FIGS. 50 and 51 , dead bolt 402 is extended by a rotation of a thumb turn or thumb turn/lock cylinder (common in the field, not shown). A spindle (common in the field) protrudes from a thumb turn (not shown) into a slot 448 in dead bolt driver 418 . As dead bolt driver 418 rotates, boss 451 on opposite end 455 fits into cam slot 452 driving dead bolt 402 in a horizontal translational motion. Cam slot 452 presents surface 453 such that as dead bolt 402 reaches its maximum extension boss 451 on dead bolt driver 418 reaches a toggle position in cam slot 452 blocking dead bolt 402 from being back driven by a force applied to end surface 454 of the dead bolt 402 parallel to dead bolt 402 translational motion. Simultaneously, lobe 416 of dead bolt driver 418 rotates away from end 437 of link 438 allowing link 438 to rotate about pin 482 and boss 439 on another end of link 438 to rotate downwardly. Slot 440 in stop bar 462 is positioned by boss 439 such that when boss 439 rotates downward, stop bar 462 moves vertically downward such that blocking lobe 441 at the other end of stop bar 462 moves in proximity with tab 442 on crank 427 blocking rotation of crank 427 and handle 424 from retracting latch bolt 401 , remote locking points 405 , and/or shoot bolts (not shown).
It is important to note that dead bolt 402 can be extended or retracted regardless of whether remote locking points 405 are extended or retracted. Simultaneously, lobe 416 of dead bolt driver 418 has corner 485 that is held in position by spring 486 .
Dead bolt 402 is retracted by a rotation of the thumb turn or thumb turn/lock cylinder (common in the field, not shown). A spindle (common in the field) protrudes from the thumb turn into slot 448 in dead bolt driver 418 . As dead bolt driver 418 rotates, boss 451 on the end of dead bolt driver 418 then rotates to surface 466 in cam slot 452 of dead bolt 402 that drives dead bolt 402 to the retracted position. Simultaneously, as dead bolt driver 418 rotates to retract dead bolt 402 , lobe 416 on dead bolt driver 418 contacts end 437 of link 438 rotating boss 439 upwardly which pushes slot 440 up, lifting crank stop 462 vertically upward. This moves blocking lobe 441 away from tab 442 on crank 427 allowing rotation of the crank 427 . Simultaneously, lobe 416 on dead bolt driver 418 has surface 487 that is held in position by spring 486 .
It is common in the field to have left hand rotating doors and right hand rotating doors (not shown). Latch bolt 401 and anti-slam plunger 403 in accordance with the invention are able to accommodate the opposing rotations of the doors either by offering separate hardware with opposing ramps, by offering interchangeability, or by making them non-handed.
As depicted in FIGS. 52, 53 and 54 , latch bolt 401 , in one embodiment of the invention is made interchangeable by restricting the translational movement of the latch bolt 401 with torsion spring 468 . Torsion spring 468 has leg 469 extending from central coil 470 that inserts into notch 471 in bent up wall 472 in cassette housing 443 . Central coil 470 raps around standoff 473 secured to housing 443 and in the free unloaded position additional leg 474 extends perpendicular to the direction of travel of latch bolt 401 . Additional leg 474 of torsion spring 468 constrains latch bolt 401 at the extended position so as not to extend beyond opening 475 in cassette housing 443 . Torsion spring 468 applies a resistance force to latch bolt base 447 as latch bolt end 476 is pulled from and clears housing opening 475 . Latch bolt end 476 is then rotated one hundred eighty degrees positioning the ramp 423 on the latch bolt end 476 for the opposite handed door. The torsion spring 468 is allowed to return to its at rest position pulling the latch bolt end 476 back into the housing opening 475 . Housing wall 478 and cover wall 479 hold the latch bolt end 476 in rotational position.
As depicted in FIG. 55 , anti-slam plunger 403 according to an embodiment of the invention includes a rotating paddle 441 that rotates about a pin 484 . This configuration makes anti-slam plunger 403 reversibly handed. As depicted in the upper section, surface 483 of paddle 441 acts as a ramp for a left hand door. Detent 442 bears against end 467 holding paddle 441 in place. As depicted in the lower section, paddle 441 has rotated such that end 467 is held by détente 442 so that surface 488 now acts as the ramp surface for a right hand door, effectively making the anti-slam plunger 403 non-handed.
As depicted in FIGS. 56, 57 and 58 another embodiment of the invention includes additional anti-backdrive protections. Anti-backdrive bolt 495 is present to prevent back drive of remote locking points 405 and 406 when locking points 405 and 406 are in the extended position. Operation bar 410 , which drives the locking points 405 and 406 , presents locking pin 498 . As depicted in FIG. 56 , when dead bolt 402 is in the extended position, anti-backdrive bolt 495 is guided into position by tab 496 and slot 497 held in position by compression spring 500 within slot 497 . As shown in FIG. 57 , as remote locking points 405 and 406 are extended into position locking pin 498 contacts ramp 499 on anti-backdrive bolt 495 pushing anti-backdrive bolt 495 in a direction compressing compression spring 500 and allowing locking pin 498 to slide by anti-backdrive bolt 495 . Referring to FIG. 58 , once locking pin 498 is past anti-backdrive bolt 495 , undercut surface 502 of anti-backdrive bolt 495 prevents remote locking points 405 and 406 from backdriving to the retracted position.
As depicted in FIGS. 60-65 , in another embodiment of the invention latchbolt 510 includes integrated latch lubrication strip 512 . Referring to FIG. 60 , wedge shaped latchbolt 510 is operably disposed in cassette 516 , which contains a latch actuating mechanism as described in embodiments above. Latchbolt 510 contacts a strike plate in a door frame (not shown) in such a way as to press spring loaded latchbolt 510 into cassette 516 until latchbolt 510 reaches an opening in the strikeplate, enabling spring loaded latchbolt 510 to engage in the strikeplate opening and secure the door panel to the door frame.
Embodiments of the invention inhibit the scratching and marring of the strike plate and reduce the friction, roughness, and noise of operation of closing.
Lubrication strip 512 is fitted into slot 520 defined in latchbolt 510 . Lubrication strip 512 , in this example surrounds four of five generally planar surfaces of latchbolt 510 that may contact a strike plate (not shown). Referring to FIGS. 62 and 65 , lubrication strip 512 presents retaining ridges 522 and alignment ridges 524 . Latchbolt 510 presents complementary indentations 526 , 528 into which retaining ridges 522 and alignment ridges 524 may be received to secure lubrication strip 512 to latchbolt 510 . Accordingly, lubrication strip, as seen in FIGS. 60, 62 and 64 extends outwardly from latchbolt 510 slightly adjacent the four surfaces of latchbolt 510 that may contact a strikeplate thus preventing metal to metal contact between latchbolt 510 and the strike (not shown).
Lubrication strip 512 can be formed from a material that will not scratch or mar the strike plate and has a low coefficient of friction. In a preferred embodiment, lubrication strip 512 may be made from polyacetal or polyoxymethylene polymers. It will be appreciated, however, that any other material with a sufficiently low coefficient of friction and suitable durability qualities may be used, such as for example, high-density polyethylene. Slot 520 may be made of a small enough dimension that the structural integrity of latchbolt 10 is not compromised and it retains sufficient strength to resist forced entry and cyclical wear.
Various modifications to the invention may be apparent to one of skill in the art upon reading this disclosure. For example, persons of ordinary skill in the relevant art will recognize that the various features described for the different embodiments of the invention can be suitably combined, un-combined, and re-combined with other features, alone, or in different combinations, according to the spirit of the invention. Likewise, the various features described above should all be regarded as example embodiments, rather than limitations to the scope or spirit of the invention. Therefore, the above is not contemplated to limit the scope of the present invention.
For purposes of interpreting the claims for the present invention, it is expressly intended that the provisions of Section 112, sixth paragraph of 35 U.S.C. are not to be invoked unless the specific terms “means for” or “step for” are recited in a claim.
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A multipoint mortise lock mechanism for a swinging door, including a central cassette assembly operably coupled to an upper remote locking point assembly and a lower remote locking point assembly by a remote locking linkage. The central cassette assembly includes a housing, a deadbolt mechanism, a latchbolt mechanism, a remote locking point mechanism and an anti-slam mechanism. The anti-slam mechanism includes an anti-slam plunger that when in an extended position engages the remote locking linkage via a boss and a slot and thereby inhibits movement of the remote locking linkage whereby deployment of the remote locking point assemblies is prevented. The deadbolt mechanism includes a deadbolt extendible from the central cassette that is independently operable from the remote locking point mechanism. The deadbolt mechanism further includes an anti-back drive mechanism.
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This is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 10/286,523, filed Nov. 1, 2002 and issued as U.S. Pat. No. 6,817,163 on Nov. 16, 2004 and hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates generally to the art of film wrapping systems for use in wrapping objects with shrink wrap film, such as polyurethane wrapping film, and more particularly to improvements directed to dispensing such film from a film roll.
A wide variety of systems are known for wrapping packages in thermoplastic film. Some of these machines are known as L-sealers because they form “trim seals” utilizing a web of center folded film. More recent machines have utilized a continuous longitudinal sealer and a cross sealer which moves at approximately the velocity of the packages as they travel through the machine so that it is not necessary to stop the packages while performing the end sealing operation. Such prior art machines have generally been of three types. One type had a continuous side sealer and a complex series of multiple flighted end sealing jaws which were spaced for a particular product. This type required substantial set-up time for change in length of product to be wrapped. A second machine of this type, while making packages similar to those produced on an L-sealer worked by drawing film off a roll under tension, folding it around the product, drawing it past a hot knife side sealing mechanism and then formed the end seal with a moving end sealer.
A third type of machine had an overlapped longitudinal seal on the top or bottom of the wrapped packages. Since the overlap not only ran along the bottom of the packages but also ran halfway up both ends, the packages lacked the neat appearance and hence the sales appeal of the trim sealed packages as made on the L-sealers. Since many of the products so wrapped are sold in self-service retail stores, the appearance of the package has an important effect on the sales of the product. An additional disadvantage of the overlapped seal is that the width of the web of film must be precisely correct, requiring an exact width film for each size of product.
Shrink wrap packaging systems of these types process and wrap a variety of different products. Commonly, such products are of differing shapes, sizes and dimensions. For example, shrink wrap packaging systems may process and wrap a single compact disc (CD) package which is very thin or other consumer retail items which have a significantly greater height and larger vertical dimension.
One problem associated with most known shrink wrap packaging system is the difficulty to efficiently process and wrap a wide variety of packages and products, especially those having distinctly different dimensions and heights. For example, most known shrink wrap packaging systems utilize film which is provided on a roll in two plies with each ply being joined together by a longitudinal fold line. The two-ply film is dispensed from the supply roll typically in a direction generally perpendicular to the feed direction of the products to be wrapped. As the film is dispensed and delivered to a wrapping station of the shrink wrap packaging system, it is commonly inverted and reoriented to provide an opening for convenient access and entry of the products between the dual plies of the film. The film is reoriented by an upper and a lower film inverting rod or plow system. The upper and lower film inverting rods are positioned above and below, respectively, the feed conveyor which is advancing the products to be wrapped. Examples of such an arrangement are shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,583,888; 3,583,889; 4,035,983; and 4,219,988, each of which are incorporated by reference herein.
The film inverter rods disclosed in the above-identified patents are each fixed relative to one another so that the spacing between the inverter rods is fixed. Recent advancements in the art of shrink wrap packaging systems have included adjustable film inverter rods to accommodate a variety of differing height products being wrapped. As such, the spacing between the film inverter rods may be adjustable.
However, one problem associated with adjustable film inverter rods is that the delivery of the two-ply film to the film inverter rods is often misaligned providing for poor geometry for the film being delivered to the film inverter rods once the spacing between the inverter rods is changed. Optimally the free edges of the upper and lower plies should be generally aligned with one another downstream from the film inverter rods for proper wrapping of the products and positioning of the side seam on the product. However, when the upper film inverter rod is moved relative to the lower film inverter rod for a different height product, the geometry of the film being delivered and processed at the wrapping station becomes misaligned. As a result, the film will not track properly and will not be in the required tubular configuration at the wrapping station. This requires readjustment and/or refeeding of the film through the various rollers, significant operator involvement and down time of the packaging system. The misalignment of the upper and lower plies of the film results in improperly wrapped products, side seals on the products which are located in a conspicuous or improper location, inefficient use or waste of the film wrapping material and other associated problems.
Therefore, a need exists in the shrink wrap packaging industry for a packaging system which can readily accommodate a wide variety of product configurations and heights without the above-described problems associated with known film delivery systems and wrapping operations.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
These and other objectives have been achieved with this invention, which in one embodiment includes a film delivery unit for a shrink wrap packaging system. The film wrapping system includes a feed conveyor to delivery a series of products to a wrapping station. The wrapping station includes a pair of film inverter rods which are adjustable for spacing from one another to correspond to the height of the product being wrapped. A film delivery unit dispenses a supply of two-ply film in a direction generally perpendicular to the feed direction of the products. The two-ply film is inverted by the inverter rods at the wrapping station where the products are inserted between the plies of the film. The system includes a film inverter rod adjustment mechanism to adjust the spacing between the rods.
The system also includes a film delivery unit adjustment mechanism to adjust a position of the film delivery unit and the film being delivered to the wrapping station as a function of the spacing between the film inverter rods and, consequently, the height of the product being wrapped. In one embodiment of this invention, the film delivery unit adjustment mechanism moves the film delivery unit and the supply of film upstream in the feed direction relative to the film inverter rods for larger height products and downstream for smaller height products. Additionally, the system in another embodiment includes an adjustable roller positioned between the film delivery unit and the wrapping station to deliver the film to the wrapping station at a desired height relative to the position of the film inverter rods.
The shrink wrap packaging system also includes a side seal mechanism and an end seal mechanism each located downstream in the feed direction from the wrapping station to join the first and second plies together and enclose each of the products in individually wrapped packages. A heat shrink tunnel in one embodiment is located downstream from the sealing mechanisms to heat the film and thereby shrink it around the product as is well known in the industry.
As a result of the film delivery unit and associated adjustment mechanism according to this invention, a variety of product configurations and heights can be conveniently and efficiently wrapped while adjusting the spacing between the film inverter rods without fouling the geometry of the film delivery system and thereby avoiding the associated problems and disadvantages of shrink wrap packaging systems in the prior art.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The objectives and features of the invention will become more readily apparent from the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a top view of a film wrapping system and associated method according to one embodiment of this invention;
FIG. 1A is a view similar to FIG. 1 of a portion of the wrapping system with a film delivery unit re-positioned;
FIG. 2 is a schematic view of a series of products as they travel through the system and in addition showing a film folding operation;
FIG. 3 is a perspective view of the film delivery unit and a product wrapping station of the system of FIG. 1 ;
FIG. 4 is schematic end view of the components of FIG. 3 with a portion of the film delivery unit removed to show the film path; and
FIG. 5 is plan view of the film delivery unit of FIG. 3 .
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring now to FIG. 1 , a top view of an exemplary automatic high-speed film packaging system 10 according to one embodiment of this invention is shown. The system 10 generally includes a feed conveyor 12 , a film delivery unit 14 , a wrapping station 16 , a side sealer 18 , an end sealer 20 , associated downstream conveyor(s) 22 and a heat shrink tunnel 24 . Products P to be wrapped in film 26 enter the system 10 via a feed conveyor 12 . The conveyor 12 delivers the spaced-apart and generally aligned products P to the wrapping station 16 where a folded film 26 from a film roll 28 in the film delivery unit 14 surrounds each product P. The folded film 26 enveloping each product P is sealed at its free edges 30 , 30 by the side sealer 18 to form a tube of film 26 enclosing the spaced products P. The film salvage 32 ( FIG. 2 ) at the sealed edge 34 is severed and removed. The film 26 between the adjacent products P is sealed and severed at the end sealer 20 to produce individual sealed packages of the product P.
The system 10 wraps a product P in a flexible plastic film 26 in which the travel of the product P is essentially continuous through the system 10 in a feed direction indicated by arrow A. The film 26 may be any one of a variety of films well known in the art and is supplied to the system 10 as a folded web at right angles to the feed direction of the product P (shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 ) through the system. The film 26 is provided to upper and lower inverter rods 36 a , 36 b of the wrapping station 16 where the film 26 is redirected and turned inside out to travel in the feed direction with the products P delivered by the feed conveyor 12 .
The feed conveyor 12 pushes products P into the wrapping station 16 to cause them to be enclosed by the folded film 26 supplied by film delivery unit 14 on the top, bottom, and one side of the product P with the other side of the product P adjacent to the free edges 30 , 30 of the folded film 26 being open initially. The product P thus enclosed in the web of film 26 travels with the film 26 past the side sealing mechanism 18 in FIG. 1 which seals the two free edges 30 , 30 of the folded film 26 together to form a continuous tube of film which envelops the succession of products P which are being fed into the system 10 by feed conveyor 12 . The side sealer 18 also severs the excess width 32 of film 26 from the tube and this salvage 32 is removed by a salvage accumulator 38 , such as a vacuum or other take-up mechanism.
As the product P progresses further through the system 10 , the end sealing mechanism 20 seals the trailing edge 40 of each package while simultaneously sealing the leading edge 42 of the succeeding package in the system and it also severs one package from the other while the packages are traveling without stopping through the system 10 . The end seal mechanism 20 is so designed that it travels a short distance with the product P at substantially the same velocity while the seal is being made. After the seal has been made, the sealing mechanism 20 releases from the film 26 and returns to its original position to repeat the transverse seal for the next product. The wrapped product may then be conveyed through the shrink tunnel 24 for shrinking of the film around the product. While exemplary embodiments of the side sealer 18 , end sealer 20 and shrink tunnel 24 are shown and described herein as part of the system, specific models or embodiments of these components could readily be varied or changed as known by one of ordinary skill in this art without departing from the scope of this invention.
Because the product P being wrapped in the film proceeds through the system 10 at a substantially uniform velocity, the system 10 is capable of operating at film web speeds as high as 120 feet per minute although 60 to 100 feet per minute is a more typical speed. The system 10 is capable of wrapping in excess of one product P per second.
FIG. 2 shows the various stages of wrapping of successive products P 1 -P 5 with the plastic film 26 as the products proceed through the system 10 . Product P 5 is shown in FIG. 2 as being partially covered by the folded film 26 as it passes between the inverter rods 36 a , 36 b . Product P 4 is shown exiting the side sealer 18 with the salvage 32 of the film 26 being separated from the side sealed package P 4 and being collected by salvage accumulator 38 . The side sealer 18 produces the side seal 34 that completes the tube envelope of relatively loose plastic film 26 around the products P.
The end sealing mechanism 20 produces a trim seal between the packages P 3 and P 2 . The end sealing mechanism 20 also severs the film 26 to provide product P 3 with a leading edge 42 and product P 4 with a trailing edge 40 . The product P 1 is shown as it exits from the heat shrink tunnel 24 where the loose fitting film envelope is shrunk to form a tight fitting film cover. The system 10 is designed to accommodate a variety of product heights and configurations as shown by product P 3 having a greater height than the other products. It will be appreciated that FIG. 2 is schematic and the relative positions of the products P 1 -P 5 and associated components of the system 10 have been adjusted for simplification.
The component parts and the assembly in combination of the continuous high-speed wrapping system 10 of FIG. 1 will now be discussed in detail, focusing in particular on the wrapping station 16 and the film delivery unit 14 .
Preferably, the product P is centered with respect to the feed conveyor 12 by means of guides (not shown) as is readily understood by those skilled in this art. The film 26 is folded about a longitudinal fold 44 thereby forming upper and lower plies 46 a , 46 b in which each ply has a free edge 30 opposite from the fold line 44 . Commonly, the two-ply folded film 26 is provided on the supply roll 28 . Alternatively, single ply film may be provided on a supply roll and subsequently folded into the described two-ply configuration as is well known in the art.
As shown particularly in FIGS. 1 , 2 and 4 , the two-ply film 26 is delivered from the supply roll 28 by the film delivery unit 14 in a direction indicated by arrow B generally perpendicular to the feed direction (arrow A) of the products P. As the film 26 enters the wrapping station 16 , each ply 46 a , 46 b is guided around one of the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b and thereby redirected approximately 90° to travel in the feed direction of arrow A. The film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b are oriented approximately 45° with respect to the feed direction. In addition to being redirected, the film 26 is inverted by the film inverter rods such that confronting inner first faces 48 , 48 of the film 26 provided by the film delivery unit 14 are inverted so that previously outer second faces 50 , 50 of the plies 46 a , 46 b of the film 26 are juxtaposed to each other and around the product P downstream from the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b.
As shown particularly in FIGS. 3 and 4 , each film inverter rod 36 a , 36 b is joined to a pair of mounting rods 52 , 54 to form a generally triangular configuration. Mounting rod 52 is oriented generally parallel to the feed direction; whereas, mounting rod 54 is oriented generally perpendicular to the feed direction. An inclined guide tab 56 is mounted proximate the intersection of each film inverter rod 36 and the associated mounting rod 52 . The intersection between each film inverting rod 36 and the associated mounting rod 52 provides a reference point R which will be discussed herein below.
Film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b and the associated mounting rods 52 , 54 are mounted to a hub 58 a , 58 b , respectively. The hub 58 b for the lower film inverter rod 36 b is fixed beneath the feed conveyor 12 . The hub 58 a for the upper film inverter rod 36 a is mounted on a film inverter rod adjustment mechanism 60 to adjust a spacing S between the upper and lower film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b in a direction generally perpendicular to the feed direction (i.e., vertically) to accommodate products P of differing heights. The film inverter rod adjustment mechanism 60 in one embodiment includes an operator hand wheel 62 mounted atop a threaded rod 64 to rotate the rod 64 . The hub 58 a includes a threaded aperture 66 engaged with the threaded rod 64 as well as two additional apertures 68 , 68 through which guide rods 70 , 70 project. In operation of the system 10 , the operator rotates the hand wheel 62 in the appropriate direction to raise or lower the upper film inverter rod 36 a so that the upper ply 46 a of the film 26 is positioned slightly above the top upper surface of the product P being wrapped. The upper and lower film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b , as well as the film inverter rod adjustment mechanism 60 , are mounted to a block 72 which is supported on a platform 74 underlying the lower film inverter rod 36 b as well as the feed conveyor 12 . A frame 76 supports the wrapping station 16 , associated film inverter rod components as well as the film delivery unit 14 as shown in FIG. 3 . The downstream conveyors 22 and associated components are not shown in FIG. 3 to provide a better view of the components in the wrapping station 16 and the film delivery unit 14 .
The film delivery unit 14 , as shown generally in FIGS. 3-5 , is mounted adjacent to the wrapping station 16 in a direction generally perpendicular to the feed direction. The film delivery unit 14 supplies film 26 from the supply roll 28 to the wrapping station 16 . The supply roll 28 is supported by a cradle assembly 78 of the film delivery unit 14 . The cradle assembly 78 includes a pair of spaced cradle rollers 80 , 80 mounted for rotation between spaced end plates 82 , 82 of the cradle assembly 78 . The supply roll 28 is positioned atop the cradle rollers 80 , 80 and between a pair of film roll retainer posts 84 a , 84 b . Preferably, the gap between the film roller retainer posts 84 a , 84 b is adjustable to accommodate supply rolls 28 of different lengths. Specifically, in one embodiment, the downstream film roll retainer post 84 b is joined to a bracket 86 that is secured by a set screw 88 in a slot 90 of front frame member 92 in the cradle assembly 78 . To adjust the spacing between the film roll retainer post 84 a , 84 b for different length supply rolls 28 , the operator would loosen the set screw 88 and slide the bracket 86 and associated film roll retainer post 84 b along the slot 90 to the appropriate position to capture the supply roll 28 between the film roll retainer post 84 a , 84 b.
Referring to FIG. 4 , the path of the film 26 from the supply roll 28 through the delivery unit 14 and to the wrapping station 16 is shown. The supply roll 28 rotates on the cradle rollers 80 , 80 and the film 26 is fed around a lower deflecting roller 94 toward a film splitter insert 96 . The film splitter insert 96 advantageously separates or loosens the two film plies 46 a , 46 b from one another to avoid difficulty downstream in the film path in case the film 26 has an excessive build-up of static electricity, is particularly tacky or otherwise resistant to having the plies 46 a , 46 b separated. After the film splitter insert 96 , the film 26 travels between a pair of nip rollers 98 , 100 and downwardly around a dancer roller 102 . The lower nip roller 98 is preferably rubber and is coupled to a belt drive 104 trained around the output shaft of a motor 106 . The motor 106 rotates the rubber nip roller 98 thereby pulling the film 26 from the supply roll 28 . The motor 106 which drives the roller 98 must turn the supply roll 28 in a direction to provide film 26 to the wrapping station 16 . The motor 106 must at all times provide film 26 in excess of the maximum speed of the feed conveyor 12 to ensure minimum tension of the film 26 as it passes over the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b . The dancer roller 102 is coupled to a tension arm 108 for pivotal movement about a tension pivot 110 to maintain tension on the film 26 . If slack in the film 26 develops because of an interruption in the flow of products P, for example, the tension arm 108 is coupled to a controller (not shown) for the motor 106 to interrupt the dispensing of the film 26 until additional film is required by the wrapping station 16 . As such, film tension is controlled by the dancer roller 102 through the tension arm 108 in association with the control of the motor 106 .
The upper nip roller 100 may include a number of pins or spikes 112 to perforate the film 26 passing between the nip rollers 98 , 100 as is customary in the shrink wrap industry. The film 26 passes around an intermediate deflecting roller 114 and an upper deflecting roller 116 before exiting the film delivery unit 14 . The various rollers 94 , 98 , 100 , 102 , 114 and 116 extend between a pair of spaced sidewalls 156 , 156 of the film delivery unit 14 .
The system 10 includes a film delivery height adjustment roller 118 positioned between the film delivery unit 14 and the wrapping station 16 . The roller 118 is mounted between a pair of arms 120 , 120 which are coupled to corresponding links 122 mounted to the frame 76 . Advantageously, the position of the arms 120 , 120 and subsequently the position of the roller 118 is adjustable to deliver the film 26 to the wrapping station 16 at an appropriate height relative to the position of the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b . Preferably, the vertical position of the roller 118 is equal distance between the upper and lower film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b . Since the spacing S between the film inverter rods is adjustable, the height of the film delivery roller 118 is likewise adjustable to provide for proper positioning relative to the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b . The arm 120 supporting the roller 118 includes a set screw 124 which is captured within an arcuate slot 126 in a guide plate 128 . Adjustment of the roller 118 height is accomplished by the operator by loosening the set screw 124 and pivoting the arms 120 coupled to the roller 118 upwardly or downwardly as desired and then resecuring the set screw 124 with the roller 118 in the appropriate position approximately midway between the upper and lower film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b . As the film 26 passes around the roller 118 , the two plies 46 a , 46 b are separated and guided by the respective film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b to surround the product P on the conveyor 12 .
As shown particularly in FIGS. 3-5 , the film delivery unit 14 is movably mounted relative to the frame 76 on a pair of spaced generally tubular rails 130 , 130 . In one embodiment, each of the rails 130 extends generally in the feed direction and is supported on one of a pair of spaced generally U-shaped brackets 132 mounted to a lower portion of the frame 76 . The film delivery unit 12 moves on the rails 130 , 130 by a series of support roller bearings 134 . Each support roller bearing 134 is mounted for rotation between a pair of downwardly depending support plates 136 , 136 mounted on a lower surface of the film delivery unit 14 . Preferably, each pair of support plates 136 , 136 has two upper and one lower support roller bearing 134 mounted therebetween for rotation along the respective rail 130 . The support roller bearings 134 are positioned as generally shown in FIG. 5 to provide support and stable movement along the rails 130 , 130 of the film delivery unit 14 as required.
The position of the film delivery unit 14 is adjustable on the rails 130 , 130 in a direction generally parallel to the feed direction in via a film delivery unit adjustment mechanism 138 . The film delivery unit adjustment mechanism 138 according to one embodiment of this invention provides for proper positioning and delivery of the film 26 to the wrapping station 16 as a function of the spacing S between the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b . Specifically, in one embodiment, the film delivery unit adjustment mechanism 138 includes an adjustment knob 140 mounted for rotation and projecting from casing 142 mounted to the frame 76 . The adjustment knob 140 is mounted for rotation relative to the casing 142 and is coupled to a threaded rod 144 which is engaged in a threaded aperture 146 in one of the sidewalls 156 of the film delivery unit 14 . As such, rotation of the adjustment knob 140 and the threaded rod 144 attached thereto moves the film delivery unit 14 in a lateral direction, as shown in FIG. 5 , or upstream/downstream relative to the feed direction. Proper positioning of the film delivery unit 14 and the supply roll 28 according to this invention provides for accurate and precise film 26 geometry as it is delivered through the film delivery unit 14 to the wrapping station 16 . Preferably, the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b in the wrapping station 16 remain stationary as the position of the film delivery unit 14 is adjusted.
In particular, it has been determined that the relative position of the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b in the feed direction compared to the leading or upstream edge 148 of the film supply roll 28 mounted on the delivery unit 14 is important to maintain proper geometry of the film 26 being dispensed from the supply roll 28 through the delivery unit 14 and applied at the wrapping station 16 to the products P on the conveyor 12 . The relative position of the upstream edge 148 of the supply roll 28 in comparison to the reference point R on the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b is utilized to provide for proper film delivery geometry.
As the spacing S between the upper and lower film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b is adjusted to accommodate different height products P, movement of the film delivery unit 14 in a direction generally parallel to the feed direction is required to maintain proper film delivery geometry. For products P which are extremely thin and having little or no height such as a CD lying generally flat on the feed conveyor 12 , the reference point R on the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b is generally aligned with the upstream edge 148 of the supply roll 28 on the film delivery unit 14 . However, the film delivery unit 14 must be moved in a direction generally parallel to the feed direction as the spacing S between the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b is adjusted to accommodate different height products P.
In operation, the spacing S between the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b is adjusted to accommodate the product P height. Once the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b are so adjusted, the position of the film delivery height adjustment roller 118 is likewise set by the operator to be approximately equal distance between the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b . The film delivery unit 14 is then moved relative to the reference point R on the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b to provide for proper alignment, geometry and delivery of the film 26 to the wrapping station 16 . According to one embodiment of this invention, the film delivery unit 14 is moved via the adjustment knob 140 along the rails 130 one-half inch to adjust for each inch in package height to establish the correct film delivery geometry. The film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b at the wrapping station 16 should remain stationary as the film delivery unit 14 position is adjusted. For each inch increase in product height, the position of the film delivery unit 14 is adjusted one-half inch in the upstream direction. Conversely, for each inch decrease in package height or spacing between the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b , a half-inch movement of the film delivery unit 14 in the downstream feed direction is required for correct film geometry.
For example, as shown in FIG. 1 , the relative position of the edge 148 of the supply rod 28 compared to the reference point R provides appropriate tracking and film 26 delivery geometry for a product such as P 3 of FIG. 2 . However, for a product P 4 of lesser height, the spacing S is decreased and the edge 148 is adjusted with the film delivery unit 14 downstream parallel to the feed direction to a position relative to reference point R as shown in FIG. 1 A.
A product height indicator 150 is provided to indicate the spacing S between the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b . A product height adjustment scale 152 is mounted on the frame 76 and an indicator 154 moves with the film delivery unit 14 so that the operator may accurately position the film delivery unit 14 relative to the inverter rods 36 a , 36 b . While the adjustment mechanisms 60 and 138 , as well as the positioning of roller 118 , are shown and described herein as being independent from each other, alternative embodiments of this invention include automatic adjustment of the positions of the film roll 28 and/or roller 118 in response to changes to the spacing S.
An important feature of this invention is the positioning of the film delivery unit 14 and the supply roll 28 thereon relative to the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b in the feed direction. According to one embodiment of this invention, the film delivery unit adjustment mechanism 138 adjusts the position of the film delivery unit 14 in the upstream or downstream directions. Alternatively, the position of the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b relative to the feed direction may be adjusted by movement of the block 72 relative to the frame 76 and supply roll 28 to provide for the appropriate relative position between the film inverter rods 36 a , 36 b and the supply roll 28 mounted on the film delivery unit 14 . Nevertheless, as a result of this invention, proper film delivery geometry from the supply roll to the film inverter rods can be easily and efficiently obtained in conjunction with the adjusted spacing between the film inverter rods to accommodate varying height products without fouling the delivery of the film along the film path and maintaining alignment of the free edges of the plies of the film wrapped around the products.
From the above disclosure of the general principles of the present invention and the preceding detailed description of at least one preferred embodiment, those skilled in the art will readily comprehend the various modifications to which this invention is susceptible. Therefore, I desire to be limited only by the scope of the following claims and equivalents thereof.
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An automatic high-speed wrapping system for wrapping packages in heat sealable thermoplastic film includes a film delivery unit wherein the film is dispensed and wrapped around the packages at a high rate of speed as the packages travel through the system. The packages travel continuously in a straight line through the system and are delivered at the input end of the system by a feed conveyor into a wrapping station where the packages are surrounded by the film, thence to the side sealing mechanism which forms a seal while severing the salvage from the packages, then into an end sealing mechanism where both ends of the packages are sealed and the film web connecting succeeding packages is severed. The film is delivered to the wrapping station in two plies and subsequently inverted for wrapping around the products. The positions of the wrapping station and film delivery units are adjustable to efficiently accommodate a variety of product heights while providing proper film delivery geometry.
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This invention relates to antiperspirant compositions and more particularly to such compositions containing an aluminum salt and smectite mineral and wherein flocculation is avoided.
BACKGROUND
Aluminum salts such as aluminum chloride (AlCl 3 .6H 2 O) or aluminum chlorhydrate (Al(OH) 5 Cl) are known to have antiperspirant properties and have been formulated in various ways to prepare antiperspirant compositions. However, when attempts are made to use these products as lotions they cannot be applied as a mist from a manual pump and spray unit; instead the products stream and do not spread out as a mist.
It is known that smectite minerals (as defined by R. E. Grim in "Clay Mineralogy", 2nd Ed. published by McGraw-Hill Company) may be dispersed in water to produce thixotropic (i.e. sprayable) gels. Further, it is known that the smectite minerals will act as emulsion stabilizers. However, it has not been possible to incorporate these minerals into antiperspirant compositions because the smectite gels flocculate in the presence of aluminum salts.
Therefore, we have sought ways of combining the aluminum salts and smectite mineral in water so that flocculation can be avoided and a composition prepared in the form of an effective sprayable lotion, roll-on, or dab-on type of antiperspirant, and which avoids the other difficulties above mentioned.
SUMMARY
We have discovered that by including in the composition polyethyleneglycol along with the aluminum salt and smectite mineral, this avoids flocculation of the combined ingredients enabling the preparation of an antiperspirant composition to be used as an aerosol spray or a simple pump spray, a roll-on, or cream antiperspirant. A detailed explanation of my improved antiperspirant composition and the method in which it may be prepared is given in the following description.
DESCRIPTION
The aluminum salt ingredient may be any aluminum salt with a simple hydrolyzed or polymeric hydrolyzed cation. Examples are aluminum chloride (Al Cl 3 ), basic aluminum chlorhydrate (Al(OH) 5 Cl), and aluminum chlorhydratezirconylhydroxy chloride mixture. I prefer the basic aluminum salts (Al (OH) y .X z where y is 2.0 to 2.6, z is 0.4 to 1.0, y+z=3 and X is a halide. The amount of the aluminum salt included may vary from 1 to 50 percent, but preferably may be within the range of from 5 to 25 percent, and ideally may be about 10 percent. These percentages, and other percentages of ingredients given herein, are by weight and based on the total weight of the composition.
The smectite material may be natural or synthetic and is composed of layer silicates having the characteristic of expanding in the presence of water. Smectite is thought to be made up of units comprising two tetrahedral sheets with a central alumina octahedral sheet, and with the tips of the tetrahedrons pointing in the same direction and toward the center of the unit, and with the tetrahedral and octahedral sheets so combined so that the tetrahedrons of the silica sheet and one of the hydroxyl layers of the octahedral sheet forming a common layer. The atoms common to both the tetrahedral and octahedral layer become O instead of OH. The layers are continuous in two directions and stacked above each other in the third direction. Water may enter between the unit layers.
Especially good results are obtained when the smectite mineral employed is a synthetic layer-lattice magnesium aluminosilicate. Best results have been obtained when using a synthetic saponite such as the mineral now being sold by National Lead Company under the trademark Barasym NAS 50.
The smectite ingredient may be included in my improved composition in the amount of 0.5 to 10 percent preferably between 2.0 and 8 percent, and ideally about 5 percent.
The polyethyleneglycol ingredient may be any polyethyleneglycol having a molecular weight of from 100 to 10,000.
The amount of polyethyleneglycol to be included may be from 0.5 to 10 percent, preferably 1.5 to 8 percent and ideally about 3 percent.
The amount of water to be included may also vary and may be from 20 to 97 percent, preferably from 60 to 90 percent, and ideally about 75 percent.
The ingredients above mentioned are each essential to the improved combination. However, as stated above, this combination may for some purposes be still further improved by the inclusion of mineral oil, and when mineral oil is utilized it may be in an amount of from 0.5 to 30.0 percent, preferably from 5.0 to 10.0 percent, and ideally about 6 percent.
Other ingredients such as additional emulsifiers, color additives, and perfume may be optionally added as desired, but these form no essential part of my special combination. They may be referred to as "other additives".
In the preparation of the improved antiperspirant compositions, the smectite material may be placed in a mixer containing the water, and the mixer started so as to homogenize the smectite. Polyethyleneglycol is added and then the aluminum salt is added while continuing the agitation. The resulting mixture may then suitably be filtered through a 100 mesh screen. It is important that the polyethyleneglycol be added prior to the aluminum salt.
Should the polyethyleneglycol be added subsequent to the aluminum salt, flocculation will occur but if added before the aluminum salt, flocculation is avoided.
The oil phase ingredients, with or without the mineral oil, may be separately mixed and heated to about 70° C. The smectite-polyethyleneglycol-aluminum salt may also be heated to about this temperature and the two mixtures then put together in a combined mixture with vigorous stirring. The resulting composition may be formulated as an aerosol spray, a pump spray, a roll-on, or cream antiperspirant.
The improved composition is stable, has a satisfactory pH value (usually between 3.0 and 4.8) unflocculated and does not have any objectionable tendency to clog the nozzle when used as a spray. Surprisingly, the flocculating effect which we found to be characteristic of the aluminum salt smectite-water combination does not take place. Furthermore, and especially in the case the mineral oil is included, the improved compositions are substantially free of tackiness upon drying.
EXAMPLE 1
The following materials were utilized in the amounts stated
______________________________________ Amount in Percent by weight ofMaterial the composition______________________________________Aluminum chlorhydrate 9.35Polyethyleneglycol (Carbowax 600) 2.8Smectite mineral (syntheticlayer lattice magnesiumaluminosilicate) 5.6Mineral Oil 6.23Glycerol monostearate 0.23Perfume 0.20Water 75.79 100.00______________________________________
The smectite mineral was homogenized into water and the polyethyleneglycol mixed therein. The aluminum chlorhydrate was then stirred into the mixture and the combined mixture was filtered through a 100 mesh screen.
The oil phase ingredients, that is, the mineral oil and glycerol monostearate were separately mixed and heated to 70° C. Then the smectite mixture was heated to this same temperature and added to the heated oil phase ingredients with vigorous stirring. Then the perfume was added and stirring continued until the room temperature was reached.
This produced a low tack lotion useful as an antiperspirant pump spray.
EXAMPLE 2
The same procedure was used as set forth in Example 1 but using the following ingedients:
______________________________________ Percent byMaterial weight______________________________________Aluminum chlorhydrate 10.Polyethyleneglycol (Carbowax 600) 2.8Smectite mineral(Barasym NAS50) 5.6Mineral oil 6.23Glycerol monostearate 0.23Perfume 0.20Water 75.79 100.00______________________________________
This produced a low tack lotion useful particularly as an antiperspirant roll-on.
EXAMPLE 3
The following ingredients were used in the amounts stated:
______________________________________ Percent byMaterial weight______________________________________Aluminum chlorhydrate 10.Polyethyleneglycol (Carbowax 200) 2.Smectite mineral(Barasym NAS50) 4.Water 84. 100.00______________________________________
The smectite mineral was dispersed in the water and homogenized. The polyethyleneglycol and the aluminum chlorhydrate were stirred in, in the order stated. This preparation was at room temperature throughout, otherwise the the procedure was as given in Example 1.
This produced a transparent thickened lotion.
EXAMPLE 4
The procedure of Example 3 was utilized using the following ingredients in the amounts stated:
______________________________________ Percent byMaterial weight______________________________________Aluminum chlorhydrate 10.Polyethyleneglycol (Carbowax 6000) 2.Smectite mineral 4.Water 84. 100.00______________________________________
The following Examples 5 to 10 demonstrate further variations in the preparation of our improved compositions.
EXAMPLE 5
Use the same procedure as in Example 1 except for using a very high molecular weight polyethyleneglycol (sold under the trade name Polyox WSR301) and adding this to the water phase before the addition of the aluminum chlorhydrate.
This will produce a low tack antiperspirant cream.
EXAMPLE 6
Use the same procedure as in Example 3 but with the following ingredients in the amounts stated:
______________________________________ Percent byMaterial weight______________________________________Aluminum chloride - 6H.sub.2 O 10.Polyethyleneglycol (Carbowax 6000) 2.Smectite Mineral(Barasym NAS50) 4.Water 84. 100.00______________________________________
EXAMPLE 7
Use the same procedure as in Example 3 but with the following ingredients:
______________________________________ Percent byMaterial weight______________________________________Aluminum chlorhydrate andZirconium Hydroychloride(Al:Zr 4:1) 5.Polyethyleneglycol (Carbowax 600) 2.Smectite mineral(Barasym NAS50) 4.Water 89. 100.00______________________________________
EXAMPLE 8
Use the same procedure as in Example 1 but with the following ingredients:
______________________________________ Percent byMaterial weight______________________________________Aluminum chlorhydrate 10.Polyethyleneglycol (Carbowax 1000) 3.Montmorillonite 4.Mineral oil 7.Self emulsifying glycerolmonostearate .3Perfume .2Water 75.5 100.00______________________________________
The composition of the above named montmorillonite is (OH) 4 Si 8 (Al 3 .34.(M g 0.66)O 20 (Na 0 .66).
EXAMPLE 9
Use the same procedure as in Example 1 with the following named ingredients.
______________________________________ Percent byMaterial weight______________________________________Aluminum chlorhydrate 10.Polyethyleneglycol (Carbowax 1000) 3.Hectorite 4.Isopropylpalmitate 7.Glycerol monostearate .3Perfume .2Water 75.5 100.00______________________________________
The hectorite above listed has the composition (OH) 4 (Si 8 (Mg 5 .34 Li 0 .66)O 20 (Na 0 .66).
EXAMPLE 10
Use the same procedure as in Example 1 and the following listed ingredients in the amounts stated:
______________________________________ Percent byMaterial weight______________________________________Aluminum chlorhydrate 10.Polyethyleneglycol (Carbowax 1000) 3.Saponite 4.Hexadecylalcohol 7.Glycerol monostearate .3Perfume .2Water 75.5 100.00______________________________________
The composition of the above named saponite is (OH) 4 (Si 7 .34 Al 0 .66)(mg 6 O 20 )(Na 0 .66).
While I have specifically described only certain embodiments of the invention, it will be apparent to those skilled in the art that other embodiments may be practiced and many changes may be made all within the spirit of the invention and the scope of the appended claims.
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An antiperspirant composition which contains an aluminum salt, a smectite mineral and polyethyleneglycol, said composition being sprayable and in liquid form without flocculation, and the process of preparing such composition in which the aluminum salt is added to a mixture of the smectite and polyethyleneglycol.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION
This application claims the benefit of U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/657,857, filed Mar. 2, 2005, the disclosure of which is incorporated fully herein.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the installation of foundation piles in a soil bed, and particularly to a method and apparatus for the installation of a high capacity rotational substructure piling system.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The installation of conventional foundation piles has previously been accomplished by driving a precast concrete pile or steel beam or vibrating an H pile into a soil bed. When driving a foundation pile, the soil surrounding the pile may be compacted in various ways as well as disrupted by the seismic shocks of the pile driver itself. When driving a pile into hard ground, earth displaced by the pile causes the ground surrounding the pile to heave. In contrast, when driving a pile into soft ground, settling of the surrounding soil may be caused. All of these conditions can cause problems for any standing structures in the area of the pile being driven.
The installation of conventional piles has also previously been accomplished by pre-drilling a hole in a soil bed using an auger and lowering a pre-molded pile into the hole. A hybrid system also exists between the driving and drilling methods whereby an open ended pile such as a pipe pile is driven into a soil bed, after which point the soil inside the pile is augered out and concrete is poured in the cavity formed therein. Cast and hole methods as well as casons may also be used, specifically where there are concerns for preserving nearby buildings against the problems discussed above. However, all these methods can prove either costly and/or slow to carry out in the field. Furthermore, where the ground in a job site is deemed to be contaminated, any soil removed from the ground, such as that produced by an auger, must be disposed of properly presenting an additional problem and associated cost.
A more complex system is known whereby a pile is attached to a drill head which is substantially larger than the diameter of the pile itself. The pile is turned together with the drill head by a drilling rig to create a passage in the soil bed through which the pile may pass. A conduit is provided through the center of the pile for water or grout to be pumped down and out the tip of the drill head to either float away debris or anchor the pile in its final resting place in the soil bed. Another system, known as an under-reamer system, features a double torque head which turns a drill in the center of a pipe, which pipe is itself turned in the opposite direction from the drill. Although they do have certain advantages over other known systems, both of these drilling systems are obviously substantially more complex, and therefore more costly than the first several prior art systems discussed.
Both driving and drilling systems used to place foundation piles rely in part on brute force to either force a pile into a soil bed, or to cut and remove material. What is needed is a more elegant approach to foundation pile placement providing such benefits as may include a faster pile placement speed, lower cost and greater ease of use as well as higher load capacity piles.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In one embodiment, the invention relates to a screw pile substructure support system including a tubular pile having a centerline, wherein the tubular pile includes a first cylindrical section and a second cylindrical section attached by a weld, a pile tip including a first pile tip end attached to the tubular pile, an end plate having a substantially flat surface disposed perpendicular to the centerline of the tubular pile, a tapered portion disposed between the first pile tip end and the plate, and a helical flight attached to and exterior surface of the tapered portion, wherein the helical flight extends along the exterior surface for a distance of at least one quarter of a circumference of the tapered portion, wherein the end plate is fixedly attached to the pile tip.
In another embodiment, the invention relates to a screw pile substructure support system including a tubular pile having a centerline, wherein the tubular pile includes a first cylindrical section and a second cylindrical section attached by a weld, a shaped pile tip including a first pile tip end attached to the tubular pile, a second pile tip end, a helical flight attached to and exterior surface of a portion of the shaped pile tip, wherein the helical flight extends along the exterior surface for a distance of at least one quarter of a circumference of the portion of the shaped pile tip, and an end plate disposed at the second pile tip end, the end plate having a substantially flat surface disposed perpendicular to the centerline, wherein a diameter of the second pile tip end is less than a diameter of the first pile tip end, and wherein the end plate is fixedly attached to the shaped pile tip.
In yet another embodiment, the invention relates to a screw pile substructure support system including a tubular pile having a centerline, a pile tip including a tapered portion including a first end having a first diameter and a second end having a second diameter, wherein the first diameter is greater than the second diameter, and wherein the first end is attached to the tubular pile, a first helical flight attached to and exterior surface of a portion, wherein the helical flight extends along the exterior surface for a distance of at least one quarter of a circumference of the tapered portion, a cylindrical shaft coupled to and extending outward from the second end, a second helical flight attached to an exterior surface of the cylindrical shaft, wherein the helical flight extends along the exterior surface for a distance of at least one quarter of a circumference of the cylindrical shaft.
In still yet another embodiment, the invention relates to a screw pile substructure support system including a tubular pile having a centerline, wherein the tubular pile includes a first cylindrical section fixedly attached to a second cylindrical section, a pile tip including a first pile tip end attached to the tubular pile, and end plate having a substantially flat surface disposed perpendicular to the centerline of the tubular pile, a tapered portion disposed between the first pile end and the end plate, and a helical flight attached to an exterior surface of the tapered portion, wherein the helical flight extends along the exterior surface for a distance of at least one quarter of a circumference of the tapered portion, wherein the end plate is fixedly attached to the pile tip.
In a further embodiment, the invention relates to method for installing a screw pile substructure support system including attaching a shaped pile tip to at least one cylindrical pile section to form a first pile unit, wherein the shaped pile tip includes a first pile tip end attached to the at least one cylindrical pile section, a second pile tip end, a helical flight attached to an exterior surface of a portion of the shaped pile tip, wherein the helical flight extends along the exterior surface for a distance of at least one quarter of a circumference of the portion of the shaped pile tip, and an end plate disposed at the second pile tip end, the end plate having a substantially flat surface disposed perpendicular to the centerline, wherein a diameter of the second pile tip end is less than a diameter of the first pile tip end, and wherein the end plate is fixedly attached to the shaped pile tip, positioning the first pile unit above a preselected location of ground, attaching a drilling rig to the first pile unit, and turning the first pile unit to facilitate penetration of the ground.
In another embodiment, the invention relates to a screw pile substructure support system, including a tubular pile having a centerline and a first diameter, wherein the tubular pile includes a first cylindrical section and a second cylindrical section attached by a weld, a substantially conically shaped pile tip sharing a centerline with the tubular pile, the substantially conically shaped pile tip having a first end and a second end, the first end being connected to the tubular pile and having a second diameter, a helical flight attached to an exterior surface of the substantially conically shaped pile tip, wherein the helical flight extends along the exterior surface for a distance of at least one third of a circumference of the substantially conically having a substantially flat surface disposed perpendicular to the centerline of the tubular pile, wherein the first diameter is substantially similar to the second diameter.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 shows a conical pile tip according to one embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 2 shows a concrete-filled steel pipe pile according to a further embodiment of the present invention;
FIGS. 3A , 3 B and 3 C show specific detailed views taken along the lines 3 A, 3 B, and 3 C shown in FIG. 2 ;
FIG. 4 shows another embodiment of a conical pile tip;
FIG. 4A shows still another embodiment of a conical pile tip;
FIG. 5 shows yet another embodiment of a conical pile tip;
FIG. 6 show various embodiments of cutter teeth for use with a conical pile tip;
FIG. 7 shows an end bearing surface area detail of another embodiment of a pile tip;
FIG. 8 shows another end bearing surface area detail of a further embodiment of a pile tip;
FIGS. 9A-9B show embodiments of a steel pipe pile provided with a series of driver pin holes 90 ; and
FIG. 10 shows an embodiment of a reusable driver tool for installing the screw pile of the present invention.
Before any embodiment of the invention is explained in detail, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited in its application to the details of construction and arrangements of components set forth in the following description, or illustrated in the drawings. The invention is capable of alternative embodiments and of being practiced or being carried out in various ways. Specifically, numerical dimensions where they are referenced herein represent those of exemplary embodiments only and may be modified by one skilled in the art as conditions warrant. Also, it is to be understood, that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of illustrative description and should not be regarded as limiting.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
A method and apparatus is provided for the installation of a foundation pile in a soil bed. In contrast to prior art drilled foundation pile systems which use a low torque and an efficient drill tip which must be retrieved from the drilling site after drilling is complete, in an exemplary embodiment of the present invention a pile is provided with a fixed tip having a helical flight thereon which draws the pile into a soil bed when a torque is applied to the pile. FIG. 1 shows a conical pile tip 10 connected to a pile 1 according to one embodiment of the present invention, wherein the pile tip 10 allows the pile 1 to be set into a soil bed by applying a torque to the distal end of the pile 1 (not shown) using a standard drilling rig. The rig may additionally apply a crowd pressure to the pile 1 along with the torque to further aid in placement of the pile 1 in the soil bed to provide substructure support system for a large scale construction project.
In one embodiment, the pile tip 10 is comprised of a substantially conically shaped body sharing a centerline with the pile 1 to which it is attached, as well as a helical flight 15 attached to the outside surface of the pile tip 10 , and cutter teeth 16 extending out radially from the centerline of the pile tip 10 . The helical flight 15 helps draw the pile tip 10 down into a soil bed during placement, and the cutter teeth 16 serve to break up the soil to allow the pile tip 10 to better penetrate into the bed. In an exemplary embodiment, the flight 15 is formed from a half-inch thick plate, has a pitch of three inches and is attached to the body of the pile tip 10 so that its lowest edge lies three inches above an end plate 19 . The end plate 19 caps off the end of the conical body of the pile tip 10 , closing it off from the soil in which it is to be placed. A point shaft 17 and cutter teeth 18 are provided extending out axially from the end plate 19 of the pile tip 10 . The point shaft 17 helps keep the pile tip 10 centered during installation of the pile 1 in a soil bed and both the point shaft 17 and the cutter teeth 18 , like the cutter teeth 16 , serve to break up the soil to allow the pile tip 10 to better penetrate into the bed. In one embodiment, the pile tip 10 is provided with seven cutter teeth in total.
The pile tip 10 may be fabricated from individual pieces which are cut out and formed to specification before being welded together. The main body of the pile tip 10 , as well as the flight 15 and the end plate 19 may all be cut from pieces of plate stock. The main conical body and the flight may be rolled, heated and otherwise formed into the required shape before being welded together along with the end plate 19 along the welds 11 . In one embodiment, full penetration welds may be used for this purpose. The cutter teeth 16 , point shaft 17 and cutter teeth 18 may also be fabricated from steel stock and welded onto the pile tip 10 . In one embodiment, A35-grade standard milled steel may be used for these components. In a further embodiment, the pile 1 is 12.75″ in diameter and has ⅜″ walls, and the pile tip 10 may be attached to the pile 1 using the same type of weld 11 utilized in the fabrication of the pile tip 10 itself. As a cost saving measure, material for the pile 1 may be supplied by recycled gas piping. Those skilled in steel fabrication will understand that numerous alternatives are available for the fabrication of the pile tip 10 and the assembly of the pile tip 10 and the pile 1 without deviating from the principles of the invention described herein. For example, the pile tip 10 could be cast as a single unit rather than hand fabricated from separate pieces of steel stock.
FIG. 2 shows an assembly comprising a complete pile 1 together with a pile tip 10 installed in a soil bed. As is known in the art, pile substructure systems are commonly used in soil beds comprising a fill layer and potentially a liquid layer, beneath which lies a solid layer 20 which may be a sand or granular layer. The solid layer 20 may lie as much if not more, than 40′ or 50′ below the surface of the soil. As such, the pile 1 must pass down through many feet of looser soil components before it is able to anchor several feet into the solid layer 20 . To provide a pile 1 of sufficient length, several pieces of pipe may be joined together lengthwise as shown through the use of the pipe splices 22 , which may be full penetration welds of the type shown in FIG. 1 by the welds 11 . In one embodiment, the pile 1 may be a concrete-filled steel pipe pile. Various numbers of spliced members may be assembled into a complete pile 1 of various lengths depending on the depth of the solid layer 20 at the installation site of the pile. After installation of the pile 1 , a pile cap 23 may be placed thereon to support a slab 24 , which may be a poured concrete lab.
A standard drilling rig may be used to turn the assembly of the pile 1 and the pile tip 10 into the soil bed, and ultimately the solid layer 20 . The specifics of the method of attachment of the pile 1 to the rig are shown in detail in later figures. In most if not all embodiments, there will be no need for pre-drilling the installation site for the pile 1 , soil conditions permitting. Rather, the pile 1 with the attached pile tip 10 will be set up in a standard drilling rig and turned into the previously undisturbed soil bed, while simultaneously a downward crowd pressure is applied by the rig on the pile 1 . As described in reference to FIG. 1 , the inclusion of the helical flight 15 on the pile tip 10 helps draw the pile 1 down into the soil bed as it is turned by the drilling rig, and the cutter teeth 16 and 18 as well as the point shaft 17 help break up the soil to ease the passage of the pile tip 10 downward through the soil bed.
As is known in the art, tie downs to adjacent and previously installed piles or another suitable anchor may be used to prevent uplift of the drilling rig as the crowd pressure is applied. Again, depending on the requirements imposed on the job by existing soil conditions, varying levels of crowd pressure and torque may be required, including amounts up to 50 or 60 thousand pounds of crowd and 212 thousand foot pounds of torque, which levels are within the capacities of standard, commercially available drilling rigs.
The exemplary embodiment of a pile 1 equipped with a pile tip 10 described herein performs exceedingly well when being installed in soils with a high clay content, including those with hard clays. The screw pile or TORQUE DOWN pile, TORQUE DOWN is a trademark of Substructure Support Inc. of Oakland, Calif., may also be installed in sandy soils, though possibly with more difficulty, particularly with soils containing very fine or light sands. However, the embodiment of the present torque down pile system may still be installed with considerably less difficulty when compared to known methods of installing driven piles in such sandy soil conditions. Furthermore, the present screw pile system may be installed in conditions, such as in fine sandy soils such as those with blow counts above approximately 50 and up to between approximately 60 and 70, in which driven piles may be installed only with extreme difficulty if they may be installed at all.
As further described in reference to FIG. 1 , the helical flight 15 may be provided as part of the pile tip 10 having a pitch of three inches. This pitch could be varied depending on expected soil conditions; for example it could be lessened slightly to 2¾″ if slightly harder soils are expected. Given that lessening the pitch of the flight decreases the speed at which the pile tip 10 turns into the soil while allowing harder soil conditions to be penetrated, and increasing the pitch of the flight has the opposite effect in both cases, it is desirable to provide an embodiment of flight 15 having a pitch which minimizes the disturbance to the soil surrounding the pile 1 as the pile 1 is sunk into the soil bed. As discussed above, prior art methods of pile placement, whether through driving or drilling, significantly disturb the soil surrounding the pile 1 . However, the present screw pile may be placed close to pre-existing structures without the concern that heaving, settling or seismic disturbance will damage the structure. Furthermore, in contrast to prior art systems, with the embodiment of the present invention described herein while a volume of soil equal to the volume of the pile and tip is displaced as the pile is sunk, the remainder of the soil remains either compacted or undisturbed. The compacted nature of the soil provides excellent stability when a pile 1 and pile tip 10 assembly are installed in a soil bed as shown in FIG. 2 .
The improved stability provides much better support for the pile itself, leading to increased load tolerances for piles installed in this manner, and the ability to use smaller diameter piles to support a load requirement. As is known in the art, installed piles may be tested with a jack tester to verify their integrity. TORQUE DOWN piles 12.75″ in diameter and having ⅜″ thick walls as well as poured concrete interiors placed in representative soil conditions have been tested in this manner and found to be capable of supporting approximately one million pounds; far more than is possible with a driven or drilled pile of a similar diameter. Accordingly, the load which these TORQUE DOWN piles is capable of supporting exceeds the mandated structural tolerances of the pile itself.
In addition to supporting increased loads over prior art piles, the screw pile according to the embodiment of the present invention described herein can be installed much faster than prior art piles. While speed is as always dependent on the soil conditions it is known in the art that with conventional driven piles, the best that can be expected in favorable soil conditions is to drive approximately two piles between forty and sixty foot in length each per hour. In contrast, between approximately three and four of the present screw piles of the same length can be turned into a similar soil bed in the same amount of time. As such, a job with a defined number of piles can be finished more quickly with the same size crew as compared to prior art pile systems. This provides a cost savings to the foundation contractor, which savings will of course be multiplied as the size of a job increases.
FIGS. 3A , 3 B and 3 C show specific detailed views taken along the lines 3 A, 3 B, and 3 C shown FIG. 2 . In FIG. 3A , a pile cap 23 is shown attached to the top of a pile 1 in a manner known in the art. Reinforcing steel 30 may also be provided. FIG. 3B shows a cross-section of a concrete filled pile 1 having the dimensions specified. FIG. 3C shows a individual sections of material joined by pipe splices 22 to form a unitary pile 1 of an appropriate length for a specific job.
FIGS. 4 and 5 show alternative embodiments of a conical pile tip 40 comprised of a substantially conically shaped body sharing a centerline with the pile 41 to which it is attached, as well as a helical flight 45 attached to the outside surface of the pile tip 40 , and cutter teeth 46 extending out radially from the centerline of the pile tip 40 . In the embodiment shown, the cutter teeth 46 are provided disposed in a spiral pattern on the outside surface of the pile tip 40 and spaced vertically apart from one another in one inch intervals. An end plate 49 is provided as a bottom surface to the conical body of the pile tip 40 . Welds 42 secure the end plate 49 and the pile 41 to the conical body. Triangular cutter teeth 48 are provided extending out axially from the end plate 49 of the pile tip 40 , which pile tip 40 is not provided with a point shaft in the embodiment shown in contrast with the pile tip 10 of FIG. 1 . In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 4 , the endplate 49 has a diameter of 8 inches and the helical flight has a end to end width of 15 inches. Also, the height of the conically shaped body, from the pile 41 to the endplate 49 , is 18 inches and the diameter of the pile 41 is 12.75 inches. The embodiments of pile tips illustrated in FIGS. 1 , 2 , 4 A, 5 , 7 , and 8 can have similar dimensions.
In an alternative embodiment, a bifurcated point shaft may be provided as a component of the pile tip 40 having two prongs, and in a further alternative embodiment these prongs may be twisted in a helix to better serve to break up soil to allow the pile tip 40 to more easily be turned into a soil bed. In another embodiment, the pile tip 40 may be provided with hardened or carbide tipped cutter teeth 46 or 48 to better stand up to harder soil conditions; the edge of the flight 45 may also be hard surfaced for the same reason. In yet another alternative embodiment, additional flights 45 could be added on the outside surface of the pile tip 40 . In yet another alternative embodiment, the pile tip 40 may be provided with an extended shaft thinner in diameter than the end plate 49 and extending out axially from the end plate 49 in place of a point shaft. This extended shaft may include its own helical flight or flights separate from the flight 45 provided on the outside surface of the pile tip 40 . FIG. 4A illustrates the extended shaft with its own helical flight.
FIG. 6 show various embodiments of cutter teeth for use with a conical pile tip. Namely, a point shaft 62 and cutter tooth 63 are shown which may be provided extending out axially from the end plate of a pile tip 40 . A cutter tooth 63 is also shown which may be provided extending out radially from the centerline of a pile tip.
FIG. 7 shows an end bearing surface area detail of another embodiment of a simplified pile tip 70 assembled and attached to a pile 71 along welds 72 . An end plate 79 is also provided attached to the remainder of the pile tip 70 using welds 72 . The force vectors shown in FIG. 7 reflect the forces a pile tip 70 exerts on the surrounding soil bed as it is driven into the soil by the crowd pressure applied by a drilling rig connected to the distal end of the pile 71 (not shown). Likewise, the surrounding soil bed exerts reaction forces on the pile tip 70 in response to the force vectors shown. These forces, while significant, are not of as great a magnitude as those encountered when placing driven and drilled pile systems. As such, the disturbance to the soil surrounding the pile 71 is minimized as the pile 71 is sunk into the soil bed, which allows the surrounding soil to be packed tighter and therefore provide a more solid support for the pile 71 , leading to greater ultimate load capacities. FIG. 8 shows another end bearing surface area detail of a further embodiment of a pile tip 80 assembled and attached to a pile 81 along welds 82 . An end plate 89 is also provided attached to the remainder of the pile tip 80 using a welds 82 .
FIGS. 9A-9B show embodiments of the distal end of the pile 1 of FIG. 1 , wherein the pile 1 is provided with a series of driver pin holes 90 . These driver pin holes are provided so that the pile 1 may be secured to the reusable driver tool 100 shown in FIG. 10 which may be used to install a screw pile according to one embodiment of the present invention. The driver tool 100 may be secured to a standard drilling rig head 110 using an adaptor 119 . The adaptor 119 consists of one or more adaptor brackets 120 provided with holes 121 which match corresponding holes on the driver tool 100 so that the adaptor brackets 120 may be attached thereto, an adaptor plate 130 which attaches to a standard drilling rig head 110 , and an adaptor pivot 125 connecting the adaptor brackets 120 and the adaptor plate 130 . With one end of the approximately tubular driver tool 100 connected to the adaptor 119 which allows the driver tool 100 to pivot with respect to the drilling rig head 110 , the opposite end is provided with a series of holes 190 . These holes 190 match the corresponding holes 90 in the pile 1 so that a pile 1 may be slid over the end of the driver tool 100 and held there with a series of pins passed through the holes 190 and their corresponding holes 90 .
The driver tool 100 allows for a pile 1 to be quickly set up for use with a drilling rig head 110 . A crew need only raise the driver tool 100 to a substantially horizontal position using a cable 102 connected to the attachment point 101 of the driver tool 100 . The opposite end of the cable 102 may be secured at an overhead crane or winch for this purpose. Once the driver tool 100 is in a horizontal position, a pile 1 may be raised, and maneuvered over the end of the driver tool 100 before being secured there by the series of through-pins. A forklift or other piece of equipment may be used to raise the pile 1 . In one embodiment, the pins passed through the holes 90 and 190 to secure the pile 1 to the driver tool 100 are themselves held in place in either by gravity or friction as the pile 1 is turned by the driver tool 100 .
In an alternative embodiment, the rig head 110 shown in FIG. 10 may be replaced with a hydraulic chuck and the adaptor 119 may be dispensed with, so that the hydraulic chuck of the drill rig grasps the pile 1 directly, a portion of which pile passes upwards through an opening in the chuck as the pile is being turned into the soil bed. Although in this embodiment an operator would not be able to easily set up a pile in the horizontal position, allowing for excess lengths of pile to pass through the chuck permits much longer lengths of pile to be set up and installed. Some currently available drill rigs only allow the rig head a certain amount of vertical travel, so that it would be impractical to turn a single pile longer than approximately 65′ into a soil by using the adaptor 119 . With a hydraulic chuck allowing for an additional length of pile to pass upwards and through the rig head. Therefore with such a chuck installed, one could turn a certain length of the pile into the soil bed, loosen the chuck and run it back up the pile to repeat the operation as necessary until the oversized pile was completely turned into the soil.
In yet another alternative embodiment, a torque gauge can be applied to a pile during installation to determine the load rating of a particular pile in a manner roughly analogous to testing the depth of insertion of a driven pile for a specific force blow of the driver. The vertical travel of the pile is compared to the require torque for inducing the travel to estimate the solidity of the pile's engagement with the underlying soil bed and therefore its estimated load rating.
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A screw pile substructure support system is provided. In one embodiment, the invention relates to a screw pile substructure support system including a tubular pile having a centerline, wherein the tubular pile includes a first cylindrical section and a second cylindrical section attached by a weld, a pile tip including a first pile tip end attached to the tubular pile, an end plate having a substantially flat surface disposed perpendicular to the centerline of the tubular pile, a tapered portion disposed between the first pile tip end and the end plate, and a helical flight attached to an exterior surface of the tapered portion, wherein the helical flight extends along the exterior surface for a distance of at least one quarter of a circumference of the tapered portion, wherein the end plate is fixedly attached to the pile tip.
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BACKGROUND
[0001] 1. Technical Field
[0002] Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to switch testing, and more particularly, to a system and method for testing a peripheral component interconnect express (PCI-E) switch of a computing device.
[0003] 2. Description of Related Art
[0004] PCI-E switches are used in computing devices, and the operating ability of the PCI-E switches must be tested. Usually, a PCI-E switch is tested using a circuit tester (ICT) or a flying probe. Because the ICT and the flying probe test are both open circuit tests, it is difficult and inconvenient to test the data transmission function of the PCI-E switch, so what is needed is a test method that overcomes the limitations described.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0005] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a computing device including a test system for testing a PCI-E switch.
[0006] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the functional modules of the test system included in the computing device of FIG. 1 .
[0007] FIG. 3 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a method for testing a PCI-E switch using the test system of FIG. 1 .
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0008] The disclosure, including the accompanying drawings, is illustrated by way of example and not by way of limitation. It should be noted that references to “an” or “one” embodiment in this disclosure are not necessarily to the same embodiment, and such references mean at least one.
[0009] FIG. 1 is a block diagram of one embodiment of a computing device 1 including a test system 100 . In the embodiment, the computing device 1 further includes a storage system 10 , a first motherboard 11 , at least one processor 12 and a monitor 13 . The first motherboard 11 includes a first PCI-E switch 110 that electronically connects to a second PCI-E switch 20 to be tested on a second motherboard 2 . The test system 100 can test the data transmission function of the second PCI-E switch 20 . The monitor 13 displays a test result of the second PCI-E switch 20 . In one embodiment, the computing device 1 may be a desktop computer, a notebook computer, a server, a workstation or other. It should be apparent that FIG. 1 is just one example of the computing device 1 that can be included with more or fewer components than shown in other embodiments, or a different configuration of the various components.
[0010] The storage system 10 stores one or more programs, such as an operating system, and other applications of the computing device 1 . In one embodiment, the storage system 10 may be random access memory (RAM) for temporary storage of information, and/or a read only memory (ROM) for permanent storage of information. In other embodiments, the storage system 10 may also be an external storage device, such as a hard disk, a storage card, or a data storage medium. The at least one processor 12 executes computerized operations of the computing device 1 and other applications, to provide functions of the computing device 1 .
[0011] FIG. 2 is a block diagram of one embodiment of the functional modules of the test system 100 included in the computing device 1 of FIG. 1 . The test system 100 may include a plurality of functional modules each comprising one or more programs or independent code and which can be accessed and executed by the at least one processor 12 . In one embodiment, the test system 10 includes a creation module 101 , a sending module 102 , a receiving module 103 , a comparison module 104 , and a display module 105 . In general, the word “module”, as used herein, refers to logic embodied in hardware or firmware, or to a collection of software instructions, written in a programming language, such as, Java, C, or assembly. One or more software instructions in the modules may be embedded in firmware, such as EPROM. The modules described herein may be implemented as either software and/or hardware modules and may be stored in any type of non-transitory computer-readable medium or other storage device. Some non-limiting examples of non-transitory computer-readable media include CDs, DVDs, BLU-RAY, flash memory, and hard disk drives.
[0012] Prior to testing, the second PCI-E switch 20 should be put into a loopback mode, which in this embodiment may be defined as a mode for the exchange of data between the first PCI-E switch 110 and the second PCI-E switch 20 . In the loopback mode, the second PCI-E switch 20 returns the data packets to the first PCI-E switch 110 when the second PCI-E switch 20 receives data packets from the first PCI-E switch 110 . Putting the second PCI-E switch 20 into the loopback mode can be done writing a loopback instruction to a register of the second PCI-E switch 20 .
[0013] The creation module 101 is operable to create a first data packet using a plurality of formatted data. The first data packet consists of the formatted data that can be transmitted between the first PCI-E switch 110 and the second PCI-E switch 20 .
[0014] The sending module 102 is operable to send the first data packet from the first PCI-E switch 110 to the second PCI-E switch 20 . After the second PCI-E switch 20 receives the first data packet, the second PCI-E switch 20 generates a second data packet based on the first data packet, and sends back the second data packet to the first PCI-E switch 110 .
[0015] The receiving module 103 is operable to receive the second data packet sent back by the second PCI-E switch 20 .
[0016] The comparison module 104 is operable to compare the first data packet with the second data packet to generate a test result of the second PCI-E switch 20 .
[0017] The display module 105 is operable to display the test result of the second PCI-E switch 20 on the monitor 13 . If the first data packet is identical to the second data packet, the display module 105 activates the monitor 13 to display information indicating that the second PCI-E switch 20 works normally. If the first data packet is not identical to the second data packet, the display module 105 activates the monitor 13 to display an error code indicating that the second PCI-E switch 20 does not work normally.
[0018] FIG. 3 is a flowchart of one embodiment of a method for testing a PCI-E switch using the test system 100 of FIG. 1 . Depending on the embodiment, additional blocks may be added, others removed, and the ordering of the blocks may be changed.
[0019] In the embodiment, the second PCI-E switch 20 of the second motherboard 2 is to be tested, and is electronically connected to the first PCI-E switch 110 of the first motherboard 11 . Before testing, the second PCI-E switch 20 is put into the loopback mode, and as described above, the loopback mode is defined as a mode for the exchange of data between the first PCI-E switch 110 and the second PCI-E switch 20 .
[0020] In block S 100 , the creation module 101 creates a first data packet (which can be exchanged between the first PCI-E switch 110 and the second PCI-E switch 20 ) using a plurality of formatted data.
[0021] In block S 102 , the sending module 102 sends the first data packet from the first PCI-E switch 110 to the second PCI-E switch 20 . After the second PCI-E switch 20 receives the first data packet, the second PCI-E switch 20 generates a second data packet based on the first data packet, and sends back the second data packet to the first PCI-E switch 110 .
[0022] In block S 104 , the receiving module 103 receives the second data packet sent back by the second PCI-E switch 20 .
[0023] In block S 106 , the comparison module 104 compares the first data packet with the second data packet. If the first data packet is not identical to the second data packet, block S 108 is implemented. If the first data packet is identical to the second data packet, block S 110 is implemented.
[0024] In block S 108 , the display module 105 activates the monitor 13 to display an error code indicating that the second PCI-E switch 20 does not work normally. In block S 110 , the display module 105 activates the monitor 13 to display information indicating that the second PCI-E switch 20 works normally.
[0025] Although certain embodiments of the present disclosure have been specifically described, the present disclosure is not to be construed as being limited thereto. Various changes or modifications may be made to the present disclosure without departing from the scope and spirit of the present disclosure.
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A method tests peripheral component interconnect express (PCI-E) switches. A second PCI-E switch to be tested electronically connects to a first PCI-E switch of a computing device. A first data packet is created by the computing device and sent from the first PCI-E switch to the second PCI-E switch. A second data packet sent back by the second PCI-E switch is received by the computing device. The second PCI-E switch works normally if the first data packet is identical to the second data packet. The second PCI-E switch does not work normally if the first data packet is not identical to the second data packet.
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BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE
This invention relates to recording devices and more particularly to a chart bracket for recording devices.
Recording instruments, such as flowmeters, pressure recording instruments, temperature indicators and the like, using circular disk paper charts upon which a pen records variations in value of a variable being monitored have been in common use for many years. The charts used may serve to record variations of the variables during varying periods of time, such as 8-hour periods, 12-hour or 24-hour periods, or 7-day periods or the like. In the past, the charts were manually changed at the required interval of time. More recently, chart changing instruments have been developed to automatically change the circular disk charts at predetermined intervals of time. The recorded charts are stored by the chart changer until collected by an operator.
There is presently a need, particularly in the oil and gas industry, for an automatic chart changer which will change the chart from a volume driven record gauge commonly used on gas meters. Such a chart should be easily scanned with modern scanners and should offer better resolution by allowing the monitored variables to be recorded as a function of fluid volume flow. The increasing use of very high volume turbine meters has prompted dissatisfaction with the old averaging method of applying temperature and pressure factors. A small error in applying a factor in the averaging method results in large volume errors and, therefore, errors in billing.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE
This invention is directed to an improvement for a volume driven recording device comprising a bracket interconnected with the volume driven shaft of the recording device and a chart changing clock. The bracket comprises two generally U-shaped arms connected to a tee coupling. The bracket also includes thumb screw adjustments providing adjustment in all directions for concentric alignment of recording charts on the volume dependent gear box output shaft.
It is, therefore, an object of this invention to provide a recording device responsive solely to fluid flow, yet capable of automatically changing a recording chart at predetermined intervals of time, as, for example, every twenty-four hours. This is accomplished by a feature of the invention providing a bracket interconnected to a volume driven shaft and an automatic chart changing clock. The clock rotates freely within the bracket 360.0 degrees each twenty-four hours. The sole function of the clock is to change the recording chart at the predetermined time interval. The recording chart is rotated by the bracket rotatably responsive to fluid flow through a pipeline or the like. Thus, the monitored variables, such as pressure and temperature, are recorded on the recording chart as affected by the volume of fluid flow.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
So that the manner in which the above recited features, advantages and objects of the invention, as well as others which will become apparent, are attained and can be understood in detail, a more particular description of the invention briefly summarized above may be had by reference to the embodiments thereof illustrated in the appended drawings, which drawings form a part of this specification. It is to be noted, however, that the appended drawings illustrate only typical embodiments of the invention and are not to be considered limiting of its scope, for the invention may admit to other equally effective embodiments.
FIG. 1 is a cross-sectional side view of a recording device employing the bracket of the invention;
FIG. 2 is a fragmentary front view of the bracket mounted on a clock front plate;
FIG. 3 is a fragmentary sectional view of a plurality of recording charts mounted on a central chart mounting structure; and
FIG. 4 is an enlarged front view of a driving pin and a discharge button which overlies the recording charts.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
Referring to FIG. 1, a volume driven PVTT (pressure, volume, temperature, time) recorder is shown modified to include the fluid driven bracket of the invention. The recorder is mounted onto a conduit 12 to monitor the fluid flow therethrough. The fluid may be liquid or gas. A volume meter 14 is interconnected between the conduit 12 and the recorder case 16. The meter 14 is a standard volume dial index. A volume driven gear train 18 is mounted to a back wall 20 of the recorder case 16. The gear train 18 includes a basic gear reduction box well known in the art. A drive shaft 22 extends into the gear train 18 through the volume meter 14 from the fluid stream in the conduit 12. The fluid flow in the conduit 12 rotates the drive shaft 22 which, in turn, rotates the driven or output shaft 24 via the gear train 18. The apparatus uses a turbine in the pipeline to rotate the drive shaft. The turbine pressure seals, packing glands and cooperative apparatus are omitted for sake of clarity in focusing attention on the inventive volume based recorder disclosed herein.
The recorder case 16 is a box-like structure including a top wall 26, a bottom wall 28 and the back wall 20. The recorder case 16 also includes a chart catcher and a door likewise omitted to focus on the volume dependent chart recorder. The recorder case 16 is secured to the volume meter 14 by bolts 30 extending through the bottom wall 28 as shown in FIG. 1. The back wall 20 includes a hole 21 for receiving the driven shaft 24 therethrough. A pen arm support assembly 32 is mounted adjacent the top wall 26 on the back wall 20 inside the recorder case 16. The pen arm assembly 32 is of the standard type and may include a standard beta type pen for recording variations in the variables being monitored on the recording chart.
The bracket of the invention installed in FIG. 1 comprises two generally U-shaped arms 36 and 37 and a tee coupling 38. The bracket arms 36 and 37 are connected to the tee coupling by nuts 39 and 40. The tee coupling is, in turn, connected to the output shaft 24 by the nut 41. The output shaft 24 protrudes into the recorder case 16 through the hole 21 a sufficient distance to enable one to easily connect the tee coupling 38 to the output shaft 24 employing available hand tools. The output shaft 24, the bracket arms 36 and 37 and the tee coupling 38 may be manufactured of lightweight material such as hollow metal tubes or the like. The nuts 39, 40 and 41 are fasteners commonly used for connecting tubes together.
The bracket arms 36 and 37 include flat ends 42 and 43 shown in FIG. 2 which mount to a front plate 44 of an automatic chart changer clock 46. The chart changer clock 46 is of a type well known in the art exemplified by a Mullins Dial-O-Graph Automatic Chart Changer. Since the clock 46 is well known in the art, it is not shown in great detail in the drawings. However, the chart changer clock 46 is shown in FIGS. 1 and 3 as including a front plate 44, a release button 52, an alignment pin 54, a chart plate 56 and a spring 58. The only purpose of the clock 46 in the invention is timely operation of the chart release button 52 at predetermined time intervals. The operation of the chart changer clock 46 is well known as described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,196,452 to O. E. Mullins, et al, July 20, 1965. Briefly, at predetermined time intervals, such as each twenty-four hours, the clock 46 activates the release button 52 to discharge a single chart 60. The release button 52 includes a shaft 64 which is drivingly engageable with the clock 46. The shaft 64 extends through a hole 66 of the plate 44 and through a "hollow" support shaft 67 extending from the plate 44 concentric to the hole 66. The shaft 64 is freely rotatable therein. The hollow shaft 67 is affixed to the plate 44 by welding, brazing or the like. The chart plate 56, the spring 58 and the charts 60 are mounted on the hollow shaft 67 as shown in FIG. 3. At the predetermined time, the release button 52 is quickly revolved by the clock 46 to discharge the outermost recording chart 60 as disclosed in the aforementioned Mullins patent. The rectangular pin 54 extends from the front plate 44 of the clock 46 through a slotted aperture 62 of the charts 60 for aligning a stack of recording charts as shown in FIG. 3. The chart release button supports a curved knife having a bent outer tip (see FIG. 4) which hooks into the seat in the stack of charts, penetrating into the stack to cut loose the top chart and drop the top chart of the stack. The curved knife rotates one full turn in about one second and returns to its initial position.
Ordinarily the chart changer clock is attached to the back of a recorder case and the chart plate or hub rotates 360° within the recorder case during a twenty-four hour period. The release button operates once each twenty-four hour period to release the top chart. In the instant application, however, the chart changer clock plate 44 is firmly secured to the output shaft 24 via the bracket arms 36 and 37. The clock is permitted to rotate freely within the disclosed bracket. The clock is the timing mechanism for actuating the release button on a predetermined schedule and has no influence on chart rotation.
The ends 42 and 43 of the bracket arms 36 and 37 include elongate slots 48 and 49 for receiving adjustment screws 50 therethrough. The screws 50 threadably secure the bracket arms 36 and 37 to the front plate 44 of the chart changer clock 46 and permit adjustments to be made so that the plate 44 is positioned substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the output shaft 24 as shown in FIG. 1. It will be observed then, that the support shaft 67 which is affixed to and extends perpendicularly from the surface of the plate 44 is in substantial alignment with the output shaft 24. It is preferred that the support shaft 67 be in axial alignment with the output shaft 24, as best shown in FIG. 1, to insure concentricity of pen marking on the charts 60. The charts 60 are supported and centered on the support shaft 67 and lie in a plane substantially perpendicular to the longitudinal axis of the support shaft 67 and the output shaft 24. Thus, the output shaft 24, the support shaft 67 and the charts 60 have a common rotational axis insuring concentricity of pen marking on the charts 60.
A small reference indicator (not shown) may be provided to accurately check the chart kickoff time. The reference indicator may be mounted on the clock 46 directly under the front plate 44. The reference indicator shows twenty-four hours divided into 15-minute increments. The alignment pin 54 is positioned at a point relative to the reference indicator to set the kickoff time.
In the operation of the recording device, the charts 60 are rotated counterclockwise by fluid flowing through the conduit 12 via the gear box of the invention. The gear box is of a standard type found in industry accepted volume driven recorders. Rotation is imparted to the charts 60 by the plate 44 which is, in turn, secured to the bracket arms 36 and 37 which are rotated by output shaft 24. The plate 44 is joined to the clock and to the alignment pin 54 extending through the slot 70 in the chart plate 56 so that rotation of the bracket is immediately transmitted to the chart plate 56 and, thus, to the charts 60. The clock 46 rotates clockwise within the bracket, but does not affect rotation of the recording charts 60. The recording charts 60 are rotated solely proportionately to fluid flow. The chart rotation, being proportionate to fluid volumetric flow, establishes a base line for recorded data. In this invention, the recording device provides a record of pressure, temperature or other monitored variables proportional to fluid volume flow. A volume dependent gear train ratio is selected which will produce about ninety percent (90%) chart rotation under maximum flow conditions, thus improving variable resolution of the monitored variables. One particularly useful result is obtaining time expanded variable recordation proportionate to volume. At times of high flow rate, the arc of a variable is expanded to increase data resolution and to reduce the impact of errors.
While the foregoing is directed to the preferred embodiment of the present invention, other and further embodiments of the invention may be devised without departing from the basic concept thereof, and the scope thereof is determined by the claims which follow.
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In the preferred and illustrated embodiment of a recording device, a fluid volume driven chart bracket is disclosed. The bracket is rotationally responsive to fluid flow through a pipeline or the like. A recording chart is rotated by the fluid flowing through the pipeline via a volume driven gear train and the chart bracket. An automatic chart changer clock is mounted to the bracket to periodically change the recording chart. The variables recorded by the device are weighted proportionally to the volume of fluid flowing through the pipeline.
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RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This application claims the priority of U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 62/307,711, filed Mar. 14, 2016, incorporated herewith in its entirety.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0002] The present invention relates generally to catching fish in a manner that allows safe and easy release of the fish with little or no harm to the fish.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] Currently there are a number of solutions for catching fish with and without artificial baits and lures of numerous designs used in commercial and recreational fishing. The typical fish capture method associated with conventional rod and reel fishing techniques employs baits and lures and involves the use of a fish hook that is designed to capture and retain a fish by piercing the fish's lip with a sharp metal hook. With a growing interest in society to protect and preserve natural environments and ecosystems, recreational fishing and to some extent commercial fishing has become increasingly more prone to practicing “catch and release” fishing techniques with the intention of releasing fish back to the environment, unharmed. While the interest in “catch and release” has grown in popularity, the fundamental equipment has not changed. Some of the common “catch and release” solutions attempt to preserve fish health by simply removing or bending down the barbs on conventional hooks. While the goal of a traditional hooked lure is for the hook to only penetrate through the lip of a fish, often the hooks end up causing unintended harm because they are completely swallowed or penetrate through another part of the mouth causing catastrophic injuries to the eyes, throat or belly. These initial injuries, while not always immediately life threatening are often exacerbated when the angler must remove the hook, or even worse, leave the hook embedded in the fish prior to release.
[0004] In addition to the physical damage done by the hook, stress on the fish also plays an important role in a fish's ability to survive. The longer a fish is out of the water to remove a hook after being caught the higher the stress levels in the fish and the lower the chances are that the fish will survive. An August 2002 study (Howells, 2002) performed by the Texas Parks and Wildlife department found that 22% of largemouth bass caught and immediately released died within 72 hours. A mortality rate this high goes against the principles of making fishing a sustainable, environmentally friendly and humane pastime.
[0005] It would be desirable to have a more reliable, safe, easy to use, “catch and release” fish capturing device that is suitable to be used with conventional rod and reel fishing equipment and techniques. To truly meet the objectives of “catch and release” fishing practices, a system that does not cause undue harm to a fish in the form of piercing body parts, extended time out of the water and unintentional hook related damage is desirable. Two fundamental factors that serve to facilitate sustainable “catch and release” fishing techniques would include a mechanism or method for capturing a fish without inducing physical damage or harm to the fish, and a reliable and rapid method or mechanism for releasing the caught fish without requiring excessive time out of the water or inflicting additional harm or damage to the captured fish.
OBJECTS OF THE INVENTION
[0006] Thus, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fish capture device with release mechanism that does not suffer from any of the problems or deficiencies associated with prior solutions.
[0007] It is still further an object of the present invention to provide a fish capture device that does not inflict physical damage to the fish being captured.
[0008] Further still, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fish capture device that does not use a hook to pierce any portion of the fish's body.
[0009] Further still, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fish capture device that provides a means for rapid, easy to operate, manual release of the captured fish from the capture device.
[0010] Further still, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fish capture device that may be used independently on traditional rod and reel fishing equipment, on a single fishing line, on a trolling line, or on any other sort of fishing line available.
[0011] Further still, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fish capture device that may be used in conjunction with conventional artificial lures, whereby this capture device is used in place of conventional barbed and barbless fish hooks.
[0012] Further still, it is an object of the present invention to provide a fish capture device that may be used in place of conventional fishing lures, whereby this fish capture device performs the function of the conventional lure in attracting fish, while also performing the function of securing the captured fish to the fishing line, serving the same function as the conventional fish hook, but without the necessity of penetrating any portion of the fish's body.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0013] The present invention advantageously addresses the aforementioned objects by providing a simple, safe and reliable means for catching and releasing fish without inflicting any harm to the fish. This is accomplished using a mechanism that secures a fish to a line through a mechanical engagement with the interior of a fish's mouth without piercing or puncturing any of the fish's flesh. Engagement is achieved through changes to the physical characteristics such as the size and/or shape and/or surface texture of the device. Once located within the fish's mouth and triggered by the action of ingestion into the fish's mouth, the device remains securely affixed until purposefully released by the angler upon landing the fish. The ability to manually reset the physical characteristics of the device is novel and useful in that it provides for a means for removing the device from the fish's mouth without inducing any physical harm to the fish. Further, the ability to reconfigure the device manually assures that the fish, once caught on the device, will be securely fastened to the fishing line until it is desired by the angler to facilitate release.
[0014] The present invention is a reconfigurable mechanism that changes physical size and shape once taken into the mouth by a fish. Once inside the mouth, a trigger mechanism is disturbed by the fish's mouth acting on the device and the overall geometry of the device changes, making it difficult or impossible for the fish to spit out. Securely lodged within the mouth, this device provides sufficient strength to allow retrieval of the fish using conventional rod and reel equipment. Once “landed” ashore, the angler is able to rapidly release the fish by restoring the physical characteristics of the capture device, allowing easy removal from the fish's mouth.
[0015] In accordance with an aspect of the invention, fish capture device comprises a reconfigurable member having at least one of a changeable size and a changeable shape when engaged within an inside of a mouth of a fish to retain the fish on the fish capture device. A trigger member triggers said at least one changeable size and changeable shape of the reconfigurable member. A release member substantially restores the reconfigurable member to at least one of an initial size and an initial shape for releasing the fish from the fish capture device.
[0016] The reconfigurable member may comprise a compliant spherical body having concentric solid and hollow rods for elongating the spherical body in response to said triggering and for shrinking the spherical body in response to said releasing. The reconfigurable member may comprise a hinged member pivotally supported on a shaft. The reconfigurable member may comprise a wound linear spring. The reconfigurable member may comprise a shaft and a plurality of arms hingeably fixed on an end of the shaft.
[0017] The trigger member may include a trigger element triggerable by compression from the mouth of the fish on the trigger element. The release member may comprise a user-activatable release element for substantially restoring the reconfigurable member to said at least one of the initial size and the initial shape. An action of a mouth of the fish closing on the fish capture device may cause said triggering of said at least one changeable size and changeable shape of the reconfigurable member. The entire reconfigurable member may be disposable within the mouth of the first prior to said triggering.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0018] The present invention is a fish capture device to be used with conventional rod and reel fishing equipment, that catches fish without the use of conventional fishhooks, assuring the safest, non-detrimental means of achieving reliable “catch and release” fishing capability. More specifically, the present invention allows for a means for capturing fish through a purely mechanical engagement between the device and the interior of a fish's mouth without any portion of the fish's body being pierced or penetrated as is typically the case when using fish hooks. The present invention uses reconfigurable physical characteristics to engage the mechanism with the fish's mouth and employs a mechanism to allow manual release of the device from the fish in order to facilitate rapid and safe release of the fish from the device. The present invention is intended to be used as a stand-alone capture device in place of conventional fishing lures, and/or to be used in conjunction with conventional lures and other conventional fishing tackle commonly employed by anglers worldwide. Several embodiments of the invention are described herein, all consisting of core components including a reconfigurable capture mechanism, a central structure with eyelet for attaching to fishing line or other conventional tackle, a trigger mechanism and a release mechanism.
[0019] These and other objects and features of the present invention will be more fully disclosed or rendered obvious by the following detailed description of the preferred embodiments of the invention, which is to be considered together with the accompanying drawings wherein like numbers refer to like parts, and further wherein:
[0020] FIG. 1 shows the hinged “umbrella” or “Christmas tree” design device that uses a series of hinged arms attached in either a single row or multiple rows radially positioned around a central shaft.
[0021] FIG. 2 shows the compliant spherical “ball-like” design device that uses concentric solid and hollow rods to elongate or shrink the spherical ball structure, causing a widening and narrowing of the girth of the ball component.
[0022] FIG. 3 shows the hinged “anchor” style design device that uses a simple “open/closed book” style mechanism for providing an anchoring structure to assure physical contact with the interior regions of a fish's mouth.
[0023] FIG. 4 shows the “pivoting arm” style design device that uses a simple “T” shaped scissoring mechanism to assure physical contact with the interior regions of a fish's mouth.
[0024] FIG. 5 shows a “linear spring” style design device that employs the natural tendency of linear spring material to curl up when depressed orthogonally to the main axis of the material. Oriented in such a way that two or more parallel positioned lengths of this material will curl in directions away from a central shaft, this device will grow radially once triggered.
[0025] FIG. 6 shows an “inverted umbrella” design that operates in a manner similar to a common umbrella once inverted. Hinged arms held in place by a triggering mechanism and forced outward by a spring, cause this device to grow radially once triggered.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0026] The present invention is directed to provide a fish capture device with release mechanism that allows for the safe and effective capture of fish without piercing any portion of the fish's body.
[0027] The intent of this device is to provide a secure means for capturing fish using what is commonly understood to be conventional rod and reel fishing equipment. As such, this device is intended to be attached to a fishing line and deployed by casting the line using a rod and reel system, hand-line or any other normal and conventional means for capturing fish. The device is unique from common fishing hooks in that it does not rely on a sharp point to pierce through the flesh of a fish, but rather on reconfiguration of physical characteristics causing the device to be difficult or impossible for a fish to dislodge from within the fish's mouth once ingested, in order to assure capture. In addition to the unique physical reconfiguration technique used for assuring safe and harmless capture, the device consists of a means for configuring the physical characteristics to a state that allows easy removal from the fish's mouth to facilitate safe and harmless release of the fish by the angler.
[0028] In its most complete version, the present invention is made up of the following components; a central structural rod with eyelet, a trigger mechanism, a reconfigurable capture mechanism and a release mechanism. These components are connected and related to one another as follows: The central rod with eyelet is used to attach the device to a conventional fishing line, snap, swivel or other component of fishing tackle and provides a central structure for the device. The trigger mechanism allows the reconfigurable capture mechanism to be maintained in a “cocked” position until a fish has ingested the device. The reconfigurable capture mechanism allows for a size, shape, texture or other physical characteristic that is readily ingested by a fish and facilitates capture of the fish through change in that physical characteristic, by engaging mechanically with the interior of the fish's mouth. The release mechanism allows for manual actuation of the reconfigurable capture mechanism, either restoring the capture mechanism back to a pre-triggered condition, or to a unique release condition, with either condition suitable for safe and harmless release of the device from the fish's mouth without injury or delay. Minor mechanical components including but not limited to springs, pins, bushings, rods, bearings, latches, plates and fasteners are used in the fabrication of the device. These minor components are not described in intimate detail in this set of descriptions, but are referenced as relevant to the function of the device and included in the accompanying diagrams. Several example embodiments are shown in figure form and described in detail.
[0029] It is recognized that all of these depictions are shown and described as useful in their bare form (as shown) as a direct replacement to the common and standard fish hook and/or as a component of a fishing lure. Also, it is understood that each of these embodiments could be covered with a compliant membrane material decorated and adorned as part of a fishing lure design, improving the attraction to fish and improving the overall performance as a hook-less fish capture device.
[0030] The present invention now will be described more fully hereinafter with reference to the accompanying drawings, which are intended to be read in conjunction with both this summary, the detailed description and any preferred and/or particular embodiments specifically discussed or otherwise disclosed. This invention may, however, be embodied in many different forms and should not be construed as limited to the embodiments set forth herein; rather, these embodiments are provided by way of illustration only and so that this disclosure will be thorough, complete and will fully convey the full scope of the invention to those skilled in the art.
[0031] One method for providing the function of reconfiguring the size and shape of the device includes an expanding frame structure depicted in FIG. 1 (depicted as “Umbrella” or “Christmas Tree” style design). A central solid rod ( 10 ) is attached to several hinged arms ( 11 ) controlled by the movement of a hollow rod ( 12 ) moving axially relative to the central rod ( 10 ), causing the hinged arms to expand radially. A spring ( 13 ) acting at the end of the solid rod ( 10 ) pushing against the closed end of the hollow rod ( 12 ) assists in holding the hinged arms ( 11 ) in their outward position. A hole in pivot plate ( 14 ) aligns with a detent feature ( 15 ) on the solid central rod ( 10 ) and provides a feature to lock the hollow rod ( 13 ) in the “cocked” or “ready” position. By manually shifting the hollow rod ( 12 ) assembly slightly “off axis” from the solid rod ( 10 ), an edge of the hole in the pivot plate ( 14 ) will lodge or catch against a shoulder in the detent feature (detail 1 -A) of the solid rod ( 10 ), holding the mechanism in the “cocked” position with the spring ( 13 ) compressed as depicted in detail 1 -B. The action of the fish's mouth closing on the device causes the central hole in the pivot plate ( 14 ) to become dislodged from the edge of the detent in the central solid rod ( 10 ), resulting in the spring pushing the end of the solid rod ( 10 ) away from the closed end of the hollow rod ( 12 ) axially and actuating the hinged arms ( 11 ) outward. The central solid rod ( 10 ) also provides an eye ( 16 ) that allows attachment to a fishing line or other fishing device such as a conventional lure. Tension produced by reeling in on the fishing line acts on the central solid rod ( 10 ) and eye ( 16 ) and acts to further embed the device within a fish's mouth by continually pushing the hinged arms ( 11 ) outward and into contact with the interior of the fish's mouth. Manually pulling the hollow rod assembly ( 12 ) back in the direction of the eye ( 16 ) in the solid rod ( 10 ) compresses the spring ( 13 ) and retracts the hinged arms ( 11 ) causing a narrowing of the entire assembly for release and removal from the fish's mouth. A compliant (soft rubber or other similar material) covering (not shown in diagram) may be included with device in order to provide a more streamlined and ergonomically compliant physical shape to the device. This outer, compliant membrane covering may be adorned with graphics and coloring in order to mimic bait and/or otherwise improve attraction to fish as a lure.
[0032] In another embodiment of the invention as shown in FIG. 2 (depicted as “Spherical ball-like” design), a ball-like, compliant spherical component ( 20 ) is held in a narrow, elongated configuration by a solid rod ( 21 ) inside a hollow rod ( 22 ) running through the middle of the sphere. At one of the two penetrations through the sphere, the hollow rod ( 22 ) is connected to the spherical component and at the other penetration through the sphere ( 20 ), the solid rod ( 21 ) is connected to the spherical component. In this manner, relative axial motion between the solid rod ( 21 ) and the hollow rod ( 22 ) causes the compliant spherical object ( 20 ) to elongate along the rods' axis and narrow or neck down along the transverse axis. A spring ( 23 ) acts to retract the solid rod ( 21 ) relative to the hollow rod ( 22 ), causing the compliant spherical device to tend to remain in the widest condition as measured transverse to the solid rod ( 21 ) and hollow rod ( 22 ) axis.
[0033] Solid rod ( 21 ) and hollow rod ( 22 ) are held in the “closed” or “cocked” position by manually positioning the end of solid rod ( 21 ) so that it rests against a notch at the open end of the hollow rod ( 22 ) and remains held in place due to tension created by the stretched spring ( 23 ). Triggering is caused by pushing the solid rod ( 21 ) off of the notch on the open end of the hollow rod ( 22 ) as initiated by the forces of the fish's mouth closing on the exterior of the device. Once triggered, the solid rod ( 21 ) is pulled into the hollow rod ( 22 ) by the retracting spring ( 23 ) causing the exterior membrane to bellow outwards as depicted in the “open” position image. Release of the device from the fish's mouth is accomplished by manually pulling the solid rod ( 21 ) outward from the hollow rod ( 22 ) thereby elongating the outer membrane as shown in the “closed” or “cocked” position as shown in the FIG. 2 .
[0034] An alternate mechanism for actuating the spherical or “ball-like” design is shown in FIG. 2 , “alternate mechanism”. In this instance, a central solid rod ( 24 ) acts against a hollow tube ( 25 ) to extend and retract opposite ends of a compliant membrane ( 27 ) causing the membrane to transition in overall shape from an elongated shape to a broad (wide) shape as indicted in FIG. 2 . A triggering mechanism consisting of a detent feature in the solid rod ( 24 ) that engages through slight axial misalignment between the solid rod ( 24 ) and a hole in the closed end of the hollow tube ( 25 ). The compressed spring provides the axial force that holds the device in the “cocked” position and is actuated by the action of a fish's mouth pushing sideways against the elongated ball member, dis-lodging the engagement between the shoulder of the end plate hole pressing against the detent feature in the solid rod ( 24 ). Spring force retains the spherical object in the shortened (as measured along the solid rod ( 24 ) and hollow tube ( 25 ) axis) configuration. Manually pushing against the spring allows the solid rod ( 24 ) to lengthen along the hollow tube ( 25 ) axis and reduce the transverse size of the compliant spherical object, allowing easy removal from the fish's mouth.
[0035] In another embodiment of the invention as depicted in FIG. 3 (“Anchor style” design), a hinged mechanism unfolds in order to act like an anchor securing the device within the fish's mouth. A center shaft ( 30 ) with eye ( 31 ) secures the device to the fishing line and provides the central structure for the hinged elements ( 33 ) which will fold outwards when deployed within the fish's mouth. A spring ( 36 ) provides the force necessary for extending the hinged elements ( 33 ) and a trigger release ( 32 ) acting against a compressed spring ( 34 ) is used to keep the hinged elements ( 33 ) closed until deployed. The trigger mechanism is set so that the ears on a washer-like plate, secured in place on center shaft ( 30 ) retain the ends of the hinged elements ( 33 ) loosely. Disturbance to the plate ( 32 ) caused by the action of a fish striking the lure, causes the plate ( 32 ) to move out of alignment with the ends of the hinged elements ( 33 ). Once disturbed, the ends of hinged elements ( 33 ) are free to swing open as depicted in FIG. 3 . A sliding piston head ( 35 ) positioned at the end of the center shaft ( 30 ) is used to manually retract the hinged elements ( 33 ) by forcing the distal end of the hinged elements apart and causing the proximal ends of the hinged elements to close into alignment with the solid shaft ( 30 ) for removal from the fish's mouth for release. A compliant membrane (not shown) may cover the mechanism, providing a softer, more streamlined surface. This membrane may be decoratively painted and adorned in order to resemble a particular fish species, or in general to be more attractive as food to the fish being sought for capture.
[0036] In another embodiment of the invention as shown in FIG. 4 (depicted “Pivoting Arm” style design), a central rod ( 40 ) with eye ( 41 ) provides for a means to attach the device to fishing line and provides a central structure for the device. A pivoting anchor arm ( 42 ) attached to the central rod ( 40 ) is affixed in such a way that upon release from a retaining trigger mechanism ( 44 ), the rod will toggle away from a position parallel to the central rod ( 40 ) to a position that is perpendicular to the central rod ( 40 ), driven by spring ( 43 ). Triggering is caused by the action and forces generated from closure within a fish's mouth, disturbing the trigger mechanism ( 44 ), causing release of the tip of anchor arm ( 42 ). In the “open” position, it will be difficult or impossible for the captured fish to spit the device out of the fish's mouth, and in this position, the device will provide a secure, yet non-penetrating method for capturing and reeling in the fish. The device may be reset for easy and safe removal from the fish's mouth by pushing down on the reset bar (integral to trigger mechanism) ( 44 ) acting on the pivoting anchor arm ( 42 ) in a way that causes the pivoting anchor arm ( 42 ) to re-align into a parallel position with the central rod ( 40 ).
[0037] In another embodiment of the invention as shown in FIG. 5 (depicted as “Linear Spring” style design), a series of spring material curved “blade-like” arms ( 52 ) are set in a parallel arrangement around a central shaft ( 50 ) outfitted with an integral eye ( 51 ) for attaching the device to fishing line or tackle. The material used for the “blade-like” arms ( 52 ), when disturbed will tend to curl up (as is common with “linear spring” material as used in tape measures and “snap bracelets” and other devices). Having these “blade-like” arms arranged so that the curling action is directed away from the central shaft makes it so that this device will become difficult to dislodge from a fish's mouth once triggered. Removal is accomplished by sliding a plate like ring ( 53 ) as shown in detail 5 -A, outfitted with slots that conform to the “blade-like” arms, down along the “blade-like” arms ( 52 ) to restore them to the original parallel arrangement.
[0038] In another embodiment of the invention as shown in FIG. 6 (depicted as “Inverted Umbrella” style design), a central shaft ( 60 ) equipped with an integral eye ( 61 ) provides the central structure and attachment to a series of hinged arms ( 65 ). A spring ( 63 ) is compressed and acting against a boss-like feature ( 62 ) on the central shaft ( 60 ) provides the force to release the hinged arms ( 65 ) from a retracted (“cocked” or “loaded”) position parallel to the central shaft ( 60 ) once triggered, causing the hinged arms ( 65 ) to swing outward radially, guided by lever arms ( 66 ) pivoting off of the central shaft ( 60 ). A central hole in a washer-like plate ( 64 ) engages with a detent in the central shaft ( 60 ) holding the mechanism in the “loaded” position until triggered. The device is reset and removed from the fish's mouth by pulling the washer-like plate ( 64 ) and hinged arms ( 65 ) as an assembly outward along the central shaft ( 60 ) in the direction of the eye ( 61 ), causing the hinged arms ( 65 ) to return to the retracted position parallel to the central shaft ( 60 ).
Modifications
[0039] While the present invention has been described above in terms of specific embodiments, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to these disclosed embodiments. Many modifications and other embodiments of the invention will come to mind of those skilled in the art to which this invention pertains, and which are intended to be and are covered by both this disclosure and the appended claims. It is indeed intended that the scope of the invention should be determined by proper interpretation and construction of the appended claims and their legal equivalents, as understood by those of skill in the art relying upon the disclosure in this specification and the attached drawings.
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A fish capture device comprises a reconfigurable member having at least one of a changeable size and a changeable shape when engaged within an inside of a mouth of a fish to retain the fish on the fish capture device. A trigger member triggers said at least one changeable size and changeable shape of the reconfigurable member. A release member substantially restores the reconfigurable member to at least one of an initial size and an initial shape for releasing the fish from the fish capture device.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to alkoxylation products having terminal hydroxyl groups which are blocked with glycerine ether radicals. These products are highly biodegradable and are low foaming. The invention further relates to a process for their preparation.
2. Description of the Prior Art
In our mechanized societies, automatic washing processes are primarily used for cleaning dishes and other objects made of glass, china, ceramics or metal. Dishwashing detergents containing specific surface-active compounds are used for this purpose. These detergents must be low foaming for proper functioning of the dishwashers. Too much foaming, caused by the movement of the washing fluid in the machines, results in problems since the foam reduces the cleaning power of the washing fluid being sprayed upon the materials to be cleaned and may cause the machine to overflow.
Compounds generally referred to as ethylene oxidepropylene oxide block polymers, as described in U.S. Pat. No. 2,674,619, represent an important class of nonionic surfactants used to reduce the foaming of automatic dishwashing detergents. These surfactants are characterized by their low foaming properties and good dispersing capacity. However, they also have a low wetting capacity and their biodegradability is far below 80 percent.
Low-foaming nonionic surfactants which are produced by reaction of a maximum of 1.5 moles butylene oxide with a higher alkanol ethoxylate containing 4 to 10 moles of ethylene oxide per higher alkanol are described in German Published Application No. 1,814,439. It has, however, been determined that these surfactants are not yet satisfactory with respect to their foam inhibiting properties, especially when the washing fluid contain high protein content.
It is well known that the formation of foam can be inhibited by the effects of the higher alkylene oxides such as propylene and/or butylene oxide upon ethoxylated alcohols. This effect is increased as the alkylene oxide content is increased. However, increasing the alkylene oxide content reduces the biodegradability. Thus, for instance, the report of the Sixth International Congress for Surface-Active Materials of Sept. 11-15, 1972 in Zurich by W. K. Fischer of the Henkel KGaA Company (see Vol. 3, page 746, and FIG. 9) explains that ethoxylated C 12 to C 20 fatty alcohols with 2 moles of butylene oxide as end groups have a biodegradability which the bottle test listed in this literature reference indicates to be absolutely unsatisfactory.
Although it is known from the monograph, Catalysts, Surfactants and Mineral Oil Additives, page 149, column 2, paragraph 2, edited by J. Falbe and U. Hasserodt, (George Thieme Publishers, Stuttgart 1978), that alkoxylation groups may be reacted with glycidyl ethers to prepare products which are useful in detergents because of their low foaming tendencies, this reference says nothing about specific representatives of this product class and no statements are made concerning their biodegradability.
Such compounds which are the propoxylation products of long-chained alcohols which were reacted with a long-chained glycidyl ether, are also described in German Published Application No. 2,225,318. However, they are not water soluble and are used as defoamers in paper coating materials. Moreover, these compounds are not biodegradable.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The subject invention relates to compositions of matter having the following structural formula: ##STR2## In this formula R 1 represents a C 8 -C 20 alkyl radical, R 2 stands for a C 1 -C 5 alkyl radical, and n is a number, 4 through 15. These compounds are low foaming and have acceptable biodegradability. They are particularly useful in the formulation of automatic dishwashing detergents.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
In order to prepare the compositions of the subject invention, aliphatic alcohols having 8 to 20 carbon atoms, or alcohol mixtures, are ethoxylated with 4 to 15 moles of ethylene oxide per mole of alcohol according to well-known methods. The ethoxylation product is subsequently reacted with epichlorohydrin in the presence of an acid catalyst. Thereafter, the reaction mixture is reacted with a C 1 -C 5 aliphatic alcohol in the presence of alkaline catalysts. The specific ingredients will now be described in detail.
Alcohols having 8 to 20 carbon atoms which may be used may be branched or straight chained with straight chained or only slightly branched being preferred. Specific examples include octanol, nonanol, decanol, dodecanol, tetradecanol, hexadecanol, and oxadecanol (stearyl alcohol) as well as their mixtures. Particularly preferred are those which were obtained by the Ziegler or the Oxo synthesis. These are mixtures containing 9/11, 13/15 or 16/18 (oxo synthesis) carbon atoms. The alcohol mixtures obtained by the Ziegler synthesis containing 8/10, 10/12, 12/16 or 16/20 alkyl groups are just as suitable. Particularly advantageous is the C 10 /C 12 cut of the alcohol fraction obtained by the Ziegler synthesis.
The ethoxylation of these alcohols or alcohol mixtures is part of the current state of the art and does not require further explanation. The alkoxylation is carried out with 4 to 15, preferably 5 to 11 moles of ethylene oxide per mole of alcohol.
The ethoxylates are subsequently reacted with epichlorohydrin in the presence of acid catalysts. Molar quantities of epichlorohydrin are appropriately used, that is, the mole ratio of ethoxylate to epichlorohydrin should be 1:1. However, slight excesses of epichlorohydrin may also be used, that is a mole ratio of 1:1.5, may also be selected. Suitable "acid catalysts" under the reaction conditions are nonoxidizing mineral acids such as sulfuric acid, perchloric acid and particularly Lewis acids such as BF 3 -etherate or antimony pentachloride which are used in quantities of 0.1 to 10 percent by weight relative to the weight of the ethoxylate. The reaction requires temperatures of 50° C. to 120° C., preferably 70° C. to 110° C. and generally requires 0.5 hour to 10 hours, preferably 1 hour to 5 hours.
Since it is not necessary to isolate the intermediate product, the reaction solution is then mixed with a primary or secondary C 1 -C 5 alkanol in the presence of an alkaline catalyst. "Alkaline catalysts" are understood to be, for instance, alkali hydroxides such as sodium hydroxide, potassium hydroxide, earth alkali hydroxides such as calcium hydroxide or barium hydroxide, or alkali carbonates such as soda or potash.
C 1 to C 5 alkanols include, for instance, methanol, ethanol, n- or isopropanol, n- or sec.-butanol, of which n-propanol and n-butanol are preferred. They are used at least in molar ratios relative to the reaction product of the ethoxylate and epichlorohydrin preferably with a 4 to 5 times excess. The reaction temperature may range from 70° C. to 130° C. and the reaction time may range from 3 hours to 10 hours.
The surfactants are obtained after neutralization of the excess alkaline catalyst, filtration of the resultant precipitating salt, and the distillative separation of the excess alcohol.
The resultant products may be characterized, for instance, by their cloud point and their OH number. They meet the regulations published in the Federal Gazette, Part 1, pages 244 et seq. on Jan. 30, 1977, concerning biodegradability as determined by the configuration test.
The new surfactants are used in industrial washing and cleaning processes which may cause particularly pronounced foaming as a result of the high amount of turbulence.
The examples which follow will provide further details related to the practice of this invention.
EXAMPLES
Generally, the subject surfactants are prepared by reacting 1 mole of alkanol in an autoclave with the desired mole quantity of ethylene oxide at 120° C. in the presence of 1 gram of potassium hydroxide. After neutralizing the alkaline catalyst with sulfuric acid, the ethoxylation product is mixed dropwise with 1 mole of epichlorohydrin (92.5 grams) in the presence of 2 grams of BF 3 -etherate at a temperature of 70° C. to 80° C. The reaction is completed while stirring at 100° C. within 4 hours. Without isolating the intermediate product, 5 moles of C 1 -C 5 alkanol are subsequently added. Then, 41 grams of powdered sodium hydroxide are introduced in portions at 25° C. to 35° C.; the reaction mixture is left at the referenced temperature for 1 hour and is heated to 100° C. for 5 hours. Subsequently, the sodium hydroxide is neutralized with acetic acid, the precipitated salt is removed by filtration, and the excess alkanol is removed by distillation under reduced pressure.
EXAMPLE 1
In an autoclave, 130 grams of octanol are reacted with 264 grams of ethylene oxide at 120° C. in the presence of 0.6 gram of potassium hydroxide. After neutralizing the alkaline catalyst with 0.6 gram of 98 percent sulfuric acid, the ethoxylation product is mixed dropwise with 1 mole of epichlorohydrin (96.5 grams) at 75° C. in the presence of 2 grams of BF 3 -etherate. The reaction is completed while stirring at 100° C. within 4 hours. Without isolating the intermediate product, 160 grams of methanol are subsequently added and 41 grams of powdered NaOH are added by portions at 25° C. to 35° C. The reaction mixture remains at the abovereferenced temperature for 1 hour and is heated for 5 hours under reflux cooling.
Subsequently, the excess sodium hydroxide is neutralized with acetic acid, the precipitated salt is removed by filtration and the excess alcohol is removed by distillation at 70° C. under a pressure of 70 millibars. The yield is 450 grams of product having a light yellow color and a water cloud point of 42° C.
EXAMPLE 2
The procedure was as that described under Example 1 but 352.6 grams of n-pentanol were used instead of methanol. The yield is 506 grams of product having a light yellow color and a water cloud point of less than 0° C.
EXAMPLE 3
In an autoclave, 168 grams of a C 10 -C 12 Ziegler alcohol mixture (C 10 -C 12 -ALFOL®) are reacted with 391.6 grams of ethylene oxide as described in Example 1 with 1 gram of KOH as catalyst. The material is neutralized with 1 gram of 98 percent sulfuric acid. The ethoxylation product is reacted with 92.5 grams of epichlorohydrin. Then, the addition of 360 grams of n-butanol and sodium hydroxide is carried out as described in Example 1. After stirring for 1 hour at 25° C. to 35° C., the reaction mixture is heated to 100° C. for 5 hours.
Further processing takes place as described under Example 1. The yield is 680 grams of product having a light yellow color and a water cloud point of 19.5° C.
EXAMPLE 4
In an autoclave, 208 grams of C 13/15 oxoalcohol are reacted with 396 grams of ethylene oxide as described in Example 2 with 1 gram of potassium hydroxide as catalyst. Further reaction and processing follows the guidelines set forth in Example 2 with the n-butanol being replaced by sec.-butanol. The yield is 730 grams of product having a light yellow color and water cloud point of 32.5° C.
EXAMPLE 5
In an autoclave, 208 grams of C 13/15 oxoalcohol are reacted with 440 grams of ethylene oxide as described in Example 2 with 1 gram of potassium hydroxide as catalyst. Further reaction and processing are carried out as described in Example 2. The yield is 780 grams of product having a light yellow color and a water cloud point of 23.5° C.
EXAMPLE 6
As described in Example 2, 255 grams of tallow fatty alcohol are reacted with 1 gram potassium hydroxide as catalyst and 484 grams of ethylene oxide. The material is neutralized with 1 gram of 98 percent sulfuric acid. The ethoxylation product is reacted with 92.5 grams of epichlorohydrin. The addition of 230 grams of ethanol and sodium hydroxide is carried out as explained in Example 1. After stirring at 25° C. to 35° C. for 1 hour, the reaction mixture is heated for 5 hours under reflux cooling.
Processing is then further carried out as described in Example 1. The yield is 820 grams of product having a light yellow color and a water cloud point of 63.5° C.
EXAMPLE 7
In an autoclave, 255 grams of tallow fatty alcohol are reacted in the same manner as described in Example 5. After reaction with epichlorohydrin, 352.6 grams of n-pentanol and the sodium hydroxide are added as put forth in Example 1.
After 1 hour at 25° C. to 35° C., the reaction mixture is stirred at 100° C. for 5 hours.
Processing is further carried out as described in Example 1 with the excess n-pentanol being removed by distillation at 80° C. and 50 millibars. The yield is 870 grams of product having a light yellow color and a water cloud point of 52.5° C.
EXAMPLE 8
In an autoclave, 270.5 grams of stearyl alcohol are reacted with 1.5 grams potassium hydroxide as catalyst and 616 grams of ethylene oxide as described in Example 2.
The mixture is neutralized with 1.5 grams of 98 percent sulfuric acid.
The further reaction and processing is carried out as described in Example 1. The yield is 960.5 grams of a product with a light yellow color and a water cloud point of 82.5° C.
Table I which follows provides data on the cloud point (determined in accordance with DIN 97913), foaming power (determined in accordance with DIN 93902) and biodegradability of the surfactants prepared in Examples 1-8. The table also provides such data for comparative surfactants. The table shows that the surfactants of the present invention are much lower foamers than the comparative surfactants, but are still biodegradable.
TABLE I.sup.1__________________________________________________________________________ Cloud Point Biodegradability H.sub.2 O Foam ConfirmationExampleProduct Description by Ingredients DIN 97913 DIN 93902 Test__________________________________________________________________________1 Octanol + 6 EO + Epi + methanol 42° C. 10 cm >80%2 Octanol + 6 EO + Epi + n-pentanol <0° C. 10 cm >80%* Octanol + 6 EO 75° C. 590 cm >80%3 Alfol.sub.10/12 + 3.9 EO + Epi + n-butanol 19.5° C. 20 cm >80%* Alfol.sub.10/12 + 8.9 EO 89° C. 740 cm >80%4 C.sub.13/15 --oxoalcohol + 9 EO + sec-butanol 32.5° C. 40 cm >80%* C.sub.13/15 --oxoalcohol + 9 EO 68° C. 650 cm >80%5 C.sub.13/15 --oxoalcohol + 10 EO + Epi + n-butanol 23.5° C. 30 cm >80%* C.sub.13/15 --oxoalcohol + 10 EO 77° C. 700 cm >80%6 Tallow fatty alcohol + 11 EO + Epi + ethanol 63.5° C. 100 cm >80%7 Tallow fatty alcohol + 11 EO + Epi + n-pentanol 52.5° C. 110 cm >80%* Tallow fatty alcohol + 11 EO 97° C. 510 cm >80%8 Stearyl alcohol + 14 EO + Epi + methanol 82.5° C. 130 cm >80%* Stearyl alcohol + 14 EO >100° C. 500 cm >80%__________________________________________________________________________ .sup.1 In the table, the abbreviation EO is used to designate ethylene oxide and Epi is used to designate epichlorohydrin. *The asterisk designates comparative examples.
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The subject invention relates to compositions of matter having the following structural formula: ##STR1## In this formula, R 1 represents a C 8 -C 20 alkyl radical, R 2 stands for a C 1 -C 5 alkyl radical, and n is a number, 4 through 15. These compounds are low foaming and have acceptable biodegradability. They are particularly useful in the formulation of automatic dishwashing detergents.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. The Field of the Invention
The invention relates to an improvement in an actuator forming part of a mirror disc for attachment to a motor vehicle.
2. Description of Related Art
Actuators for motor vehicle mirrors have been known for a long time. As a rule, they comprise a drive housing and a carrier plate for a mirror disc. The drive housing is generally fixed to the motor vehicle. The carrier plate for the mirror disc is driven and may be pivoted relative to the drive housing. Pivoting of the carrier plate occurs by means of electric motors that are arranged in the drive housing. Because the motor vehicle mirror as a whole is supposed to occupy as little outside volume as possible, the arrangement of the drive housing and the carrier plate must be as compact as possible.
In a prior art embodiment known from U.S. Pat. No. 6,174,062, Adjustable Rear-View Mirror For A Vehicle, the carrier plate is fixed in the middle by means of a screw running through the middle of the drive housing in such a way that the carrier plate may be pivoted around two pivot axes that run perpendicular to one another. However, the inner chamber of the drive housing is separated by the screw that runs through the middle of the drive housing in such a way that it is essentially impossible to introduce additional electronic components into the drive housing.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
An object of the invention is to create an actuator for a mirror disc to be mounted on a motor vehicle in which electronic components are integrated into the actuator so as to save as much space as possible.
The object is attained by constructing the drive housing so that it is in two parts forming a drive chamber for holding electric motors and a component chamber for holding electronic components. The core of the invention lies in constructing the drive housing in two parts, with the electric drive being disposed in one part of the drive housing and the electronic components in the other part of the drive housing. Both parts of the drive housing together form the drive housing. At the same time, the drive chamber is separated from the component chamber.
Further advantageous constructions of the invention can be found in the subclaims.
Additional features and details of the invention can be found in the description of an exemplary embodiment with reference to the drawings, which show:
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a top view of an actuator with a carrier plate and a drive housing; and
FIG. 2 is an exploded view of the drive housing.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The description of the invention provided herein is a improvement over the actuator disclosed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/559,398, filed Apr. 29, 1999 now U.S. Pat. No. 6,341,536, and entitled Actuating Mechanism for Motor Vehicles. The disclosure of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/559,398 is incorporated by reference herein in its entirety as if reproduced in full. In this way, the '398 patent application provides a more detailed description of certain elements discussed herein but not needed to define the invention.
Now with reference to FIG. 1, according to the present invention, an actuator 1 for a mirror disc (not shown) to be mounted on a motor vehicle has a drive housing 2 essentially in the shape of a spherical cap, which can be mounted on the motor vehicle. A carrier plate 3 for the mirror disc may be pivoted relative to the drive housing 2 around two pivot axes 4 and 5 running perpendicular to one another. Two adjustment strips 6 and 7 made of metal run perpendicular to one another and are attached on their respective ends to edge points of the carrier plate 3 lying across from one another. The adjustment strips 6 and 7 are guided in a displaceable manner into guide tracks 8 that are open to the outside and run on meridians on the drive housing 2 . The adjustment strips 6 and 7 cross one another at an angle of 90° at the upper midpoint 9 of the drive housing 2 .
In the drive housing 2 , two electric motors (not shown) are provided with gear systems assigned to them that engage the adjustment strips 6 and 7 , which have a toothed strip in this region, through openings located in the drive housing 2 below the adjustment strips 6 and 7 . When the electric motors are activated, the adjustment strips 6 and 7 can be moved relative to the drive housing 2 and thus the carrier plate 3 can be pivoted relative to the drive housing 2 around the pivot axes 4 and 5 . The supply of electricity and the control of the electric motors occur by way of sockets 10 arranged on the drive housing 2 . As stated before, the basic construction of the actuator 1 , as well as, in particular, the bearing of the carrier plate 3 relative to the drive housing 2 is shown and discussed in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/559,398, and such showing and discussion is incorporated in full as if reproduced in full herein.
The inventive structure of the drive housing 2 will be described in greater detail with reference to FIGS. 1 and 2. The drive housing 2 in the shape of a spherical cap comprises a lower housing component 11 and an upper housing component 12 arranged thereon. The housing component 11 is essentially in the shape of a spherical segment defined by two spaced base planes, i.e., the shape of a body that results from a layer being removed from a sphere using two cuts made by planes running essentially parallel to one another. The upper housing component 12 has the form of a spherical segment, with the lower housing component 11 and the upper housing component 12 arranged thereon together forming the spherical cap-shaped drive housing 2 . On its side facing the housing component 12 , the housing component 11 has an essentially flat base 13 . On the side facing the carrier plate 3 , the housing component 11 is locked by means of a cover 14 that is interlocked with the housing component 11 by way of locking arms 15 . The housing component 11 surrounds a hollow drive chamber 16 in which the electric motors and the assigned gear systems are provided. The height U perpendicular to the surfaces spanned by the pivot axes 4 and 5 is selected in such a way that the electric motors and the gear systems have just enough space in the drive chamber 16 . Lower sections 17 of the guide tracks 8 are provided on the housing component 11 .
The upper housing component 12 has an essentially cuboid component chamber cover 18 that is open on one side in the direction of the housing component 11 and upon which the upper sections 19 of the guide tracks 8 are arranged. The sections 17 and 19 together form the guide tracks 8 . On the side of the cover 18 facing the housing component 11 , the upper housing component 12 has a round base plate 20 surrounding the cover 18 in the manner of a ring whose diameter corresponds to that of the circular base 13 and runs parallel thereto. By means of the base 13 and the cover 18 , a hollow cuboid component chamber 21 is created with a limited volume. The component chamber 21 can also have another form, for example, round or the shape of a spherical cap. In the component chamber 21 , one or more electronic components 22 are arranged and are surrounded in a protective manner on all sides. The component 22 is connected to the electric motors by way of electric lines (not shown) that run through the base 13 to the drive chamber 16 . It is possible to glue, lock, or weld the base plate 20 to the base 13 . It is also possible to create a watertight connection. However, the two housing components 11 and 12 can be held together in a particularly advantageous manner solely by the adjustment strips 6 and 7 , which are slightly prestressed in relation to the drive housing 2 .
The height O of the housing component 12 is selected in such a way that, when combined with the height U of the housing component 11 , the height H of the spherical cap-shaped drive housing 2 results. This means that the height O can be selected to be greater and thus the volume of the component chamber 21 can be selected to be greater, the smaller the height U is. In an optimal utilization of the drive chamber 16 for the electric motors and gear systems, the height U is minimized.
By creating a component chamber 21 above the drive chamber 16 , it is possible to integrate the electronic components into the drive housing 2 in a space-saving manner and such that they are protected from environmental influences, particularly moisture. By means of the electronic components 22 , it is possible for the actuator 1 to automatically perform a large number of complex functions such as, for example, an automatic basic adjustment of the mirror for various users of the motor vehicle. Moreover, it is possible to accommodate a control switch with bus receivers. It is also possible to integrate other mirror functions such as, for example, a blinker, area lighting, or a mirror-heating unit. The total size of the drive housing 2 , which is limited outwards by the adjustment strips 6 and 7 , is increased insignificantly by the creation of the component chamber 21 .
It is apparent to those skilled in the art that various modifications and variations can be made in the present invention without departing from the scope of the invention. It is intended that the present invention include such modifications and variations as come within the scope of the appended claims and their equivalents.
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Actuator for a mirror disc to be mounted on a motor vehicle with a drive housing that may be fixed relative to the motor vehicle and accepts at least one electric drive in a drive chamber and a carrier element for the mirror disc. The carrier element is mounted such that it may be pivoted relative to the drive housing around two different pivot axes and may be driven by the at least one electric drive. The drive housing is constructed in two parts, forming the aforementioned drive chamber and a component chamber for accepting electronic components. The component chamber is separated from the drive chamber.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The subject of the present invention is equipment for loading of an exchange platform or container onto a truck or trailer and for removing same from the truck or trailer and for dumping the exchange platform or container. Such equipment comprises a rear frame mounted pivotably by means of a transverse, horizontal shaft or articulated joints placed at the rear end of the frame beams of the truck or trailer, to which rear frame a middle frame of the loading equipment is pivotably mounted at one of its ends by means of a transverse, horizontal shaft or articulated joints. At one end, or in immediate proximity of one end, of the middle frame an angle piece is pivotally mounted by means of a transverse, horizontal shaft or articulated joints around the rear end of its horizontal part or parts. The vertical part of the angle piece is at its upper end provided with a grasping means, such as, e.g., a hook, for the purpose of engaging a corresponding grasping component at the front wall of the exchange platform or container. A main cylinder or two parallel main cylinders for operating the loading equipment are arranged so that their one end is fastened to the frame of the truck or trailer and the other end to the middle frame of the loading equipment. For the purpose of pivoting the angle piece independently in relation to the middle frame, a cylinder-piston device is arranged arranged between the angle piece and the middle frame.
An equipment of this type is described in the Finnish Patent Application No. 783401. The object of the present invention is to make the functions of the equipment more versatile so that, by means of the equipment, in addition to the loading and unloading and dumping of an exchange platform or container, it is also possible to raise the exchange platform or container to a distance above the frame beams, preferably as so-called level raising.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The equipment in accordance with the invention is mainly characterized in that, in order to raise the exchange platform or container to a horizontal position above the level of the transport position, the middle frame of the loading equipment is arranged so that it can be raised to a horizontal position at a distance above the frame beams of the truck or trailer. This raising takes place by means of the main cylinder or main cylinders and is guided at least by the rear frame of the loading equipment, whereby, as viewed from the side, the middle frame and the rear frame form an obtuse angle between 90° and 180° opening towards the frame beams of the truck or trailer.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
The invention comes out more closely from the following description and from the attached drawings, wherein
FIGS. 1 to 4 are schematic side views of a truck provided with a loading equipment of the hook device type at different stages of loading,
FIG. 5 is a side view of the loading equipment,
FIG. 6 shows the loading equipment as viewed from above,
FIG. 7 shows a truck provided with a loading equipment as a side view with the exchange platform in the dumped position,
FIGS. 8 to 11 are schematic side views of different stages of the level raising of the exchange platform taking place by means of the loading equipment of the hook device type,
FIG. 12 shows the arrangement of an additional cylinder-piston device for the loading equipment shown in FIGS. 8 to 11, and
FIG. 13 shows an alternative constructional embodiment for the loading equipment shown in FIGS. 8 to 11.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The loading equipment comprises three frame parts: the rear frame 3, the middle frame 4, and the angle piece 5. The rear frame 3 is at its rear part, by means of articulated joints 6, fastened to the rear end of the frame beams 1 of a truck. The rear frame 3 can pivot around the articulated joints 6 in relation to the frame beams 1, i.e. the rear frame 3 can be pivoted in relation to the frame beams 1 into the ordinary dumping position. As is shown in the figures, the rear end of the rear frame 3 is provided with support rollers 19 for supporting and guiding the exchange platform 2 during loading. The rear frame 3 also includes a locking device 18 for locking the exchange platform onto the loading equipment. A middle frame 4 is at one of its ends pivotally fastened to the rear frame 3 by means of a transverse, horizontal shaft 7 or articulated joints. Two parallel main cylinder-piston devices 13 are arranged between the middle frame 4 and the frame beams 1 of the truck.
An angle piece 5 is fastened to the front end of the middle frame 4 or to immediate proximity of the front end of the middle frame 4 and is pivotable at the rear ends of the horizontal parts 9 in relation to a transverse horizontal shaft or to articulated joints 8. The vertical part 10 of the angle piece 5 is at the upper end provided with a grasping means, such as a hook 11, for engaging the corresponding grasping component 12 at the front wall of the exchange platform 2 or container. For the purpose of pivoting the angle piece 5 independently in relation to the middle frame 4, a cylinder-piston device 14 is arranged between the angle piece 5 and the middle frame 4. The front end of the middle frame 4 extends forwards beyond the articulated joint 8 between the angle piece 5 and the middle frame 4 a distance substantially corresponding to the length of the horizontal parts 9 of the angle piece 5. The cylinder piston device 14 placed between the angle piece 5 and the middle frame 4 is at one of its ends fastened to the vertical part 10 of the angle piece 5 and at the other end to the front end of the middle frame 4 ahead of the articulated joint 8 between the angle piece 5 and the middle frame 4 so that the cylinder-piston device 14 is positioned in the intermediate space between the branches of the angle piece 5 (FIG. 6).
In FIG. 1, an exchange platform 2 is placed on the frame beams 1 of a truck in the transport position. The bottom beams of the exchange platform 2 lie, at their rear ends, on the support rollers 19 in the rear part of the rear frame 3 and, at their front ends, on the supports 20 placed on the sides of the middle frame 4. Moreover, the hook 11 of the angle piece 5 is engaged on the grasping component 12 of the exchange platform 2. The exchange platform 2 is at the bottom edges of its bottom beams, which are, e.g., I-beams, at the outer edges locked by means of a locking device 18 in relation to the rear frame 3.
When the locking means 18 are opened in the stage shown in FIG. 1, the exchange platform 2 can be shifted backwards by bending the angle piece 5 to the position shown in FIG. 2. The length of the span corresponding to the maximum length of the track of the shape of an arc of a circle of the grasping means 11 of the angle piece 5, produced by the stroke length of the cylinder-piston device 14 placed between the angle piece 5 and the middle frame 4, is substantially double as compared with the length of the horizontal part or parts 9 of the angle piece 5, and the vertical part 10 of the angle piece 5 is essentially longer than the horizontal part or parts 9 of the angle piece 5.
From the stage shown in FIG. 2, by means of the main cylinders 13, the middle frame 4 can be pivoted in relation to the horizontal shaft 7 to the position shown in FIG. 3 and further to the position shown in FIG. 4, at which the exchange platform is removed from the truck chassis down onto the ground. When the truck is driven forwards from said stage (FIG. 4), the hook 11 of the angle piece 5 is detached from the grasping component 12 of the exchange platform 2.
The pulling of an exchange platform 2 from the ground onto the chassis of a truck takes place in the order opposite to that described above. First, the grasping component 12 of the exchange platform 2 is engaged by the hook 11 (FIG. 4), the middle frame 4 is pivoted in relation to the horizontal shaft 7 (FIG. 3) by means of pulling movement of the cylinder-piston device 13 until the stage shown in FIG. 2 is reached. Hereupon the angle piece 5 is pivoted by means of the cylinder-piston device 14 so that the exchange platform 2 is pulled to the front position (FIG. 1), at which position the exchange platform 2 is locked by means of the locking device 18.
If one wishes to dump the exchange platform 2 by means of the loading equipment, in the stage of FIG. 1 or of FIG. 2 the locking device 18 is kept in the locked position and the dumping movement is performed by means of the main cylinders 13 as shown in FIG. 7. Then, consequently, the loading equipment is, at the rear frame 3, locked by the locking device 18 to the bottom beams of the exchange platform, and the three parts of the loading equipment, i.e. the angle piece 5, the middle frame 4, and the rear frame 3, as supported by the exchange platform, are pivoted in relation to the articulated joints 6.
Reference numeral 20 denotes the support pieces of the exchange platform 2, fastened to the middle frame 4.
For the purpose of performing the level raising of the exchange platform 2, front support arms 15 are fastened to the frame beams 1 of the truck by means of articulated joints. The articulated joints 16 between the front support arms 15 and the frame beams 1 are stationary. At their opposite ends the front support arms 15 are fastened to the front end of the middle frame 4 by means of articulated joints 17. The articulated joints 17 are designed to be openable so that, when the loading or unloading of an exchange platform 2 in accordance with FIGS. 1 to 4 or the dumping of an exchange platform 2 in accordance with FIG. 7 is performed by means of the loading equipment, the front support arms 15 are at their front ends detached from the middle frame 4 and lie on the frame beams 1. For the purpose of level raising of the exchange platform 2 the front ends of the front support arms 15 are fastened to the middle frame 4. The articulated joints 17 must, of course, be simply and rapidly openable and lockable and, moreover, they must have some play in the longitudinal direction of the front support arms 15 to facilitate the raising of the middle frame 4 at the initial stage of the raising. When the front support arms 15 are fastened to the middle frame 4 and the middle frame 4 is raised by means of the main cylinder-piston devices 13, the middle frame rises in the horizontal position as guided by the front support arms 15 and the rear frame 3. The front support arms 15 and the rear frame 3 are parallel to each other. When level raising of the exchange platform 2 is performed, the locking device 18 of the rear frame 3 must, of course, be in the open position. When level raising is performed, as viewed from the side, the middle frame 4 and the rear frame 3 form an obtuse angle between 90° and 180° opening towards the frame beams 1 of the truck or trailer.
After the exchange platform 2 has been raised up to the position shown in FIG. 10, the support legs 21 of the exchange platform 2 are fitted or pivoted to the support position and the exchange platform is lowered onto the legs 21.
Hereupon the truck is driven forwards and, at the same time, the angle piece 5 is pivoted as shown in FIG. 11. When the angle piece 5 is pivoted to a sufficient extent and the middle frame is additionally lowered as required, the grasping hook 11 can be detached from the grasping component 12 of the platform 2 and the truck can be driven away from underneath the platform. The loading of a platform 2 standing on its legs 21 takes place in the order opposite to that described above. For extremely heavy service, an additional cylinder-piston device 22 can be mounted to the loading equipment in accordance with FIG. 12. The additional cylinder-piston device 22 is fastened to the frame beams 1, but it is not fastened to the arm construction of the loading equipment, but the arm construction has, at the rear part of the middle frame 4 or at the front part of the rear frame 3, preferably near the articulated joint 7, a counter-point operative with the free upper end of the piston rod of the additional cylinder-piston device 22, whereby the contact face between these can be, e.g., part of a spherical face.
FIG. 13 shows a construction alternative to the embodiment shown in FIGS. 8 to 11, in which no front support arms 15 are needed at all. In this embodiment a locking means, such as a cylinder-piston device 23, is fitted between the rear frame 3 of the loading equipment and the frame beams 1 in order to lock the rear frame 3 into a certain angle in relation to the frame beams 1. In this embodiment the level raising of the exchange platform 2 can be performed by using the main cylinders 13 and the cylinder-piston device 23 simultaneously. In this embodiment it is also possible to first keep the locking device 18 of the rear frame 3 in the locked position so that the exchange platform 2 is dumped in the normal way as shown in FIG. 7. Hereupon the rear frame 3 is locked by means of the cylinder-piston device 23 to the frame beams 1 and the locking device 18 of the rear frame 3 is opened, whereupon, with the aid of the main cylinders 13, the middle frame 4 and the exchange platform 2 can be pivoted downwards in relation to the articulated joints 7 until the middle frame 4 is in the horizontal position.
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Equipment for loading an exchange platform onto a vehicle includes a rear frame pivotally mounted to the rear of the vehicle and a middle frame pivotally mounted on the rear frame. An angle piece has a horizontal portion pivotally mounted to the middle frame and a vertical portion with a grasping device at its upper end. A cylinder for operating the loading equipment is connected between the vehicle and the middle frame. In addition, a link arm and/or a second cylinder is provided between the vehicle and either the rear or middle frames to enable the exchange platform to be raised above the vehicle in a horizontal position.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a method for making prestressed concrete slabs by pretensioning that is simple and does not require a high degree of skill.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The most common technique for reinforcing concrete involves the inclusion of tendons of wire mesh or steel rods in a formed slab. Prestressed concrete has long been a popular construction material due to the reduced amount of concrete used in a slab, which significantly reduces the weight of the slab. Prestressing can be achieved by the use of two general techniques: post-tensioning and pretensioning. Pretensioning is achieved by using reinforcing tendons of high tensile strength in a pouring mold. The tendons are tensioned, and the liquid concrete is poured into the mold encasing the tendons. When the concrete is set and cured, the tension on the tendons is released. The tension of the prestressed tendons exerts a tensile force on the surrounding concrete, imparting to it a tensile strength vastly superior to that of ordinary, reinforced concrete.
Pretensioning requires the use of a strong mold to withstand the force of the tension on the tendons. Tensioning of the tendons is usually achieved by means of anchoring one end of the tendon to the mold and applying force to the other end of the tendon by means of a device such as a hydraulic jack. When optimum force is attained, the unanchored end is anchored to the mold. Such procedures generally require a great degree of care and skill in preparation and are generally practiced in factory casting.
Post-tensioning is performed after the concrete slab is set and cured. The cables or rods, treated to prevent the concrete from adhering to them, are tensioned and anchored to the outer surface of the concrete slab. Post-tensioning is a simple and inexpensive means of prestressing concrete, and may easily be carried out on site. However, it suffers from creep of the tendons, resulting in loss of tension in the tendons.
The scale and cost associated with most prestressing of concrete precludes its use by most homeowners or handimen on small scale projects. The strength available from prestressed concrete may be used on a small scale for various home and garden projects.
There exists a need, therefore, for a method of preparing prestressed concrete that does not result in a loss of tension in the tendons and that is easy to perform, on site, by people, such as the home handyman, who do not possess a high degree of skill or expensive equipment. It is also desirable that the means of attaching the slabs together can also be performed without a high degree of skill or the need for expensive equipment.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a prestressed concrete slab and a method for making such slabs. A multisided mold in which the concrete will be poored, provides a frame for prestressing of reinforcing members. A plurality of tensioning posts are provided which are positioned adjacent the frame for attachment to tensioning devices, such as bolts extending through the mold. Reinforcing members are captured by the posts and extend between adjacent posts. A central tensioning post located substantially centrally in the mold, captures reinforcing members extending from each of the tensioning posts positioned next to the mold.
Tightening of the tensioning devices in the mold places the reinforcing members under tension by drawing the tensioning posts toward the mold wall thereby increasing the distance between adjacent posts and the center post to induce tension in the captured reinforcing members.
In a specific embodiment, defining means for capturing the tensioning members, the slabs are made in a rectangular mold in which a corner post is positioned at each corner of the mold. The corner posts include a cylindrical member having a cylindrical open core. At least one slot is cut across the diameter of each end of the cylindrical member and is provided for wrapping and holding reinforcing members. At least one aperture is provided in the side of the corner posts for attaching the corner post to the mold and for tensioning the reinforcing members.
A center post is provided at the intersection of the diagonals between the corner posts. The center post comprises a cylindrical member having a cylindrical open core and at least two slots across the diameter of each end of the cylindrical member. The slots are provided for wrapping and for holding reinforcing members.
The reinforcing members are wrapped around the upper and lower ends of the corner and center posts. Once the reinforcing members are in place, a plug is inserted into the upper end and the lower end of the cylindrical core of each of the corner and center posts, to retain and secure the reinforcing member. Once in place, the reinforcing members are tensioned by screwing a bolt or similar device through the mold and into the aperture of the corner posts, forcing the corner posts into the corner of the mold.
Concrete is set and cured between the corner posts and around the center posts and the reinforcing members. After curing, the bolts are removed, and the prestressed concrete slab is released from the mold, ready for use.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a top view of a pretensioned concrete slab mold, prior to concrete pouring.
FIG. 2 is a side view of a corner post.
FIG. 3 is a side perspective of corner and center posts, with reinforcing members attached to the upper end of the posts.
FIG. 4 is a top view of assembled slabs.
FIG. 5 is a top view of a second embodiment of the mold with plural corner tensioning posts.
FIG. 6 is a view taken along line 6--6 in FIG. 5.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
A first embodiment of the invention is shown in FIG. 1. A concrete slab mold 2 includes a perimeter member which forms the outer boundary of the slab to be formed. The perimeter member rests on a pouring plate 6, which forms the bottom of the slab and provides a flat surface to contain the concrete when it is poured. Located adjacent each corner formed by the perimeter member are corner posts 8. At the intersection of the diagonals connecting the corner posts is a center post 10.
Each of the corner posts, shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, is a cylinder 12 which includes a hollow core 14 through the cylinder. Parallel slots 16 are formed across the diameter of the upper and lower ends of the cylinder. Apertures 18 are located in the side of the cylinder and are aligned with the end of the slots. The corner posts are loosely attached to the perimeter member by screwing bolts 19, or other suitable tensioning device, through the perimeter member and into the apertures in the cylinder.
Each of the center posts 10, shown in FIG. 3, is a cylinder 20 which includes a hollow core 22 through the cylinder. A first set of parallel slots 24 are formed across the diameter of the upper and lower ends of the cylinder. A second set of parallel slots 26 are formed in the upper and lower ends of the cylinder and are perpendicular to the first set of slots. The center post is located at the intersection of the diagonals drawn between the corner posts. The center post and the corner posts are equal in height to the perimeter member so that, when the concrete slab is poured, the ends of the posts will be collinear with the outer surfaces of the slab.
The center and corner posts are preferably constructed from stainless steel or other suitable material.
The corner and center posts are attached to each other by reinforcing members 28. The reinforcing members are preferably steel strap. High tension plastic or composite fibre materials are alternatively used. A strip of reinforcing member is wrapped around the outer edges of two adjacent corner pieces and threaded through the slots in the upper end of the cylinders. The ends of the reinforcing material are then brought into two slots of the center post. The reinforcing member forms a triangle with two corner posts and the center post at each corner of the triangle. Each of the corner-post and center-post slots is wrapped in a similar fashion, to form four adjacent triangles.
The ends of the reinforcing members are placed in the slots of the center post inside the hollow core. A plug 30 is forced into the hollow core to secure the ends of the reinforcing members. The plug is forced into the hollow core until it is flush with the top of the center post.
The partially-assembled mold is then turned over, the remaining slots (the lower slots) on the corner and center post are wrapped with the reinforcing members, and the reinforcing members are secured in place as described previously for the upper slots.
When the wrapping of the reinforcing members around the center and corner posts is complete, the bolts 19 are tightened. As a result, the corner posts are drawn up against the corner of the perimeter member, tensioning the reinforcing members.
Eight plugs 34 are forced into each end of each of the corner posts until the tops of the plugs are flush with the ends of the corner posts. The plugs secure the reinforcing members into the corner posts and, also, tension further the reinforcing members. The plugs each contain a hole 36 extending into the core of the plug.
The assembly mold is placed on the pouring plate, and concrete is poured into the mold until it is flush with the upper end of the corner posts.
After the concrete is set and cured, the bolts are removed and the concrete slab is separated from the perimeter member.
The prestressed concrete slab is now ready for use.
The procedure for constructing the prestressed and pretensioned concrete slabs is simple and easy and does not require a high degree of skill or expensive equipment. The simplicity of the procedure makes it feasible to form the slabs on site, saving transportation and storage costs, and also makes it feasible for the home-improvement enthusiast to make the concrete slab. This method of forming prestressed slabs is suitable for making prestressed concrete slabs up to about three feet square.
Two uses for the prestressed slabs include ground cover and fencing.
When used for ground cover, the slabs rest on poured concrete pilings. The tops of the pilings are poured to a level so that each of the pilings is on the same plane, forming a level plane on which the slabs are to be laid. Pouring the pilings is performed by using a pouring form, made level by four adjusting jacks. Concrete is poured through the hole, onto the ground, until the concrete is level with the top of the pouring form. A bolt or a bolt-securing device is placed in the center of the piling. The distance between the pilings is equal to the length of the sides of the prestressed slabs. A base plate 38, shown in FIGS. 2 and 4, is attached to the top of the pilings by a bolt or other suitable means of attachment.
The base plate comprises a flat plate with four protrusions 40 extending perpendicular to the surface of the plate. When the base plate is attached to the pilings, the protrusions extend in an upward direction from the base plate. The protrusions are spaced so that, when four slabs are aligned adjacent and corner-to-corner to each other, the protrusions align with each of the four holes 36 in the underside of the adjacent corner posts of the slabs. The slabs are attached to the base plate by slipping each of the holes in the lower end of the corner posts over each of the protrusions on four different-but-adjacent base plates attached to four adjacent pilings. Slabs are laid adjacent to each other in this fashion until the desired area is covered.
A second use for the prestressed concrete slabs is as a fencing material. A concrete footing is prepared. In the footing are placed two sets of flat anchoring plates, one set on each side of the footing. Holes are placed in the anchoring plates so that they align with the holes in the plugs inserted into the corner posts of two adjacent slabs. Bolts, or other similar attaching devices, are used to attach the slabs to the anchoring plates, bolting the first row of cement slabs to the footing. The slabs are attached to each other by using the base plates described for making a ground cover, except a plate is attached to both sides of the slab, and the base plates are attached to each other by passing a bolt, or other similar attaching device, through the base plates.
The embodiment described is for square, prestressed slabs, although the slabs could also be hexagonal or octagonal, etc. by changing the shape of the perimeter member and the slot orientation of the center post. For example, for a hexagonal slab, the slots in the center post would by spaced by 60 degrees from each other, rather than by 90 degrees for a square slab and by 45 degrees for an octagonal slab. Thus, this method of forming prestressed concrete slabs can be used for forming decorative designs, such as for patios and sidewalks.
Additionally, the upper ends of the center and corner posts could be covered in concrete, rather than being left exposed, to give a smooth upper surface.
Additional strength can be added to the slab by placing a reinforcing ring on the outside, around the ends of the center and corner posts, after the flat pieces of reinforcing materials have been inserted into the slots of the posts. When the pointed plugs are forced into the posts, the outside of the posts will tighten against the rings, holding them in place.
Also, alternate lacing patterns may be used, as desired.
The reinforcing members and the posts may also be molded as a single unit, ready for insertion into a mold.
A second embodiment of the invention is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6. The second embodiment of the invention is designed to reduce stresses in the reinforcing members created by sharp corners as the reinforcing members are restrained by the corner posts and center post. As shown in FIG. 5 the single corner posts of the first embodiment are replaced by two cylinders 50 and 52 which are restrained in opposite corners of a square tube 54. The reinforcing members 28 extend around the cylinders 50 at adjacent corners of the slab, also extending inward along the diagonals of the slab to a center constraining means. The center constraining means replaces the center post of the first embodiment with four cylinders 56, 58, 60, and 62 which are constrained in corners of a square tube 64. As shown in FIG. 5 bolts 66 extending through apertures in the square tube 54 displace the cylinders 50 and 52 into the corners of square tube 54. A threaded cap 68 is inserted through apertures in the perimeter member 2 to engage the bolts for tensioning the square tube and captured cylinders toward the corner of the perimeter member. The reinforcing members are captured in the center of the slab by the four cylinders 56 through 62 and a square pin 70 which is force fit to urge the cylinders into the corners of square tubing 64 and frictionally engage the reinforcing members wrapped about the cylinders.
Interengagement of slabs formed in the second embodiment is accomplished with base plates as defined for the first embodiment wherein the protrusions 40 extend into the outboard corners of square tubing 54.
FIG. 6 demonstrates a refinement on the second embodiment employing two bolts 66 at each corner of the slab to space and tension the corner cylinders equally for upper and lower attachment of the reinforcing members.
Having now described the invention in detail as required by the patent statutes, those skilled in the art will recognize modifications and substitutions for elements in the present disclosure for specific embodiments or applications. It should be noted that while the disclosure demonstrates a square or rectangular embodiment of the invention, other geometrical forms such as pentagon, hexagon, or octagon shapes may be employed. These enhancements and modifications are contained within the scope and intent of the invention as defined in the following claims.
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The invention relates to a prestressed concrete slab and a method for preparing the slab. The slab comprises a corner post at each of its corners. The corner post comprises a cylindrical member; means of attaching and securing reinforcing members to the corner posts; means of attaching each slab to another slab; and means of tensioning the reinforcing members. The slab further includes a center post. The center post comprises a cylindrical member and means of attaching and securing reinforcing members to the center post. Reinforcing members are attached to the corner post and the center posts to connect each to the other. Concrete is set and cured between the corner posts and around the center post and the reinforcing members to form a slab.
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RELATED APPLICATION
[0001] This is a continuation of application Ser. No. 09/008,584 filed Jan. 16, 1998 which is a continuation in part of application Ser. No. 08/850,726 filed May 2, 1997 which is a continuation in part of application Ser. No. 08/684,004 filed Jul. 19, 1996.
INTRODUCTION TO THE INVENTION
[0002] This invention relates to the installation of decorative coverings. It has been shown in the present inventor's first patent U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,658 that carpets having a looped backing can be conveniently installed on a floor by the use of complementary hooked tape. One of the primary ways disclosed in that patent is attaching the tape to the floor at the perimeter and seams (hereinafter “perimeter and seam” installation). The present inventor has also developed an anchor sheet which is described in U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/685,004 filed Jul. 19, 1996 and continuation-in-part application Ser. No. 08/850,726 filed May 2, 1997 (the specifications of which are herein incorporated by reference). Rather than attaching the carpet directly to a hooked tape attached to the floor, an intermediate thin flexible relatively rigid anchor sheet is provided which gives rigidity and integrity and mass to the overlying pieces of carpet covering. The anchor sheet can be covered in hooks. The carpet has an underlying looped backing for attachment to the hooks. The carpet can be in pieces which overlap the anchor sheet pieces to provide rigidity and strength to the total unit.
[0003] The perimeter and seam method and the anchor sheet structure and method can both be used and will both work. However in some circumstances it may be advisable to use a combination of both methods in which a form of anchor sheet provides a stable framework into which either a cushion or a covering material or both can be inserted either attached to the floor by a hook and loop attachment method or as a “free float” within the framework. In these circumstances, the anchor sheet can be a support for a covering unit attached to the anchor sheet by hook and loop as shown in the earlier related cases. Carpet within the framework can then be installed with hook and loop or in a conventional manner, i.e., without hook and loop, by glue down or even by free floating.
[0004] In some circumstances the hook tape of a perimeter and seam installation can be the “framework” within which an anchor sheet installation can be made. In this case the anchor sheet may float within the framework created by hook tape attached to a floor. Additional methods of attaching a tape framework and a tape framework construction are disclosed as well as other methods of installing an anchor sheet as a framework, including the use of a form or jig.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0005] The need for flexibility in installing floor coverings is well known. Most floor coverings must be cut and fit on site and therefore must be flexible to provide for different physical limitations. In addition subflooring and supporting substrates differ widely in both quality and type, even in new construction. In old construction existing flooring may remain and present problems.
[0006] The background to the invention is substantially shown in the present inventor's prior issued patents U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,658 (Apr. 18, 1989, Pacione); U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,692 (Mar. 9, 1993, Pacione); U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,462 (Jan. 17, 1995, Pacione); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,479,755 (Jan. 2, 1996, Pacione). In addition attempts to make structural semi-permanent flooring and wall material incorporating a hook surface is also disclosed in the present inventor's earlier anchor board system U.S. Pat. No. 5,060,443 (Oct. 29, 1991, Pacione); U.S. Pat. No. 5,259,163 (Nov. 9, 1993, Pacione); and U.S. Pat. No. 5,144,786 (Sep. 8, 1992, Pacione).
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0007] A thin rigid but flexible anchor sheet has advantages to stabilize the overlying carpet to provide a relatively rigid subfloor for installation of an overlying carpet. When a resilient backing of cushioning material is attached to or supplied under such anchor sheet, the anchor sheet provides a novel subfloor which has significant advantages over existing underpads.
[0008] We have described the anchor sheet as both “flexible” and “rigid”. It is flexible in the sense that over a reasonable length it can bend and in most circumstances can even be rolled with a radius of curvature for example of perhaps 3 or 4 inches unlike for example plywood. It is rigid in the sense that if held at one end it can support itself for instance over a distance of 12-24 inches without drooping unlike a cloth or fabric tape.
[0009] It is not commonly appreciated that an underpad, while it provides resiliency, can lead to degradation in the overlying decorative textile surface. This is because the resiliency allows for the carpet to deform when walked upon or when furniture or other items are placed on the carpet. This deformation can, if it is not properly supported from below, result in crushing and eventual deterioration of the carpet structure.
[0010] The anchor sheet of this invention has a relatively rigid yet flexible thin sheet material, preferably a plastic or of a polymer material such as a polyester, polycarbonate, polypropylene or even a graphite or other advanced polymer material overlying a resilient cushion. This structure provides a surprising amount of resiliency and cushioning to the carpet. However because the overlying anchor sheet is relatively rigid, the carpet fibres are protected from crushing and therefore the life of the carpet is significantly extended while still appearing to have a sufficient degree of resiliency.
[0011] In order to provide the proper degree of resilience in the hooks and the proper degree of rigidity to the sheet, the hooks and sheets may need to be made from, for example, different plastic materials by lamination or coextrusion.
[0012] To the inventor's knowledge no person, until disclosed in this and the earlier related applications, has had the relatively unconventional idea of covering a resilient material with a thin flexible relatively rigid sheet material.
[0013] Thus the invention comprises in, one aspect, an anchor sheet subfloor comprising a laminate having an upper layer of a relatively thin and flexible rigid sheet material and a bottom layer of a relatively resilient cushioning material.
[0014] While not as pronounced, the advantages of a relatively rigid but flexible anchor sheet to create a smooth subfloor and to tie overlying carpet pieces together into a stable mass can to some extent be achieved even without a resilient undercushioning. Thus the invention comprises in another aspect a relatively thin flexible rigid sheet material preferably of plastic or polymer which can be cut and fit on site to fit the contours of a room or other area to be covered to form by itself or in combination with other anchor sheets a free floating smooth subfloor on which can be laid decorative covering pieces.
[0015] In another aspect the invention comprises a carpet and subfloor comprising a first layer of relatively resilient cushioning material overlaying the floor. A second layer of a thin flexible rigid polymer material overlaying the first layer and hooks covering at least a portion of the top surface of the second layer and a carpet having an undersurface covered in loops and detachably attached to the hooks covering the second layer to form a coherent stable carpet structure.
[0016] In another aspect, the subfloor and structure created by the first resilient layer and the second layer of anchor sheet, can be covered across its surface by perimeter and seam hooked tape so as to allow for installation of a carpet on the subfloor in accordance with the method described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,658. In this case the subfloor is actually not attached to the floor directly but is normally “floating” but this may be sufficient, in many installations, to stabilize the carpet.
[0017] As previously described, in some circumstances, the anchor sheet can act as a framework for either a carpet or an underpad or both. Thus, in another aspect, the invention covers an anchor sheet, carpet and an underpad combination for installing a carpet or underpad onto a floor comprising an anchor sheet installed along the perimeter of an area to be covered, describing and bounding that area, hook tape attached to the sheet along the perimeter of the upper face of the anchor sheet and a resilient underpad of a height matching the height of the anchor sheet sized to fit within the area bounded by the anchor sheet. A carpet having an underside covered in loops can then be overlaid. The anchor sheet perimeter and the resilient underpad may be either free floating or installed in a conventional manner within the anchor sheet framework.
[0018] A more complex anchor sheet framework can also be formed consisting of modular covering units made as disclosed in related application Ser. No. 08/850,726. Thus in another aspect the invention comprises a modular framework for carpet installation comprising a plurality of covering modules having decorative coverings attached to a thin flexible rigid anchor sheet so as to leave exposed overlapping areas of anchor sheet or covering for detachable attachment and interlocking relationship to an adjoining module as disclosed in related application Ser. No. 08/850,726. In this aspect of the invention, the modules are then detachably interlocked to define and enclose an area. Carpet or underpad or carpet and underpad depending upon the height of the framework created, is then cut and fit within the area defined by the covering modules.
[0019] As previously mentioned, an anchor sheet subfloor can also be installed within a perimeter bounded by hooked tape, in effect creating a hooked tape framework. In this aspect of the invention, a perimeter of hooked tape is attached to the floor. The tape may be of a form disclosed in, for instance, U.S. Pat. No. 5,382,462 or having a tape with a cushioned backing or a tape with a foundation sheet as disclosed in the present application.
[0020] In this aspect of the invention, a thin rigid flexible anchor sheet having an upper surface having a plurality of hooks in which the anchor sheet or anchor sheet and cushion is substantially the same height as the tape can then be cut and fit within the area bounded by the hooked tape to provide for a surface underlayment over which a carpet or other decorative covering having a looped backing can be installed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0021] Embodiments of the invention will now be described, reference being had to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
[0022] [0022]FIG. 1 shows covering modules and a jig for installation.
[0023] [0023]FIG. 2 shows the covering modules and jig in the process of installation to a floor.
[0024] [0024]FIG. 3 shows the next step in installation of the covering module and jig.
[0025] [0025]FIG. 4 shows the finished covering module framework.
[0026] [0026]FIG. 5 shows the covering module framework at the commencement of the installation of an inserted cushion or carpet.
[0027] [0027]FIG. 6 shows the completed covering.
[0028] [0028]FIG. 7 shows the anchor sheet perimeter arrangement.
[0029] [0029]FIG. 7A shows another form of anchor sheet perimeter arrangement similar to that shown in FIG. 7.
[0030] [0030]FIG. 8 shows another form of anchor sheet perimeter arrangement in which the anchor sheet carries a decorative covering which contains a border pattern.
[0031] [0031]FIG. 8A shows a completed anchor sheet perimeter arrangement.
[0032] [0032]FIG. 9 shows a form of anchor sheet upon which is installed a perimeter and seam hook and loop tape arrangement.
[0033] [0033]FIG. 10 shows a form of tape suitable for use in a perimeter arrangement.
[0034] [0034]FIG. 11 shows a cross-section of a perimeter arrangement having a hooked tape bounding an area of anchor sheet and an overlying decorative covering.
[0035] [0035]FIG. 12 shows an arrangement of anchor sheet providing a border.
[0036] [0036]FIG. 13 shows another border arrangement with anchor sheet and cushion.
DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0037] In FIG. 1 is shown a variety of covering modules 2 and 4 . These are similar to the type of covering modules disclosed in related case Ser. No. 08/850,726. In the case of covering module 2 there is an anchor sheet 6 larger than the decorative covering piece 8 . In the case of covering module 4 there is a decorative covering piece 10 which overlaps the anchor sheet 12 .
[0038] Normally the anchor sheet areas would be substantially covered in hooks 14 as shown in only representative detail. The overlapping pieces 10 will have on their undersurface loops (not shown) for attachment to the exposed hooks 14 of anchor sheet, for instance, 6 .
[0039] A jig or pattern 16 is also shown in FIG. 1. Its use will become apparent.
[0040] The jig at 16 has corners for instance 18 and 19 which serve to locate the corresponding corners of decorative covering piece 8 at each of the four corners of the jig. Thus the covering modules are separated and appropriately spaced in the desired location. Covering module 4 can then be inserted along the sides of the jig abutting the jig as shown. Loops on the undersurface of covering piece 10 (not shown) will enable the covering piece to be installed in detachable attachment in a manner shown in related case Ser. No. 08/850,726 preferably by the use of a smooth slip cover as disclosed in related U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/850,726. The slip cover can be a hard smooth piece temporarily inserted. It can then be removed when the pieces are in position and the covering modules will form a framework as shown in FIG. 3, in which pieces 4 and pieces 2 have combined to create a structure. Jig 16 is then removed as shown in FIG. 4 so that the anchor sheet framework now lies upon and circumscribes an area of floor 21 and also an area of hooked anchor sheet 20 which is at a different level than the surface of decorative covering 22 .
[0041] As shown in FIG. 5 a decorative covering unit 24 can be inserted into the framework 26 . The unit may be carpet having a looped backing (not shown) in which case the carpet would be detachably attached to hooks 28 in the area shown. Normally the complete area would be covered in hooks but only representative samples are shown.
[0042] If desired the floor area 21 could be made level with the hooked area 28 by the use of an anchor sheet of suitable thickness, also covered with hooks or smooth, or by the installation of a pad. The area of floor 21 could be left empty because of the low profile of the hooked area 20 .
[0043] [0043]FIG. 6 shows the unfinished subunit which is ready to be attached by hooks 30 to other adjoining anchor sheet units or covering modules.
[0044] In FIG. 7 is shown another form of anchor sheet perimeter installation in which an anchor sheet 32 is formed having a thin rigid flexible covering 34 preferably formed of a plastic or polymer material as described in related application Ser. No. 08/850,726 preferably of a polypropylene, polycarbonate or polyester material and laminated and bonded thereto is a resilient cushion 36 of polyurethane foam or other similar carpet underpad material. Similar anchor sheet units 32 A and 32 B are placed on the floor in abutting relation and the units may be joined together by a pressure sensitive adhesive hooked tape 38 overlying the seams of the anchor sheets or by plain single-sided pressure sensitive tape. Additional hooked tape 40 is added to the perimeter of the anchor sheet installation to provide for a regular perimeter and seam installation as shown in U.S. Pat. No. 4,822,658. It would be convenient if the tape covering joins 41 line up with carpet seams but if they do not, additional tape can be installed on the anchor sheet 32 to provide for at least seam coverage.
[0045] Of course if plain tape is used, then hooked tape will normally have to be installed at the carpet seams. Such tape is normally covered prior to installation. Full coverage could also be provided either by adding more hooked tape or by providing anchor sheet 32 with a flexible sheet pre-manufactured with a complete hook covering.
[0046] In FIG. 7A is shown an additional similar form of arrangement which combines a hooked tape 42 to be described later at the perimeter of the room, an underpad or anchor sheet with underpad 44 , an additional anchor sheet with underpad 46 , conventional underpads 48 and 50 and anchor sheets 52 and 54 with resilient cushioning and then tape 56 . Thus a complete resilient underlayment is created which is partly a framework made by tape 42 and anchor sheets 44 , 46 , 52 and 54 within which are contained conventional underpads 48 and 50 . A carpet can then be installed over top of this by perimeter and seam tape using tape 42 and 56 at the perimeter and tape 53 at the seams or by the use of an additional anchor sheet (not shown) to provide for decorative surface covering pieces. As shown in FIG. 8 an additional foundation sheet 58 of a similar material to the anchor sheet can have pre-attached permanently or detachably an anchor sheet 60 having a resilient undercushion 62 . The anchor sheet 60 could be one as shown in related application Ser. No. 08/850,726 having its upper surface substantially covered in hooks 64 . Decorative cover pieces, in this case carpet units 65 , can then be installed in any pattern over the anchor sheet. In the example given in FIG. 8 they are installed in a border pattern. When fully assembled as shown in FIG. 8A such a unit can create a framework within which carpet can be installed in a conventional way, or using hook and loop or perimeter and seam or in a small enough area free floated within the area bounded by the decorative border 66 as shown in FIG. 8A.
[0047] [0047]FIG. 9 shows an arrangement similar to FIG. 7 in which there is an anchor sheet and resilient cushion framework 68 on either side of conventional carpet pads 70 . The conventional carpet pads may be free floating or attached to the floor in a conventional manner. Normally if the anchor sheets 68 are on the perimeter of the room and abut, for instance, wall 71 on one side and wall 72 on the other side, the whole structure can be “free floating” in the sense that it is not attached to the floor. Hook tape 74 can be installed at the perimeter. Suspended tape 76 at the seams provides a form of perimeter and seam installation over top of a conventional cushion or a partial anchor sheet and conventional cushion. The carpet or other decorative surface covering has loops on its undersurface at 80 (not shown) for detachable attachment to hooks 81 on tape pieces 74 and 76 .
[0048] [0048]FIG. 10 shows a form of hook tape that can be used to create a perimeter for the installation of a conventional underpad 87 . This tape has a foundation layer 82 to which is attached the tape 84 having a resilient cushion layer 86 . The tape is hook tape and contains across its surface resilient hooks 88 . It normally would be supplied with a tape covering 90 . The foundation sheet 82 allows for a lip or area so that the hook tape may be stapled or nailed through the sheet 82 or through tape 84 to the floor or it can be installed using double-sided adhesive tape 92 or by hook and loop or by a conventional method.
[0049] Another form of tape 94 is also shown having foundation sheets 96 and 98 on both sides of the tape. The tape could be stapled to a floor and within the framework bounded by the tape could be inserted an appropriate underpad which could either be installed in a conventional manner or free floating between the tape and an overlying anchor sheet or an anchor sheet having hooked covering (not shown) could also be installed within the area bounded by the tape.
[0050] In FIG. 11 is shown a cross-section of hooked tape 100 having cushion 102 attached to the floor.
[0051] If the tape is as shown in FIG. 10 it could have foundation sheet 82 for installation. Anchor sheet 104 with (as shown) or without an attached resilient cushion can then be inserted within the area bounded by hooked tape 100 and a decorative covering 106 having an undersurface covered in loops 107 could be installed across the area created by the hooked tape and anchor sheet.
[0052] [0052]FIG. 12 shows an arrangement in which an anchor sheet 108 is provided with hooks at least over the exposed area 110 shown and also under carpet pieces 112 and border pieces 114 , 116 and 118 . Border pieces 114 , 116 and 118 may be detachably attached to anchor sheet 108 in a pattern and anchor sheet 108 with such pieces could be sold as a preassembled unit. Such piece could be attached to a floor by pressure sensitive adhesive, with hook and loop or by nailing through sheet 108 . Carpet 112 having a loop backing and a pile surface 120 could then be installed and attached to hooks on anchor sheet 110 .
[0053] [0053]FIG. 13 shows another arrangement, in which anchor sheet 122 , has a resilient cushion 124 and a carpet covering piece 126 detachably attached to the anchor sheet. A conventional cushion 128 can abut the anchor sheet and cushion and a carpet 130 having a loop backing 132 can be installed over the anchor sheet 122 and cushion 128 .
[0054] It will be recognized that within the description of this present case and the related earlier pending cases many variations and permutations and combinations are possible of anchor sheet and tape with or without cushion and with or without installation directly to the floor all of which come within the spirit of the described invention as defined in the attached claims.
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An anchor sheet subfloor that includes a laminate having an upper layer of relatively thin flexible rigid sheet material and a bottom layer of a relatively resilient cushioning material. The upper sheet layer can be formed of a plastic or polymer material. In one arrangement, the sheet can be cut and fit within the boundaries of a room and the sheet has sufficient rigidity and mass to remain without distortion or buckling within the room by free floating on the existing floor without substantial attachment to the floor. It can be possible for a sheet to be cut and fit on site to fit the contours of a room to form by itself or in combination with other anchor sheets a free floating smooth subfloor on which can be overlaid decorative covering pieces.
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TECHNICAL FIELD
[0001] The present invention relates to a temperature responsive autonomous valve arrangement and method. The valve may for example be used for achieving constant mass flow of hydrocarbons into a production line in a wellbore.
BACKGROUND ART
[0002] Devices for recovering of oil and gas from long, horizontal and vertical wells are known from U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,821,801, 4,858,691, 4,577,691 and GB patent publication No. 2169018. These known devices comprise a perforated drainage pipe with, for example, a filter for control of sand around the pipe. A considerable disadvantage with the known devices for oil/and or gas production in highly permeable geological formations is that the pressure in the drainage pipe increases exponentially in the upstream direction as a result of the flow friction in the pipe. Because the differential pressure between the reservoir and the drainage pipe will decrease upstream as a result, the quantity of oil and/or gas flowing from the reservoir into the drainage pipe will decrease correspondingly. The total oil and/or gas produced by this means will therefore be low. With thin oil zones and highly permeable geological formations, there is further a high risk that of coning, i. e. flow of unwanted water or gas into the drainage pipe downstream, where the velocity of the oil flow from the reservoir to the pipe is the greatest.
[0003] When extracting oil from reservoirs by injection of steam or using combustion, the differential pressure can vary along the drainage pipe. This may cause problems should injected steam or combustion gas reach the valves used for draining fluid from the reservoir into the production pipe, as many such valves are not able to close to prevent steam or combustion gas from entering the production pipe. In particular, if the differential pressure is relatively low, ingress of steam or combustion gas can lead to a “short circuit” of the injection pressure and the production pressure. This will cause the differential pressure to drop even further, which has a negative effect on the efficiency of the drainage process (injected energy vs. produced oil volume).
[0004] A further result of areas with low pressure differential combined with high temperature, or hot spots, is that fluid with low viscosity from high temperature regions of the reservoir will dominate the inflow into the production pipe. In this way, the production pipe will have an undesirable inflow profile along its length.
[0005] From World Oil, vol. 212, N. 11 (November 1991), pages 73-80, is previously known to divide a drainage pipe into sections with one or more inflow restriction devices such as sliding sleeves or throttling devices. However, this reference is mainly dealing with the use of inflow control to limit the inflow rate for up hole zones and thereby avoid or reduce coning of water and or gas.
[0006] WO-A-9208875 describes a horizontal production pipe comprising a plurality of production sections connected by mixing chambers having a larger internal diameter than the production sections. The production sections comprise an external slotted liner which can be considered as performing a filtering action. However, the sequence of sections of different diameter creates flow turbulence and prevents the running of work-over tools operated along the outer surface of the production pipe.
[0007] Devices as disclosed in WO2009/088292 and WO 2008/004875 are robust, can withstand large forces and high temperatures, can prevent draw downs (variations in differential pressure), need no energy supply, can withstand sand production, yet are reliable, simple and very cheap. However, several improvements might nevertheless be made to increase the performance and longevity of the above device in which many of the different embodiments of WO2009/088292 and WO 2008/004875 describe a disc as the movable body of the valve.
[0008] When extracting oil and or gas from geological production formations, fluids of different qualities, i.e. oil, gas, water (and sand) is produced in different amounts and mixtures depending on the property or quality of the formation. None of the above-mentioned, known devices are able to distinguish between and control the inflow of oil, gas or water on the basis of their relative composition and/or quality. In particular, the known devices are not able to perform a satisfactory control of variations in inflow into the production pipe due to variations of differential pressure caused by temperature variations. WO 2008/004875 does disclose a temperature responsive valve, but the suggested solution involves bending the movable valve body by means of a bi-metallic element. The suggested solution is relatively complex and requires an expensive valve body that is susceptible to wear caused by repetitive deformation. WO 2005/103443 discloses a temperature responsive valve where the material of a valve body has a linear expansion coefficient that is greater than that of the well pipe material. When the temperature increases, the valve body expands more than the well pipe and moves in the direction of its closed position covering the opening. This solution will give a relatively long response time, causing large quantities of gas and/or hot liquid to enter the drainage pipe to disturb the flow through the drainage pipe.
[0009] The present invention provides an improved valve arrangement which aims to minimize problems relating to variations in inflow into the production pipe due to temperature variations.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0010] The invention provides a self-adjustable valve and method as set out in the accompanying claims.
[0011] The present invention is preferably provided an inflow control device, or valve, which is self adjusting or autonomous. The invention can also be adapted to other types of controllable valves suitable for this purpose. A common feature for the valves according to the invention is the ability to automatically close the valve and prevent inflow into a production pipe in response to an increase in temperature of the fluid surrounding and/or entering the valve arrangement. The inflow control devices can easily be fitted in the wall of a production pipe and allows the use of work-over tools. The device is designed to “distinguish” between the oil and/or gas and/or water and is able to control the flow or inflow of oil or gas, depending on which of these fluids such flow control is required.
[0012] According to a preferred embodiment, the invention relates to a self-adjustable valve or flow control device controlling the flow of a fluid from one space or area to another by exploiting the Bernoulli principle, in order to control the flow of fluid, i.e. oil and/or gas including any water, from a reservoir and into a production pipe of a well in the oil and/or gas reservoir. The production pipe can comprise a lower drainage pipe preferably being divided into one or more sections each including one or more inflow control devices which allow fluid communication between the geological production formation and the interior flow space of the drainage pipe. Fluid can flow between an inlet port on an inlet side, facing the formation, to an outlet port on an outlet side of the device, facing the interior of the production pipe. The valve further comprises a movable valve body arranged to be acted on by a temperature responsive device. The valve body is arranged to be actuated towards its closed position by the temperature responsive device in response to a predetermined increase in temperature in the fluid surrounding and/or entering the valve.
[0013] The temperature responsive device may comprise a sealed expandable means at least partially filled with a material that is arranged to undergo a significant expansion when the temperature in the fluid surrounding the device increases. Preferably, the expansion should be sufficient to substantially or fully close the valve when the temperature in the fluid surrounding the temperature responsive device increases above a predetermined value. Such an expansion can, for instance, be achieved by selecting a material that undergoes a phase change at a predetermined temperature. An example of such a phase change is a liquid which will boil at or above a predetermined temperature. The fluid material is selected dependent on where the production pipe is located. For instance, a production pipe located at a depth of 300 metres can be subjected to pressures of 25-30 bar and temperatures of 250-290° C. during normal production conditions. In order to prevent a sudden influx of steam having a higher temperature through the valve, the expandable means can be filled with an alcohol-water mixture that boils at e.g. 280° C. During an undesirable increase of temperature in the fluid flowing through the valve, the expandable means is arranged to expand and cause a displacement of the movable valve body towards its closed position when the temperature of the fluid exceeds said predetermined temperature. In this way, the valve can be closed to prevent boiling or flashing water from entering the production pipe. Flashing or boiling can occur when the differential pressure across the inflow control device is relatively low. If boiling or flashing water is allowed to enter the production pipe, then this causes a “short circuit” of the injection pressure and the production pressure and causes the differential pressure to drop further. This has a negative effect on the efficiency of the drainage process, as outlined above. Other undesirable fluids that can be prevented from entering the production pipe are hot production gases or combustion gases used for increasing the production rate.
[0014] In order to control the opening and closing of the valve with varying temperatures, the expandable means may be arranged in contact with the fluid surrounding the production pipe or flowing through the valve.
[0015] According to a first example, the expandable means is arranged in a fluid chamber in the valve, which chamber contains the movable valve body controlling the fluid flow through the valve. This example will typically be used for autonomous valves comprising a chamber containing a movable valve body in the form of a flat circular disc or a conical body with a flat base. The position of the movable valve body is normally controlled by an inflow of fluid from an inlet located facing the centre of the movable valve body and flowing radially outwards over at least a portion of the movable valve body and towards an outlet. An example of such a movable valve body or disc is shown in WO 2008/004875 A1 and will be described in further detail below. In this example, the expandable means is located on the opposite side of the disc relative to the fluid inlet. The expandable means can be attached to a portion of the fluid chamber and expandable into contact with the movable valve body. Alternatively, the expandable means can be attached to the movable valve body and expandable into contact with fluid chamber.
[0016] When an undesirable increase of temperature in the fluid flowing through the valve occurs, heat is transferred by the hot fluid to the expandable means, partially through the movable valve body and partially around the outer edges thereof to the space between the chamber and the movable valve body where the expandable means is located. If the expandable means contains a fluid, the said fluid will undergo a phase change and begin to boil when the fluid flowing through the valve exceeds a predetermined temperature. This causes the expandable means to expand due to the increase in pressure and volume inside said expandable means. As the expandable means expands it will displace the movable valve body towards its closed position and, if the temperature increase is sufficient, eventually close the valve.
[0017] According to a second example, the expandable means is arranged in a fluid conduit in series with the fluid flow through a valve. In this example, the expandable means is located in a conduit through which the entire or a part of the fluid flow passes, before passing through the valve to be controlled. The expandable means is directly or indirectly connected to a movable valve body or to an actuator controlling said valve, in order to act on said valve body to close the valve. As the expandable means expands it will urge the movable valve body towards its closed position and, if the temperature increase is sufficient, eventually close the valve.
[0018] According to a third example, the expandable means is arranged in a fluid conduit in parallel with the main fluid flow through a valve. In this example, the expandable means is located in a conduit through which a part of the fluid flow passes, which partial flow bypasses the valve to be controlled. The expandable means is directly or indirectly connected to a movable valve body or to an actuator controlling said valve, in order to act on said valve body to close the valve. As the expandable means expands it will urge the movable valve body towards its closed position and, if the temperature increase is sufficient, eventually close the valve.
[0019] According to one embodiment, the expandable means contains a fluid having a lower boiling point than a hot fluid, such as water, at the pressure in the reservoir surrounding the production pipe. As indicated above, the said fluid will undergo a phase change and begin to boil when the hot fluid from the formation flows through the valve inlet and past the expandable means exceeds a predetermined temperature. The increase in gas pressure inside the expandable means, caused by the evaporating fluid, will in turn cause an increase in volume of expandable means. This will result in a displacement of a movable valve body in contact with or acted directly or indirectly on by the expandable means. The fluid can comprise a suitable alcohol, an alcohol/water mixture or acetone. The fluid is selected depending on its boiling point at a predetermined pressure, which pressure is dependent on the pressure acting on the production pipe at the location of the valve, or inflow device. The properties of the material selected determines the rate at which the valve can be closed. In this way. the use and the desired reaction speed of the autonomous valve may determine which material used.
[0020] The expandable means can be a sealed container at least partially filled with a fluid material. The container can have a predetermined general shape with at least a portion being resiliently deformable, or be in the form of a bag with a non-specified shape, which container is arranged to expand in a predetermined direction with increasing temperatures. The container can have a predetermined basic shape, such as a cylinder, with corrugated or undulating sides extending around its circumference to allow expansion in a predetermined direction. In the case of a valve with a movable valve body in the form of a disc located in a chamber, the end surfaces of the cylinder may be arranged to contact the movable valve body and the chamber, respectively. The cylinder can then be operated as a bellows arranged to expand in a predetermined direction.
[0021] Alternatively the expandable means can be a sealed flexible or resilient container such as a bag. Such a resilient container can have a substantially shapeless form, arranged to expand in all directions. When heated above said predetermined temperature, the container is arranged to expand uniformly until constricted between a fixed surface and a component to be displaced. In the case of a valve with a movable valve body in the form of a disc located in a chamber, the container will be constricted by a chamber wall and the disc. Further expansion of the container causes displacement of disc. A flexible or resilient container of this type can also have at least one reinforced portion to facilitate attachment of the container. A further reinforced portion can be provided to ensure contact between the expanding portion of the container and the movable valve body or actuator to be displaced.
[0022] As indicated above, the container making up the expandable means can be attached to a portion of the fluid chamber and expandable into contact with a movable valve body. Alternatively, the expandable means can be attached to the movable valve body and expandable into contact with a wall in the fluid chamber. These alternatives are preferable for containers having a basic shape, with a predetermined direction of expansion. According to a further alternative, the expandable means can be held in a desired position by locating means on the movable valve body or the chamber wall, without being physically attached to either component. This alternative is preferable for containers having a substantially shapeless form, which can expand uniformly in all directions.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0023] Embodiments of the invention will now be described in detail, by way of example only, with reference to the attached figures. It is to be understood that the drawings are designed solely for the purpose of illustration and are not intended as a definition of the limits of the invention. It should be further understood that the drawings are not necessarily drawn to scale and that, unless otherwise indicated, they are merely intended to schematically illustrate the structures and procedures described herein.
[0024] FIG. 1 shows an autonomous valve arrangement provided with a flow control device according to the invention;
[0025] FIG. 2A shows a cross-section through a first valve arrangement;
[0026] FIG. 2B shows a cross-section through a second valve arrangement;
[0027] FIG. 3A shows a valve arrangement as shown in FIG. 2A provided with a heat expandable means according to a first embodiment of the invention;
[0028] FIG. 3B shows a valve arrangement as shown in FIG. 2B provided with a heat expandable means according to a second embodiment of the invention;
[0029] FIG. 4 shows a valve arrangement provided with a heat expandable means according to a third embodiment of the invention; and
[0030] FIG. 5 shows a valve arrangement provided with a heat expandable means according to a fourth embodiment of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0031] FIG. 1 shows a production pipe 11 provided with an opening in which an autonomous valve arrangement 12 according to the invention. The valve arrangement 12 is particularly useful for controlling the flow of fluid from a subterranean reservoir and into a production pipe 11 of a well in the oil and/or gas reservoir, between an inlet port 13 on an inlet side to at least one outlet port (not shown) on an outlet side of the autonomous valve arrangement 12 . The component part making up the entire autonomous valve arrangement is subsequently referred to as a “valve arrangement”, while the active components required for controlling the flow are commonly referred to as a “flow control device”. The inlet side of the autonomous valve arrangement 12 is located in the opening on the outer side 14 of the production pipe 11 , while the outlet side is located on the inner side 15 of the production pipe 11 . In the subsequent text, terms such as “inner” and “outer” are used for defining positions relative to the inner and outer surface of the valve arrangement when mounted in a pipe 11 (see FIG. 1 ). A valve suitable for use in the embodiments referred to in this first example can be of the type described in the published application WO 2008/004875 or in the filed international application PCT//EP2011/050471.
[0032] FIG. 2A shows a cross-section through a valve arrangement 12 a as described in WO 2008/004875. The device consists of first disc-shaped housing body 21 with an outer cylindrical segment 22 and inner cylindrical segment 23 and with a central hole or inlet port 13 a and a second disc-shaped holder body 24 with an outer cylindrical segment 25 , as well as a preferably flat disc or freely movable valve body 26 provided in an open recess or chamber 27 formed between the first 21 and second 24 disc-shaped housing and holder bodies. The valve body 26 may for particular applications and adjustments depart from the flat shape and have a partly conical or semicircular surface facing the inlet port 13 a. As can be seen from the figure, the cylindrical segment 25 of the second disc-shaped holder body 24 fits within and extends in the opposite direction of the outer cylindrical segment 22 of the first disc-shaped housing body 21 thereby forming a flow path as shown by the arrows A, where the fluid enters the control device through the central hole or inlet port 13 a and flows towards and radially along the disc 26 before flowing through an annular opening 28 formed between the cylindrical segments 23 and 25 and further out through the annular opening, or outlet port 29 formed between the cylindrical segments 22 and 25 . In FIG. 2A the right hand side of the outlet port 29 appears to be blocked off, but this is only because the cross-section is taken at a position where there is a solid supporting portion (which is one of three such supporting portions) between the cylindrical segments 22 and 25 . Therefore the outlet port 29 is not blocked, and is indeed annular. In a later version of this valve there are no such supporting portions, and the outlet port 29 is open all the way around. The two disc-shaped housing and holder bodies 21 , 24 are attached to one another by a screw connection, welding or other means (not shown in the figure). The entire valve assembly is removably mounted in an opening through a production pipe by means of a threaded connection indicated in FIG. 2A .
[0033] In operation, the inlet port 13 a is connected to the recess 27 by a central aperture or opening, wherein the fluid is arranged to flow into the recess 27 through the central aperture from the formation. The fluid is then arranged to flow out of the recess 27 radially across a portion of a first surface 26 a of the valve body, said first surface facing the inlet port 13 a, and through an annular opening 28 in said valve body towards an annular outlet port 29 .
[0034] The present invention exploits the effect of Bernoulli teaching that the sum of static pressure, dynamic pressure and friction is constant along a flow line:
[0000]
∑
p
=
p
static
+
1
2
ρ
v
2
+
Δ
p
friciton
(
1
)
[0035] With reference to the valve shown in FIG. 2A , when subjecting the movable valve body or disc 26 to a fluid flow, which is the case with the present invention, the pressure difference over the disc 26 can be expressed as follows:
[0000]
Δ
p
under
=
[
p
under
(
f
(
p
4
)
)
-
p
over
(
f
(
p
1
,
p
2
,
p
3
)
)
]
=
1
2
ρ
v
2
(
2
)
[0036] Due to lower viscosity, a fluid such as gas will flow faster along the disc towards the outlet. This results in a reduction of the pressure on the area A2 above the disc while the pressure acting on the area A3 below the disc 28 remains static. As the disc 26 is freely movable within the recess it will move upwards and thereby narrow the flow path between the disc 26 and the first surface 26 a of the recess 26 . Thus, the disc 26 moves downwards or upwards depending on the viscosity of the fluid flowing through, whereby this principle can be used to control the flow of fluid through of the device.
[0037] Further, the pressure drop through a traditional inflow control device (ICD) with fixed geometry will be proportional to the dynamic pressure:
[0000]
Δ
p
=
K
1
2
ρ
v
2
(
3
)
[0038] where the constant, K is mainly a function of the geometry and less dependent on the Reynolds number. In the control device according to the present invention the flow area will decrease when the differential pressure increases, such that the volume flow through the control device will not, or nearly not, increase when the pressure drop increases. Hence, the flow-through volume for the present invention is substantially constant above a given differential pressure. This represents a major advantage with the present invention as it can be used to ensure a substantially constant volume flowing through each section for the entire horizontal well, which is not possible with fixed inflow control devices.
[0039] When producing oil and gas the flow control device according to the invention may have two different applications: Using it as inflow control device to reduce inflow of water or gas, or to maintain a constant flow through the flow control device. When designing the control device according to the invention for the different applications, such as constant fluid flow, the different areas and pressure zones will have impact on the efficiency and flow through properties of the device. The different area/pressure zones (indicated in FIG. 2A ) may be divided into:
A1, P1 is the inflow area and pressure respectively. The force (P1*A1) generated in the inlet port 13 a by this pressure will strive to open the control device (move the disc or body 28 downwards). A2, P2 is the area and pressure in the zone between the first surface 26 a of the disc and the recess 27 , where the velocity will be largest and hence represents a dynamic pressure source. This area is located between the inlet port 13 a and the annular opening 28 out of the recess 27 . The resulting dynamic pressure will strive to close the control device by moving the disc or body 26 upwards as the flow velocity increases and the pressure is reduced. A3, P3 is the area and pressure at the annular opening 28 out of the recess 27 . The pressure should be the same as the well pressure (inlet pressure). A4, P4 is the area and pressure behind the movable disc or body 26 , between a second surface 26 b (opposite the first surface 26 a ) of the disc 26 and the recess 27 . The pressure behind the movable disc or body should be the same as the well pressure (inlet pressure). This will strive to move the body upwards, towards the closed position of the control device as the flow velocity increases.
[0044] Fluids with different viscosities will provide different forces in each zone depending on the design of these zones, in order to optimize the efficiency and flow through properties of the control device, the design of the areas will be different for different applications, e.g. constant volume flow, or gas/oil or oil/water flow. Hence, for each application the areas needs to be carefully balanced and optimally designed taking into account the properties and physical conditions (viscosity, temperature, pressure etc.) for each design situation.
[0045] FIG. 2B shows a cross-section through a valve arrangement 12 a as described in PCT//EP2011/050471. The device consists of first disc-shaped housing body 31 with a central hole or inlet port 13 b and a second disc-shaped holder body 34 , as well as a preferably flat disc or freely movable valve body 36 provided in an open recess or chamber 37 formed between the first disc-shaped housing 31 and second holder body 34 . The valve body 36 may for particular applications and adjustments depart from the flat shape and have a partly conical or semicircular surface facing the inlet port 13 b. A flow path through the valve arrangement is shown by the arrows A, where the fluid enters the control device through the central hole or inlet port 13 b and flows towards and radially over the outer periphery of the disc 26 before flowing through radial openings 39 formed in the second holder body 34 . The entire valve assembly is removably mounted in an opening through a production pipe by means of a threaded connection indicated in FIG. 2B .
[0046] In operation, the inlet port 13 b is connected to the recess by a central aperture or opening, wherein the fluid is arranged to flow into the recess 37 through the central aperture from the formation. The fluid is then arranged to flow out of the recess radially across a first surface 26 a of the valve body, said first surface facing the central aperture, and past the outer peripheral surface of said valve body towards at least one outlet port 39 , which can be radially ( FIG. 2B ) or axially oriented in the valve arrangement.
[0047] The valve arrangement in FIG. 2B exploits the Bernoulli effect, in the same way as the valve in FIG. 2A , teaching that the sum of static pressure, dynamic pressure and friction is constant along a flow line. The main difference between these valves is that the calculations for determining the pressure difference across the disc does not include the area A3 ( FIG. 2A ), as the outlet is located outside the periphery of the disc. Also, the valve arrangement shown in FIG. 2B does not use the static pressure on the area A4, below the disc, as the fluid leaves the chamber 37 radially outside the disc 26 .
[0048] FIGS. 2A and 2B illustrate the normal function of an autonomous valve of this type. The operation of such a valve arrangement provided with a heat expandable means according to the invention is described in connection with FIGS. 3A and 3B .
[0049] FIG. 3A shows a valve arrangement as shown in FIG. 2A provided with a heat expandable means according to a first embodiment of the invention. For corresponding parts of the valve, the same reference numbers are used. According to this example, an expandable means in the form of a bellows 20 is arranged in a fluid chamber 27 in the valve, which chamber contains a movable valve body in the form of a disc 26 controlling the fluid flow through the valve. The position of the disc 26 is normally controlled by an inflow of fluid from an inlet port 13 a located facing the centre of the disc 26 and flowing radially outwards over at least a portion of the disc 26 and towards an outlet port 29 . In this example, the bellows 20 is located on the opposite side of the disc 26 relative to the fluid inlet port 13 a. The bellows 20 comprises a first and a second substantially flat end surface 20 a and 20 b, which are connected by a corrugated section 20 c. The sealed, expandable bellows 20 is at least partially filled with a fluid material that is arranged to undergo a phase change at a predetermined temperature. In this case the first end surface 20 a of the bellows 20 is attached to a wall section of the fluid chamber 27 and is expandable into contact with the disc 26 . Alternatively, the expandable means can be attached to the disc and expandable into contact with a wall section of the fluid chamber.
[0050] When an undesirable increase of temperature in the fluid flowing through the valve occurs, heat is transferred by the hot fluid to the bellows 20 , partially through the disc 26 and partially around the outer edges thereof to the space between the chamber 27 and the disc 26 where the expandable means is located. If the expandable means contains a liquid, said liquid will begin to boil when the fluid flowing through the valve exceeds a predetermined temperature. This causes the bellows 20 to expand due to the increase in pressure and volume inside said bellows 20 . As the bellows 20 expands it will displace the disc 26 towards its closed position and, if the temperature increase is sufficient, eventually close the valve.
[0051] The method of attachment of the bellows to a wall section as described here can also be used for the embodiment shown in FIG. 3B below.
[0052] FIG. 3B shows a valve arrangement as shown in FIG. 2B provided with a heat expandable means according to a second embodiment of the invention. For corresponding parts of the valve, the same reference numbers are used. According to this example, an expandable means in the form of a bellows 30 is arranged in a fluid chamber 37 in the valve, which chamber contains a movable valve body in the form of a disc 36 controlling the fluid flow through the valve. The position of the disc 36 is normally controlled by an inflow of fluid from an inlet port 13 a located facing the centre of the disc 36 and flowing radially outwards over at least a portion of the disc 36 and towards an outlet port 39 . In this example, the bellows 30 is located on the opposite side of the disc 36 relative to the fluid inlet port 13 a. The bellows 30 comprises a first and a second substantially flat end surface 30 a and 30 b, which are connected by a corrugated section 30 c. The sealed, expandable bellows 30 is at least partially filled with a fluid material that is arranged to undergo a phase change at a predetermined temperature. In this case the first end surface 30 a of the bellows 30 is attached to the disc 36 and is expandable into contact with a wall section of the fluid chamber 37 . Alternatively, the expandable means can be attached to the disc and expandable into contact with a wall section of the fluid chamber.
[0053] When an undesirable increase of temperature in the fluid flowing through the valve occurs, heat is transferred by the hot fluid to the bellows 30 , partially through the disc 36 and partially around the outer edges thereof to the space between the chamber 37 and the disc 36 where the expandable means is located. If the expandable means contains a liquid, said liquid will begin to boil when the fluid flowing through the valve exceeds a predetermined temperature. This causes the bellows 30 to expand due to the increase in pressure and volume inside said bellows 30 . As the bellows 30 expands it will displace the disc 36 towards its closed position and, if the temperature increase is sufficient, eventually close the valve.
[0054] The method of attachment of the bellows to the disc as described here can also be used for the embodiment shown in FIG. 3A above.
[0055] The expandable means described in connection with FIGS. 3A and 3B is a sealed container in the form of a bellows, at least partially filled with a fluid material. Alternatively, the container can have a predetermined general shape with at least a portion being resiliently deformable, or be in the form of a bag with a non-specified shape. In this case, the expandable means can be held in a desired position by locating means on the movable valve body or the chamber wall, without being physically attached to either component. For example, the expandable means can be maintained in position by locating means in the form of a number of projections extending into the chamber to support the movable valve body in its end position where the valve is fully open. Examples of such supporting projections can be found in the filed international application PCT//EP2011/050471. This alternative is preferable for expandable means having a substantially shapeless form, which can expand uniformly in all directions.
[0056] FIG. 4 shows a valve arrangement provided with a heat expandable means according to a third embodiment of the invention. The valve arrangement is arranged to be mounted in a production line (not shown). According to this embodiment, a heat expandable means in the form of a bellows 40 is arranged in a fluid conduit 41 , 42 , 43 in series with the fluid flow through the valve arrangement. In this example, the bellows 40 is located in a housing 44 supplied by a first conduit 41 through which the entire fluid flow from the formation passes, before passing to a valve 45 to be controlled through a second conduit 42 . The fluid flow leaves the valve 45 through a third conduit 43 and enters the production pipe. The bellows 40 is connected to a movable valve body 46 (schematically indicated) in order to act on said valve body to close the valve 45 . When an increase of temperature in the fluid flowing through the housing 44 and the valve 45 occurs, heat is transferred by the hot fluid to a liquid inside the bellows 40 . When the fluid flowing through the valve exceeds a predetermined temperature, the liquid in the bellows 40 will begin to boil. This causes the bellows 40 to expand due to the increase in pressure and volume inside said bellows 40 . As the bellows 40 expands it will urge the movable valve body 46 towards its closed position and, if the temperature increase is sufficient, eventually close the valve 45 .
[0057] FIG. 5 shows a valve arrangement provided with a heat expandable means according to a fourth embodiment of the invention. The valve arrangement is arranged to be mounted in a production line (not shown). According to this embodiment, a heat expandable means in the form of a bellows 50 is arranged in a fluid conduit 51 in parallel with a main conduit 52 , 53 supplying fluid flow through a valve 55 . In this example, the bellows 50 is located in a housing 54 supplied by a first conduit 51 through which a part of the fluid flow from the formation passes, which partial flow bypasses the valve 55 to be controlled. A second conduit 52 supplies the main fluid flow to the valve 55 . The main fluid flow leaves the valve 55 through a third conduit 53 , which is rejoined by the first conduit 51 before entering the production pipe. The bellows 50 is connected to a movable valve body 56 (schematically indicated) in order to act on said valve body to close the valve 55 . When an increase of temperature in the fluid flowing through the housing 54 and the valve 55 occurs, heat is transferred by the hot fluid to a liquid inside the bellows 50 . When the fluid flowing through the housing 54 exceeds a predetermined temperature, the liquid in the bellows 50 will begin to boil. This causes the bellows 50 to expand due to the increase in pressure and volume inside said bellows 50 . As the bellows 50 expands it will urge the movable valve body 56 towards its closed position and, if the temperature increase is sufficient, eventually close the valve 55 .
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A self-adjustable valve or flow control device for controlling the flow of a fluid from one space or area to another by exploiting the Bernoulli principle, to control the flow of fluid, such as oil and/or gas including any water, from an oil or gas reservoir and into a production pipe of a well in the oil and/or gas reservoir, from an inlet port on an inlet side to an outlet port on an outlet side of the device. The valve includes a movable valve body arranged to be acted on by a temperature responsive device. The valve body is arranged to be actuated towards its closed position by the temperature responsive device in response to a predetermined increase in temperature in the fluid surrounding and/or entering the valve. The temperature responsive device includes an expandable device including a sealed structure at least partially filled with an expandable material
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application claims the benefit under 35 USC 119(e) of U.S. Provisional Patent Application No. 62/089,495, entitled “SAFETY MECHANICAL BARRIER AND SYSTEM FOR ABOVE-GROUND POOL LADDERS,” filed Dec. 9, 2014, the entirety of which is fully incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] Embodiments of the present invention relate to a pool ladder safety system for above-ground pools (AGPs) and, more specifically, to a safety system for blocking access to the steps of an above-ground pool ladder.
[0004] 2. Background of the Art
[0005] Above-ground swimming pools (AGPs) are known in the art. The most common types of AGPs are constructed of steel, resin, plastic, or other materials. AGPs generally are constructed using a perimeter frame, of various designs, with a heavy plastic, vinyl, or fabric liner to contain water. AGPs may also be collapsible to enable convenient storage.
[0006] In-ground pools provide easy access because they are, by definition, at the level of the ground around them. One can simply step off of the pool deck and into the in-ground pool, though steps or a ladder are often provided. Therefore, with an in-ground pool one has only to lower themselves into the water.
[0007] Most AGPs, however, are constructed entirely above-ground. In other words, a suitably level site is chosen and the pool is assembled and filled in place. Accordingly, accessing an AGP can become a challenge. The frame provided with an AGP often is designed only to retain the shape of the liner and provide structural support. Thus, the frame may lack the structural rigidity for use as a method to enter the pool. Further, many would find it inconvenient, if not impossible, to climb into an above-ground pool using only the frame, regardless of structural considerations.
[0008] Accordingly, to access an AGP, a ladder, deck, or other apparatus often must be provided to allow the user to first climb up to the level of the pool and aid ingress and egress. The sides of an AGP generally are not sufficiently rigid to support the ladder. Thus, the ladder must be supported by the pool deck, which itself is free-standing, or the ladder must be a self-supporting A-frame-type ladder. Traditional A-frame-type ladders generally rest on the bottom of the pool on one side, and on the ground upon which the AGP is assembled and filled on the other. Accordingly, the steps or rungs on the outside of the AGP that provide ingress into and egress out of the AGP are exposed and easily accessible. In particular, the ladder is accessible to children or inexperienced swimmers who may gain unsupervised access to the pool, which can lead to a life-threatening situation.
[0009] Thus, it would be desirable to develop an improved mechanical barrier for AGP pool ladders that is easy and convenient to install while being difficult for a child or minor to operate. It is to the foregoing that the present disclosure is primarily directed.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0010] Various features and advantages of the present disclosure may be more readily understood with reference to the following detailed description taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawing sheets.
[0011] FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a conventional A-frame-type above-ground pool ladder.
[0012] FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a safety mechanical barrier installed on an A-frame-type above-ground pool ladder, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0013] FIG. 3 is another perspective view of a safety mechanical barrier installed on an A-frame-type above-ground pool ladder with the safety mechanical barrier in an open position, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0014] FIG. 4 is a detailed view of an attachment mechanism, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0015] FIG. 5 is an exploded view of an attachment mechanism, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0016] FIG. 6 is a perspective view of the backside of a safety mechanical barrier and latching mechanism, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0017] FIG. 7 is an exploded view of a clamp of a latching mechanism, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0018] FIG. 8 illustrates a method for installing a safety mechanical barrier to an A-frame-type ladder, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
[0019] FIG. 9 is a perspective exploded view of a safety mechanical barrier being installed on an A-frame-type above-ground pool ladder, according to an exemplary embodiment of the present disclosure.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0020] The present disclosure can be understood more readily by reference to the following detailed description of exemplary embodiments and the examples included herein. Before the exemplary embodiments of the devices and methods according to the present disclosure are disclosed and described, it is to be understood that embodiments are not limited to those described within this disclosure. Numerous modifications and variations therein will be apparent to those skilled in the art and remain within the scope of the disclosure. It is also to be understood that the terminology used herein is for the purpose of describing specific embodiments only and is not intended to be limiting.
[0021] Unless otherwise noted, the terms used herein are to be understood according to conventional usage by those of ordinary skill in the relevant art. In addition to any definitions of terms provided below, it is to be understood that as used in the specification and in the claims, “a” or “an” can mean one or more, depending upon the context in which it is used.
[0022] Also, in describing the exemplary embodiments, terminology will be resorted to for the sake of clarity. It is intended that each term contemplates its broadest meaning as understood by those skilled in the art and includes all technical equivalents that operate in a similar manner to accomplish a similar purpose. As used herein, the term “pool” shall refer to and include any above-ground or free-standing swimming pool, spa, water tank, or other above-ground liquid containment enclosure. Further, as used herein, the term “ladder” shall refer to any structure comprising rungs, steps, or other means for providing ingress or egress to or from a pool.
[0023] To facilitate an understanding of the principles and features of the embodiments of the present disclosure, exemplary embodiments are explained hereinafter with reference to their implementation in an illustrative embodiment. Such illustrative embodiments are not, however, intended to be limiting.
[0024] The materials described hereinafter as making up the various elements of the embodiments of the present disclosure are intended to be illustrative and not restrictive. Many suitable materials that would perform the same or a similar function as the materials described herein are intended to be embraced within the scope of the exemplary embodiments. Such other materials not described herein can include, but are not limited to, materials that are developed after the time of the development of the invention, for example.
[0025] Referring now to the figures, FIG. 1 depicts a conventional A-frame type above-ground pool (AGP) ladder 100 . Mounting a ladder to the sidewall of an AGP pool can be undesirable, or impossible, due to the construction of AGPs. For example, AGP frames often are constructed to support the liner and retain the liner's shape but are not sufficiently strong to support a ladder. Ladders for AGPs, therefore, tend to be free-standing A-frame-type ladders 100 . Ladder 100 can comprise outer ladder 110 resting on foot 150 on the ground outside the pool, which is represented in FIG. 1 by dotted line 155 . Outer ladder 110 can be in communication near its top with inner ladder 105 , forming A-framed ladder 100 . Similar to outer ladder 110 , inner ladder 105 can rest on foot 150 on the bottom of the pool.
[0026] Both outer ladder 110 and inner ladder 105 may comprise a plurality of rungs 115 and vertical rails or stiles 120 . While rungs 115 shown in FIG. 1 are depicted as being substantially flat (akin to step treads), rungs 115 may be substantially tubular in shape or be other suitable shapes. Further, while vertical rails 120 shown in FIG. 1 are depicted as having a rectangular shape (similar to a two-by-four), vertical rails 115 may likewise be substantially tubular in shape or be other suitable shapes.
[0027] As discussed, because such A-frame-type ladders are supported outside the pool by the ground 155 , the ladder may provide easy pool access to unsupervised children or others who are not able to swim. This easy access can create a dangerous situation as an unsupervised child can use the easily accessible rungs 115 to climb the ladder 100 and enter the pool. In such a case, the possibility for injury and/or death may be imminent.
[0028] FIG. 2 illustrates safety mechanical barrier (SMB) 210 , according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. Alternatively, SMB 210 may be referred to as a “rung guard,” “ladder guard,” or “ladder door.” As shown in FIG. 2 , in some embodiments, SMB 210 may be installed onto A-frame-type pool ladder 100 comprising inner ladder 105 , which may be positioned within the perimeter of the pool, and outer ladder 110 , which may be positioned outside the perimeter of the pool. In some embodiments, SMB 210 comprises panel 212 , which comprises outer surface 215 and inner surface 315 (shown in FIG. 3 ). As shown in FIG. 2 , SMB 210 is in a closed position with outer surface 215 facing outward and inner surface (not shown) facing the rungs of outer ladder 110 . According to some embodiments, when in a closed position, SMB 210 can occupy space generally directly in front of the rungs of outer ladder 110 . Accordingly, as will be understood and appreciated, SMB 210 can help prevent a child or anyone else from using the rungs of ladder 100 to climb into the pool.
[0029] FIG. 3 is another perspective view of SMB 210 installed on outer ladder 105 of A-frame-type pool ladder 100 . As shown in FIG. 3 , SMB 210 is in an open position. Accordingly, rungs 115 of outer ladder 110 are exposed to allow a user to enter or exit the pool and SMB 210 is positioned away from rungs 115 . As shown in FIG. 3 and as will be discussed further herein, in some embodiments, SMB 210 may attach to and pivot around vertical rail 120 a via one or more attachment mechanisms 305 . As will be understood and appreciated, in some embodiments, attachment mechanism 305 for use in an embodiment of the present disclosure allows for easy installation of SMB 210 onto ladder 100 while also securely connecting SMB 210 onto ladder 100 . Further, though FIG. 3 shows attachment mechanisms 305 attached to vertical rail 120 a , it will be understood that in some embodiments, attachment mechanisms 305 can attach to vertical rail 120 b in which case SMB 210 pivots around vertical rail 120 b.
[0030] In some embodiments, panel 212 of SMB 210 can be constructed from a resilient material compatible with the pool environment, such as, for example and not limitation, nylon, polyester, canvas, an outdoor performance material (e.g., Sunbrella®), or other suitable material. In alternate embodiments, SMB 210 can be constructed from a rigid material such as metal, plastic, or other suitable material. According to some embodiments, attachment mechanism 305 can be molded directly into SMB 210 . For instance, in some embodiments, attachment mechanism 305 can be a molded aperture. For example, attachment mechanism 305 can be a molded tube through which vertical rail 120 a can be inserted. In other embodiments, attachment mechanism 305 can be molded U-shaped channels capable of snapping over or securely receiving vertical rail 120 a of outer ladder 110 . Such U-shaped channels can securely, yet removably, attach SMB 210 to outer ladder 110 . In yet other embodiments, as discussed, the attachment mechanism 305 can be a c-style clamp, a collar-style clamp, a split collar clamp, or a quick release clamp for removably affixing SMB 210 to outer ladder 110 . As will be understood, in such configurations, one or more attachment mechanism 305 is in mechanical communication with vertical rail 120 a and detachably attaches SMB 210 to vertical rail 120 a.
[0031] In some embodiments, SMB 210 may comprise a latching mechanism 310 for locking or securing SMB 210 in a closed position when ladder 100 is not in use. For example, in some embodiments, latching mechanism 310 may fix and lock onto vertical rail 120 b , which is opposite vertical rail 120 a to which attachment mechanism 305 engages. In some embodiments, latching mechanism 310 may be configured such that the component used for disengaging latching mechanism 310 (e.g., a knob or handle) is at an elevation sufficiently out of the reach of children or infants. For example, a knob or handle for disengaging latching mechanism 310 may be positioned near a top corner of SMB 210 .
[0032] FIG. 4 is a detailed view of an exemplary attachment mechanism 305 , according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 4 , in some embodiments, attachment mechanism 305 may comprise quick-release clamp 405 for releasably attaching SMB 210 to vertical rail 120 a of outer ladder 110 . In some embodiments, attachment mechanism may comprise a c-style clamp, a collar-style clamp, a split collar clamp, or other suitable clamp for removably affixing SMB 210 to outer ladder 110 . As shown in FIG. 4 , according to some embodiments, quick-release clamp 405 may comprise operating member 410 and latch member 415 , which may allow easy engagement and disengagement of quick-release clamp 405 to and from vertical rail 210 a . In some embodiments, in addition to being secured to vertical rail 120 a , attachment mechanism 305 may be supported by rung 115 of ladder 100 . As will be appreciated, supporting attachment mechanism 305 on rung 115 can alleviate downward force on attachment mechanism 305 that can cause stress that causes attachment mechanism 305 to unduly fail.
[0033] FIG. 5 is an exploded view of various components that may comprise attachment mechanism 305 , according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 5 , in some embodiments, attachment mechanism 305 may comprise a quick-release clamp 405 configured to detachably attach SMB 210 with ladder 100 . As discussed in relation to FIG. 4 , quick-release clamp 405 may be configured to releasably attach SMB 210 to vertical rail 120 a . Further, as shown in FIG. 5 , in some embodiments, quick-release clamp 405 may comprise operating member 410 and latch member 415 that allow for easy engagement and disengagement of quick-release clamp 405 to vertical rail 120 . Further, in some embodiments, quick-release clamp 405 may comprise lip 508 with which latch member 415 may engage to provide a secure connection.
[0034] Additionally, as shown in FIG. 5 , in some embodiments, quick-release clamp 405 may comprise insert cavity 507 configured for receiving insert 505 , which may aid in securing quick-release clamp 405 to vertical rail 120 a . For example, in some embodiments, insert 505 may comprise inner surface 510 , which may be coated in a substance that aids in securing quick-release clamp 405 to vertical rail 120 a . In some embodiments, for example, inner surface 510 may have a rubber surface having a higher coefficient of friction with the material comprising the vertical rail 120 a than the material comprising quick-release clamp 405 . Additionally, inner surface 510 may comprise one or more ridges 512 , which may likewise aid in providing a more secure connection to vertical rail 120 a . Accordingly, as will be understood and appreciated, quick-release clamp 405 used in conjunction with insert 505 may provide for more secure engagement of SMB 210 to ladder 100 than a quick-release clamp 405 having no such insert 505 .
[0035] As further shown in FIG. 5 , in some embodiments, quick-release clamp 405 may comprise vertical cylindrical cavity 515 configured to receive hinge pin 520 . Further, in some embodiments, attachment mechanism 305 may comprise hinge eye 525 , which may comprise attachment bracket 530 via which SMB 210 can be removably secured to attachment mechanism 305 . For example, in some embodiments, SMB 210 can be affixed to attachment mechanism 305 via attachment bracket 530 using an attachment means such as, for example, screws, rivets, or nuts and bolts. In some embodiments, hinge pin 520 can be inserted into hinge eye 525 and cylindrical cavity 515 , thereby creating a hinge that allows SMB 210 to pivot around vertical rail 120 such that SMB 210 can be opened (as shown in FIG. 3 ) and closed (as shown in FIG. 2 ). Additionally, as shown in FIG. 5 , attachment mechanism 305 may further comprise spring 535 having a diameter sufficient to receive hinge pin 520 . In some embodiments, spring 535 may be adapted for insertion into hinge eye 525 and cylindrical cavity 515 along with hinge pin 520 . Spring 535 may provide a rotating force to SMB 210 which may automatically bring SMB 210 to a closed position (as shown in FIG. 2 ) when a user releases SMB 210 from an open position. In some embodiments, spring 535 may provide a rotating force to SMB 210 that is sufficient to automatically bring SMB 210 to a closed position when released by a user, but the rotating force provided by spring 535 to SMB 210 is such that it takes sufficient time for SMB 210 to come to a closed position and to allow a user to completely exit ladder 100 and clear themselves from SMB 210 . As shown in FIG. 5 , in some embodiments, hinge eye 525 , cylindrical cavity 515 , hinge pin 520 , and spring 535 may be brought together such that they substantially align along a vertical axis represented by dashed line 522 .
[0036] In some embodiments, the rotating force provided by spring 535 may be counteracted by a delaying mechanism to help slow the speed at which SMB 210 automatically closes. As will be appreciated, once SMB 210 is in an open position, it is not necessarily convenient for a user to hold SMB 210 in the open position. For example, if a user is exiting a pool utilizing inner ladder 105 , it may not be convenient for the user to open SMB 210 and hold SMB 210 in an open position while the user attempts to exit the pool. Thus, in some embodiments, a mechanism such as a pneumatic door closer may be used to counteract the force provided by spring 535 . A pneumatic door closer may be configured such that the force counteracting the rotating force provided by spring 535 is adjustable, thereby allowing a user to adjust the speed with which SMB 210 automatically closes. In some embodiments, a one-way rotary damper may be included to help slow the speed at which SMB 210 automatically closes.
[0037] FIG. 6 is a perspective view of inside surface 315 of SMB 210 upon which an embodiment of latching mechanism 310 is attached. As shown in FIG. 6 , in some embodiments, latching mechanism 310 may comprise elongate member 605 positioned generally parallel to the length of SMB 210 and disposed between clamps 610 a and 610 b , which can be configured as a pair for latching SMB 210 to vertical rail 120 of outer ladder 110 . In some embodiments, clamps 610 a and 610 b are rotatable and thus capable from rotating from an open position to a closed position in which they latch to vertical rail 120 . Further, as shown in FIG. 6 , in some embodiments, latching mechanism 310 may comprise handle 615 for disengaging latching mechanism 310 from a locked or secured position. Put differently, handle 615 can transition clamps 610 a and 610 b from an open position to a closed position, and vice versa. Although shown as a handle 615 in FIG. 6 , the mechanism for disengaging latching mechanism 310 from locked or secured position may be configured as a knob or any other suitable configuration. Additionally, in some embodiments, handle 615 may be positioned sufficiently high on SMB 210 such that it is out of reach from children or infants.
[0038] Further, in some embodiments, latching mechanism 310 and mechanism for disengaging the latching mechanism (e.g., handle 615 ) may be configured such that even if it were reached by a child or other potential user, it would be challenging to disengage latching mechanism 310 from ladder 100 . For example, in some embodiments, latching mechanism 310 may be configured such that handle 615 must first be lifted vertically (i.e., toward the top of ladder 100 ) and then rotated to disengage latching mechanism 310 . In some embodiments, handle 615 may comprise a trigger mechanism for disengaging latching mechanism 315 . Additionally, in some embodiments, latching mechanism 310 may comprise a keyed lock or combination lock that must first be unlocked before latching mechanism 310 can be disengaged.
[0039] FIG. 7 is an exploded view of various components that may compose clamp 610 of latching mechanism 310 , according to some embodiments of the present disclosure. As shown in FIG. 7 , in some embodiments, clamp 610 may comprise elongate member (e.g., horn) 703 for engaging vertical rail 120 b to secure or latch SMB 210 to ladder 100 . According to some embodiments, clamp 610 may further comprise housing 705 , which may be adapted to receive horn 703 via vertical concavity 708 and allow horn 703 to pivot within vertical concavity 708 such that horn 703 can engage and disengage from vertical rail 120 b.
[0040] Housing 705 may further comprise attachment bracket 710 via which SMB 210 can be removably secured to latching mechanism 310 . For example, in some embodiments, SMB 210 can be affixed to latching mechanism 310 via attachment bracket 710 using an attachment means such as, for example, screws, rivets, or nuts and bolts. Further, in some embodiments, housing 705 may comprise concave side wall 715 adapted to abut vertical rail 120 b , thereby allowing latching mechanism 310 to more securely engage vertical rail 120 b by providing more surface area contact between horn 703 and vertical rail 120 b . Likewise, horn 703 may comprise extended member 718 adapted to abut vertical rail 120 b to allow horn 703 to more securely engage vertical rail 120 b.
[0041] As shown in FIG. 7 , in some embodiments, clamp 610 may further comprise spring 720 and spring cap 725 . According to some embodiments, spring 720 may be adapted for placement within vertical concavity 730 of horn 703 , and spring cap 725 may be adapted to enclose spring 720 within vertical concavity 730 of horn 703 and to affix to housing 705 . In some embodiments, spring 720 may provide a rotating force that may automatically bring horn 703 into a closed or latched position when a user releases, via handle 615 , horn 703 from an open position. For example, after using handle 615 to disengage latching mechanism 310 , which may cause elongate member 703 to move into an open position, spring 720 may cause horn 703 to return to a closed position upon release of handle 615 by the user. As further shown in FIG. 7 , spring cap 725 , spring 720 , vertical concavity 730 , vertical concavity 708 , and substantially align along vertical axis 721 to which elongate member 605 is parallel.
[0042] FIG. 8 illustrates a method for installing an embodiment of SMB 210 onto exterior ladder 110 of A-framed ladder 100 . As shown in FIG. 8 , in some embodiments, attachment mechanisms 305 a and 305 b may be configured to securely affix SMB 210 to vertical rail 120 a of outer ladder 110 . Further, attachment mechanisms 305 may be configured to allow SMB 210 to pivot around vertical rail 120 a such that SMB 210 can be put in open positions (as shown in FIG. 3 ) and closed positions (as shown in FIG. 2 ) and various positions in between. Additionally, as shown in FIG. 8 , in some embodiments, latching mechanism 310 may comprise clamps 610 a and 610 b , which may be adapted for latching SMB 210 to vertical rail 120 b.
[0043] FIG. 9 is a perspective exploded view of SMB 210 being installed onto outer ladder 105 of A-frame-type pool ladder 100 . As shown in FIG. 9 , SMB 210 is in an open position. As previously discussed, in some embodiments, SMB 210 is detachably attachable to vertical rail 120 a via one or more attachment mechanisms 305 , which allows SMB 210 to pivot around vertical rail 120 a . As shown in FIG. 9 , in some embodiments, attachment mechanisms 305 may be affixed to or detachably attached to vertical attachment bracket 910 . Extended arm 915 may further extend at a normal angle from vertical attachment bracket 910 . Extended arm 915 may be configured to releasably attach to vertical rail 120 b . For example, in some embodiments, extended arm 915 may comprise a molded channel 920 capable of snapping over or securely receiving vertical rail 120 b . As will be appreciated, vertical attachment bracket 910 and extended arm 915 , which may be referred to collectively as a “structure system,” may provide additional rigidity to SMB 210 and help maintain proper alignment between SMB 210 and A-frame-type pool ladder 100 when SMB 210 is in operation. Further, in some embodiments, the structure system may be constructed from steel, resin, plastic, or various other materials.
[0044] As shown in FIG. 9 , in some embodiments, attachment mechanism 305 may comprise one-way rotary damper 925 . For example, in some embodiments, one-way rotary damper 925 may be adapted for insertion into cylindrical cavity 515 and/or hinge eye 525 (as shown in FIG. 5 ). In some embodiments, one-way rotary damper 925 may provide a force that counters SMB 210 as SMB 210 transitions from an open position to a closed position. Further, in some embodiments, one-way rotary damper 925 may comprise an aperture sufficient to receive hinge pin 520 . Accordingly, as will be appreciated, one-way rotary damper 925 may slow the speed at which SMB 210 transitions from open to closed positions, which can allow a user time to safely exit outer ladder 105 before SMB 210 closes. In some embodiments, the speed at which SMB 210 transitions from open to closed positions may be predetermined, and one-way rotary damper 925 may be configured to provide sufficient force such that SMB 210 closes at the predetermined rate.
[0045] It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that many modifications, additions, and deletions can be made to the embodiments presented herein without departing from the spirit and scope of the disclosure. For example, while disclosed for use with a ladder for an above-ground pool, the safety mechanical barrier can readily be adapted for use with other ladders. The materials and configurations disclosed herein are intended to serve illustrative and explanatory purposes only and should not be construed, in any way, as a limitation to the present disclosure.
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Aspects of the present disclosure relate to a safety mechanical barrier for use with a ladder for an above-ground swimming pool that is easy to install and provides safety from children accessing the pool via the ladder. Certain aspects of the present disclosure relate to a safety mechanical barrier that blocks access to the ladder itself, thereby restricting access to an above-ground pool by unsupervised minors.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to the textile industry and in particular to an improved machine for controling heddle frames and permitting introduction of weft threads into the shed from one side of a loom.
The invention shall especially be described for the case where a weft thread is to be inserted in the shape of a loop. The invention, however, is not limited to this weft thread insertion technique and could be utilized with other types of looms such as looms which use a shuttle.
The insertion of a weft thread in the shape of a loop is an old technique which was abandoned, especially in fast looms, because abnormal tensions were produced as a result of the friction of the thread against the insertion device pin. However, means such as a controlled rotation of the insertion device pin were designed to avoid such friction. Another type of means to avoid such friction is described in French Pat. No. 1,562,147; according to this document, the thread is cast in the shape of a loop with one locked strand, while the other strand is cast. The kinetic energy of the cast strand which is transferred to the locked strand through the loop, changes into a force which moves with the loop and pulls the thread.
As indicated in the article published in the periodical "L'Industrie Textile," Issue No. 1083, November 1978, pp. 698-699, with an inertia insertion system where the locked strand is resting at the entrance to the shed before the loop reaches the exit point it is theoretically possible to start closing the shed and firmly pushing the thread at the entrance, before the pick of weft thread is completely unwound. This closing of the shed at the insertion side of the loom before the weft thread reaches the exit point may be performed by using rigid frames to control the heddles. Each end of these frames should move in a different pattern, such that the shed has a correct opening along the whole section where the free strand of the loop is moving, during the loom cycle, and closes up along the section of the pick of weft thread formed by the locked strand. The tightening of the pick of weft thread may be performed by means of a reed where each end of this reed moves in a different pattern, or else by means of a rotating reed which offers the advantage of being less noisy than a regular reed.
This solution which consists in providing for a different pattern of motion of each end of the heddle-holder frames controlling the warp threads, presents a disadvantage in that the heddles in conventional heddle frames wear out very rapidly in the heddle-holder rods, due to the lateral motion of the heddle-holders as a result of the variable inclination of the frames.
It has also been suggested in the German Pat. No. 1,091,949 to have each frame move in a differing pattern in weaving looms fed by a griff throwing system in the shape of a strip, the length of which is equivalent to the width of the material, in order to minimize the disadvantage of an opening larger than the shed resulting from such an insertion procedure. To that effect, the loom is equipped with a rigid stationary frame in which the heddle-holder rods, together with the heddles, each move in a different pattern. The motion is transmitted to the heddler-holder rods by plates guided in the stationary frame and driven by a rigid beam which is controlled at each end by two eccentrics each one moving in a differing pattern.
In such a design the shed moves so that the crossing of the warp threads moves along the shed as in the case of waving-shed looms. However, it presents some disadvantages, and especially the disadvantage of requiring more space in height than the classical frames, as well as of necessitating a considerable number of connections which wear out rapidly.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention aims at correcting the disadvantages noted above and, in a general manner, relates to an improvement of the design of the heddle-holder frames.
Hereinafter in the description, the loom built in accordance with the invention shall be designated as a "single-phase weaving loom with waving shed." Such weaving looms have a series of waving sheds in which a series of small throwing systems, each containing a length of pick of weft thread, operate one after the other, traveling along the point after the last row of finished cloth. Due to the fact that, in looms operated in accordance with the invention, the thread is deposited into the shed while the loop unwinds, and that the changing of shed can be started before the loop reaches the exit point, the thread can be tightened in the first section of the shed while the pick of weft thread moves along in the rest of this shed.
In a general manner, the invention therefore relates to a single-phase weaving loom with a waving shed, in which the weft thread is pulled out of a stationary spool located outside of the shed. This loom is equipped with the following elements:
means to introduce the weft thread into the shed in the shape of a loop with one locked strand and one mobile strand,
frames defined by rigid frame members for controlling travel of the heddles operated by controls respectively acting on both sides of said frames, each one moving in a differing pattern,
a reed equipped and controlled so that its teeth progressively and firmly push the inserted pick of weft thread from where it enters the shed towards where it emerges,
this loom being characterized by the fact that each frame is defined by frame bars which are movably attached to frame supports, and that these supports are guided or slide in stationary guides restricting the lateral motion of the frames.
In operation, the weft thread is inserted in the shape of a loop under its own kinetic energy, one of the strands being locked outside of the shed, whereas the other one is cast in the direction of the axis of said shed.
The motion of each of the frames is continuous, without any stop when the shed is open, this motion being a quarter of a cycle off on the side where the weft thread emerges from the shed, compared to the motion of the frames on the side where the weft thread enters into the shed. (FIG. 6)
When the pick of weft thread is introduced into the shed under its own mass, it is best that the loop enters into the shed between one-sixth and one-quarter of the way through the pick cycle, after the closing of the shed.
The frames may be controlled either by a cam system, or by means of classical dobbies.
The frame bars may be attached to the frame supports by means of silent blocks or elastic elements.
Finally, because of an improvement in the startup procedure, the loom built in accordance with the invention is also equipped with a device that facilitates the positioning of the first pick of weft thread when starting the loom.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention and the advantages deriving therefrom shall however be more clearly understood from the description and from the examples illustrated with reference to the attached drawings, which are given hereinafter by way of example, but without the invention being limited thereto:
FIGS. 1 & 2 are respectively a front view and a side view of a weaving loom designed according to the invention.
FIG. 3 shows an arrangement of a control system by means of cams and heddle-holder frames.
FIG. 4 shows a silent-block connection to link the supports of the heddle-holder frame to the bars.
FIG. 5 shows an elastic-element connection which may be used instead of the connection shown in FIG. 4.
FIG. 6 is an axonometric view of the various phases (referenced from "a" to "f") of the development of the opening of the shed in a loom designed as per the invention.
FIG. 7 is a diagram of a device permitting the casting of the thread by delayed-action release, when the loom is started, ready to operate the positioning of the first pick of weft thread.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
FIGS. 1 and 2 show the overall layout of a loom designed in accordance with the invention. In a general manner, this loom basically consists of a framework with two lateral supports 1, 2 maintained together by a spacer 3, all the operating elements of the loom being mounted on said framework. The weft thread 4 is drawn from a storage space 5 (spool) by a measuring device 6 which delivers the thread to a collecting unit 7. The weft thread 4 is cast in the shape of a loop by a casting system 8 for instance as described in French Pat. No. 1,562,647.
The warp threads are drawn from a warp beam 10, over a tension roller 11 threaded through the heddles in the heddle frames 12 which separate them, thus forming the shed 13 into which the weft thread 4 is cast.
In operation of the invention, the shed is formed by operating the heddle frames 12 so that the ends of these heddle frames move, in a different pattern, as the loop of weft thread unwinds.
A rotating reed 14 tightens the inserted pick of weft thread by progressively and firmly pushing the pick of weft thread as it is positioned. The weaving elements are synchronously driving by a motor. The casting system 8 is operated by a separate control. The finished cloth is delivered in a conventional manner at the speed required to obtain the desired tightening, and it is then rolled onto a cloth beam 15.
The heddle frames may be controlled either by means of dobbies 16, 17, as shown in FIG. 1, or by means of a cam system shown in FIG. 3. Of course, the utilization of any other equivalent control system will still be within the scope of the invention.
FIG. 3 is a more detailed view of the cam control system used to control both sides of the heddle-holder frames such that the shed progressively opens and closes as the pick of weft thread is positioned.
This system operates as follows:
Some eccentrics 21 which are keyed to shaft 20 act upon rollers 22, 22' of the levers 23, 23' rotating about a stationary shaft 24. Shaft 20 rotates at half the speed of the loom. The rods 26, 26' acting on the frame 12 through the bent levers 27, 27' and the small rods 28, 28' are connected to an extension 25, 25' of the levers 23, 23'. The shaft 20 rotating in the direction of the arrow 50 and the two rollers 22, 22' being controlled by the same eccentric 21, cause motion of the support 29' to the right of the frame 12 to be the same as the motion of the support 29 to the left of the frame, but with a 90° displacement measured on the shaft of the eccentric 21, that is to say 180° of the loom cycle. If this is the case, the pick of weft thread shall be inserted from the left to the right.
When the heddle frames 12 are controlled by means of dobbies 16, 17, as shown in FIG. 1, the system is similar to that previously described, consisting in keying and unkeying the cam (eccentric 21) on the shaft 20 according to the desired motion. Classical dobbies may be utilized by installing a dobby on each side of the loom as shown in FIG. 1.
As mentioned before, the variable inclination of the frames 12 ranging around ±2°, however small it may be, gives to the motion of the heddler-holder rods (not shown) a horizontal component tending to produce a slipping of the heddles and to wear them out.
FIGS. 4 and 5 show examples of heddle-holder frames designed in accordance with the invention, which permit elimination of this disadvantage.
In a general manner, these types of designs consist in pivotably connecting the supports (29) (29') of the heddle frame 12 to the bars 30, 30' with which this frame is equipped.
In the example of the design shown in FIG. 4, the upper and lower bars 30, 30' of the heddle frame 12 are pivotably connected to the supports 29, 29' by means of a silent-block system 140, 140' at a point aligned with the axis of the heddle-holder rods 31, 31'. To that effect, each support 29 or 29' consists of a rigid part 29, 29' sliding in a stationary guide 40. The parts 41, 41' rigidly locked with bars 30, 30' are pivotably connected to the ends of this part 29, 29'. Since the connections (silent-block 140, 140') are aligned with the extension of the axes of the heddle-holders 31, 31', and the supports 29 where these connections are attached are guided on the sides by the stationary guides 40, the motion of the heddles shall nearly be parallel to the direction of the guides 40. When the bars 30, 30' and heddle holder, 31, 31' are displaced at an angle of about 3° from the horizontal, a lateral displacement of about 0.5 mm at the level of the heddle-holders 31, 31' results in the case of a frame designated in accordance with the invention, whereas there would be a 10 mm displacement in the case of a classical rigid frame; in addition, the lateral motion of the threads with respect to their normal position of the loom is avoided.
Consequently, when the frame is guided on its sides by lateral supports, the lateral horizontal component of the motion of the heddle-holder rod 31 becomes negative.
In the example shown in FIG. 5, the connection is replaced by an elastic element 32, the center of said element being attached to the support 29 whereas each of its ends are attached to the bars 30, 30' of the frame 12. The shape of the elastic element 32 shall be chosen so that the lateral motion of the heddle-holder rod 31 will be as small as possible.
The diagram shown in FIG. 6 gives a more detailed illustration of the operation of a loom built in accordance with the invention.
FIG. 6 shows the various phases (referenced "a" to "f"), illustrating the motion of the frames during an insertion (or pick) cycle. Between each phase, "a" to "f", the loom operates one-fourth of a rotation. In "a", the frames I & II intersect in the center of the shed and the loop of weft thread 4 enters into the new shed. In "b", the entrance to the shed is fully open and its exit is closed; the pick of weft thread has traveled about one-fourth of the maximum width of material which can be woven. In "c", the entrance to the shed has become smaller whereas its exit has increased; the pick of weft thread arrives in the center of the shed.
In "e", the motion of the frames is reversed with respect to the position "a", the pick of weft thread previously introduced is firmly pushed by the reed against the finished cloth, and a new shed is opening to receive a new pick of weft thread. The first pick of weft thread 4 continues moving and arrives at the exit of the shed. Position "f" is equivalent to position "b".
FIG. 6 also permits determination of the best time to cast the thread into the shed. If the thread crosses the shed at a constant speed, its entrance shall be best at one-quarter of the way into a pick cycle; but since the speed of the thread tends to slow down, the casting shall slightly be advanced to be best operated between one-sixth and one-quarter of the cycle, the origin of the cycle being the moment when the shed is flat on the side where the weft thread enters.
The advantages resulting from the invention shall however be more evident with the following computation. In the case of rigid frames with their ends moving in differing patterns, the relative lateral displacement of the heddle-holder rod is about 10 mm. With the device of the present invention, the displacement shall be neglible, amounting to about 0.5 mm, therefore smaller than the operating clearance required for regular frames. On the other hand, the maximum angle constituted by the frame with the horizontal is about 3°. To slide along such an incline, the friction coefficient should be lower than 0.05°; that is to say in these conditions the heddle with not tend to slide on the side. Therefore, we can say that the friction or sliding conditions of the heddles in the heddle-holder rods of the frames, as per the invention, are absolutely equivalent to those existing in the conventional frames.
Some variations of the loom build in accordance with the invention can be designed without going beyond the scope of the invention.
Thus, it is possible to start introducing the pick of weft thread well before the opening of the shed reaches its maximum so that, when the thread is close to where it emerges, the opening of the shed keeps increasing, thus taking into account the spread of the motion of the thread which may result when a thread is freely cast into the air.
In order to facilitate the startup of the loom, a delayed-action release system can be utilized for casting the thread for the first pick of weft thread, as shown in FIG. 7. In FIG. 6, the dot-and-dash line shows the trajectory of the loop moving at a constant speed in the shed of a loom also running at a constant speed. At the startup of the loom before the loom reaches full speed, it is best to cast the first pick of weft thread with a certain delay so that the loop may follow a trajectory along the dashed line shown in FIG. 6, and which results from the acceleration of the loom. Eventually, we could plan to cast the thread in an idle shed, that is to say during the phase "c", the dotted line, of FIG. 6.
The operation for delaying of the casting of the thread at the startup of the loom is shown in FIG. 7, performed by means of an auxiliary pin 60, usually outside of the course of the thread, which is moved into the trajectory of the thread before or during the starting operations, and which withdraws after the loom has reached the desired speed. The first casting shall be performed as usual. To that effect, as shown in FIG. 7, at the delay and the following startup, the lever 61 which is connected with the startup mechanism, pushes the pin 60 out of its guiding element 62 by compressing the spring 63. When the pin 60 is up, the catch 64 becomes engaged under the effect of a spring not shown on the drawing (arrow 65) and holds the pin 60. At the time of startup of the loom, the lever 61 is back to its down position, and as soon as the loom has reached the desired position, the cam 66 triggers the catch 64 through the lever 67, which causes the pin to withdraw into its guide 62 under the effect of the spring 63.
As mentioned before, the invention has been described in accordance with the Patent Statutes with great detail for one embodiment. The invention is not limited to the weaving looms in which the weft thread is inserted in the shape of a loop, but is may also be implemented in all the cases when the weft thread is inserted by unwinding a specific length of thread from one side of the loom, for instance by utilizing a small shuttle on which said weft thread is wound.
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The invention relates to a weaving loom with waving shed heddle frames which when built in accordance with the invention insures that the heddles do not have lateral displacement when the frames are operated by controls respectively acting on both sides of the frames so that the motions of the respective sides differ from each other in their pattern. The bars of the frames are pivotably connected to the supports of these frames. These supports slide in stationary guides which restrict the lateral motion of the frames.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to the field of aviation. Specifically the invention relates to systems for suspending loads on the underside of an aircraft, which can be released when the aircraft is in flight.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] Worldwide, the most commonly used system for attaching detachable loads to an aircraft makes use of a pair of suspension lugs attached to the load. On the underside of the aircraft is an assembly comprising hooks that fit through the lug eyes. When it is desired to release the load, the assembly on the aircraft is activated to slide the hooks out of the lug eyes allowing the load with the lugs attached to fall away from the aircraft.
[0003] FIG. 1 shows a typical load 10 with two suspension lugs 12 attached. In FIG. 2 is shown a standard suspension lug 12 . Suspension lug 12 is made from a solid piece of metal and comprises a threaded base 14 to attach it to the load and a lug eye 16 into which the hook fits to secure the load to the aircraft. In most of the air forces in the Western world, the lugs are standard and, depending on the size of the load, conform to the specification Mil-A-8591, which governs all characteristics of the lug, such as physical dimensions, minimum load carrying ability, etc.
[0004] In normal use, the lugs are stored separately from the loads. Each load has two standard sized threaded wells located on its top side. The wells are spaced apart by a distance that is standard, and conforms to the specification Mil-A-8591 and are located relative to the center of gravity of the load, such that the load will separate from the aircraft properly when released. When the time comes to attach the load to the aircraft, the load and lugs are removed from storage and brought near to the aircraft. The ground crew screws the lugs into the threaded wells on the load. The lugs are screwed in by hand and are turned until the bottom of the lug eye is level with the surface of the load and the lug eyes are perpendicular to the direction of flight as shown in FIG. 1 . The load is then raised under the aircraft and the hooks on the assembly of the aircraft are slipped through the lug eyes.
[0005] After releasing the load from the aircraft, the lugs remain attached to the load and make a significant contribution to the total aerodynamic drag on the load as it moves through the air. In modern combat situations it is of critical importance to the completion of the mission and, more importantly, to the safety of the aircraft and its crew to increase the stand-off distance for releasing payloads to the maximum. Therefore a great deal of attention has been given to reducing the drag on the load, thereby allowing it to be released further from the target.
[0006] Theoretical calculations, which have been verified by means of measurements combining wind tunnel tests, show that in the typical case of a freefalling payload of the type shown in FIG. 1 the two lugs of the standard type shown in FIG. 2 may contribute up to 16% of the parasitic drag on the load.
[0007] The most common technique used in the prior art to reduce the drag caused by the lugs that connect detachable loads to aircraft before release is to modify the load in such a way that the lugs are withdrawn beneath the surface of the load once it is released from the aircraft. Examples of arrangements of this type of varying degree of complexity are disclosed in the following patents U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,408, U.S. Pat. No. 5,961,075, U.S. Pat. No. 3,967,529, and U.S. Pat. No. 4,170,923.
[0008] Taking into account the vast quantity of loads, especially armament of various types, that are stored at any one time in various locations around the world, the comparable numbers of suspension lugs, and especially the desire and necessity of maintaining standardization so that loads can easily be attached to and released from various types of aircraft, it would be desirable to provide an easy method of reducing the drag caused by the suspension lugs, which would allow the continued use of these available stores and further would allow continued production using existing production lines and standards. Such a method should ideally require no changes to the aircraft or load and should involve minimal changes to the work routine of the ground crews that prepare the loads and attach them to the aircraft.
[0009] It is therefore a purpose of the invention to provide a modified suspension lug which will allow loads to be releasably connected to aircraft and will contribute significantly less than standard lugs to the drag on the load after it released.
[0010] It is another purpose of the invention to provide a modified suspension lug in which comprises a mechanism that is simple, reliable, and safe. It is yet another purpose of the invention to provide a modified suspension lug which interfaces to the load and aircraft while complying with the requirements of the widely-accepted standard MIL-A-8591.
[0011] It is yet another purpose of the invention to provide a modified suspension lug which can be attached to or removed from the load easily using only standard equipment or tools.
[0012] Further purposes and advantages of this invention will appear as the description proceeds.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0013] In a first aspect the invention is a suspension lug for releasably suspending loads under aircraft. The suspension lug comprises a lug eye and a threaded base and is characterized in that a rotation mechanism is inserted into the threaded portion. When the suspension lug is threaded into a compatible well in the load and the load is released from the aircraft, the rotation mechanism causes the suspension lug to rotate by ninety degrees from an initial orientation in which the face of the lug eye is pointed in the direction of flight to a final orientation in which the edge of the lug eye is pointed in the direction of flight. The rotation of the lug eye significantly reduces the drag on the load.
[0014] Embodiments of the rotation mechanism comprise a stopper, which comprises a locking mechanism; a bushing; a return spring; and a retaining screw.
[0015] In embodiments of the suspension lug of the invention, the locking mechanism is a separate brake attached to the stopper by a screw that can be turned from outside of the threaded base of the suspension lug when the suspension lug is threaded into a well in the load. Tightening the screw causes the brake to move radially outwards jamming it against the interior wall of the well thereby locking the stopper preventing it from rotating relative to the load. After the stopper is locked, the other components of the rotation mechanism allow the suspension lug to rotate relative to the load.
[0016] In embodiments of the suspension lug the threaded base of the suspension lug has been modified to allow the suspension lug to be rotated clockwise or counterclockwise within a maximum range of ninety degrees.
[0017] In another aspect the invention is a method of making a suspension lug according to the first aspect of the invention from a standard suspension lug. The method comprising:
a. removing a section of the bottom of the threaded base of the standard suspension lug to create a hollow space to accommodate the rotation mechanism; and b. removing at least a part of the face on each side of the lug eye of the standard suspension lug to create a more slender side profile of the lug eye.
[0020] In another aspect the invention is method of using one or more suspension lugs according to the first aspect of the invention for reversibly suspending a load comprising one or more compatible wells appropriately located on its top side from the bottom of an aircraft. The method comprises the steps of:
a. bringing the load and the one or more suspension lugs from storage to a location close to the aircraft; b. screwing the one or more suspension lugs into the one or more wells as far as possible by hand without the use of tools; c. unscrewing each of the one or more suspension lugs a partial turn until the edge of the lug eye of each of the suspension lugs is pointed in the direction of flight; d. inserting a tool through a channel bored through the threaded base of each of the suspension lugs and tightening the screw of the locking mechanism, thereby preventing rotation of the stopper of the rotation mechanism of the suspension lug relative to the load; e. rotating, using a hand held tool, each of the suspension lugs ninety degrees clockwise so that the face of the lug eye of each of the suspension lugs is pointed in the direction of flight, thereby tensioning the spring of the rotation mechanism of each of the suspension lugs; f. holding, using the hand held tool, each of the suspension lugs so that the face of the lug eye of each of the suspension lugs is pointed in the direction of flight while raising the load towards the underside of the aircraft and slipping a hook of the suspension apparatus of the aircraft through the lug eye of each of the suspension lugs, thereby suspending the load from the bottom of the aircraft; and g. slipping the hooks out of the lug eye of each of the suspension lugs, thereby allowing the springs in the rotation mechanisms to return to their untensioned state and causing the suspension lugs to rotate until the edge of the lug eye of each of the suspension lugs is pointed in the direction of flight.
[0028] All the above and other characteristics and advantages of the invention will be further understood through the following illustrative and non-limitative description of preferred embodiments thereof with reference to the appended drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0029] FIG. 1 shows a typical load with two prior art suspension lugs attached;
[0030] FIG. 2 shows a prior art suspension lug;
[0031] FIG. 3 shows the suspension lug of the invention;
[0032] FIG. 4A is a side view of the prior art suspension lug shown in FIG. 2 ;
[0033] FIG. 4B is a side view of a prior art suspension lug whose lug eye has been modified according to the invention;
[0034] FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 show the modifications that are made to a standard suspension lug in order to convert it to the suspension lug of the invention;
[0035] FIG. 7A , FIG. 7B , FIG. 8 , and FIG. 9 show the major components of the rotation mechanism of the invention;
[0036] FIG. 10 , FIG. 11 , and FIG. 12 show the manner in which the major components of the rotation mechanism are assembled into the threaded base of the suspension lug of the invention;
[0037] FIG. 13A to FIG. 13G schematically show the different stages in the installation and operation of the suspension lugs of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0038] FIG. 3 shows a suspension lug 100 according to the present invention. The present invention reduces the drag caused by the suspension lugs by modifying the standard lug shown in FIG. 2 in two ways. Firstly, the bottom of the threaded base 104 is hollowed out and a mechanism 102 is inserted in the hollowed out space that causes suspension lug 100 to rotate by ninety degrees when the hook is withdrawn from the lug eye 106 , i.e. when the load is released from the aircraft.
[0039] After the suspension lug has rotated by ninety degrees, the edge of the lug eye is facing the direction of flight. If a conventional suspension lug 12 , such as that shown in FIG. 4A , were used in the invention the profile facing the direction of flight after the rotation would still be relatively large because of the sloped surfaces 18 . Therefore, the second modification made to the standard lug is to reduce the profile of the lug eye 106 in the direction of flight as shown in FIG. 4B .
[0040] The present invention does not require that the aircraft or the load be modified in any way. The modifications made to the standard lug are such that the interfaces with the aircraft and the load are unchanged. Furthermore, because of over design of the standard suspension lugs, even after the modifications are carried out the suspension lug of the invention fulfills the requirements of MIL-A-8591 and functions exactly as does the standard lug that it replaces.
[0041] FIG. 5 and FIG. 6 show the modifications that are made to a standard suspension lug 12 ( FIG. 4A ) in order to convert it to the suspension lug 100 of the invention. Firstly the sloped surfaces 18 on the faces of the lug eye 16 are removed to create a lug eye 106 having a more slender side profile, for example as shown in FIG. 4B . Secondly, the lower section of the threaded base 104 is machined removing material from the interior to create a cylindrical post 116 surrounded by an annular hollow space 108 . Thirdly two sections of the wall surrounding annular hollow space 108 are removed leaving two remaining wall sections 120 whose edges 122 are angularly spaced apart by ninety degrees to allow limited rotation of suspension lug 100 , as will be explained herein below. Finally two holes, which are best seen in FIG. 6 , which is a cross-sectional view of lug 100 along line A-A in FIG. 5 , are machined in the upper solid section of threaded base 104 . Well 118 comprises internal threads (not shown in the figures) into which the retaining screw 130 (see FIG. 10 ) of the rotation mechanism 102 can be threaded. Cylindrical channel 110 is drilled vertically through the upper part of threaded base 104 in order to allow access to the Allen screw 141 (see FIG. 7 ) that is used to lock the stopper 124 of the rotation mechanism as will be explained herein below. An approximately ninety degree section of the lower part of threaded base 104 is removed to create a clearance space 123 for the head of Allen screw 141 when lug 100 rotates relatively to the locked stopper 124 . The modification process is divided into various steps above merely for convenience. Skilled persons will easily be able to determine the most efficient and cost effective manner to carry out the modifications of the standard lugs required by the invention.
[0042] The major components of the rotation mechanism 102 ( FIG. 3 ) are shown in FIG. 7A to FIG. 9 and the manner in which they are assembled into hollow space 108 created in the threaded base of the suspension lug of the invention is shown in FIG. 10 to FIG. 12 .
[0043] In FIG. 7A is shown the stopper 124 , which is essentially a cylindrical disk 132 having a diameter that allows it to fit into and rotate freely within annular hollow space 108 in threaded base 104 of suspension lug 100 . The center of the disk 132 has a hole bored through it, which is surrounded on the top side of the disk by an annular shaped wall 134 . The inner diameter of annular wall 134 is determined to allow bushing 126 ( FIG. 8 ) to slide through it. On each of the opposite ends of a diameter of the stopper is located a projection 136 and 136 ′, that is part of the mechanism for locking the suspension lug in the correct starting orientation relative to the load. The diameter of stopper 124 measured at upper end of projections 136 and 136 ′ equals that of the outer diameter of threaded base 104 . Each projection 136 , 136 ′ fits into one of the sections of the wall of the threaded base 104 has been removed between wall sections 120 . A vertical unthreaded hole, through which Allen screw 141 passes, is drilled through projection 136 ′.
[0044] FIG. 7B is a magnified view of the area of projection 136 ′ in FIG. 7A . As can be seen in FIG. 7B , a trapezoidal shaped section of the lower part of disc 132 and projection 136 ′ is removed. Into this is inserted a matching trapezoidal shaped piece referred to herein as the brake 140 . Brake 140 has a treaded hole in it into which Allen screw 141 can turn. Turning Allen screw 141 clockwise will cause brake 141 to move upwards. As brake 140 moves upwards relative to the bottom of disc 132 , the sloped surfaces on disc 132 and brake 140 push against each other forcing brake 140 outwards, jamming it (and also projection 136 ) against the inside wall of the well in the load, thereby locking the stopper in place in the well of the load. Note that the hole drilled through projection 136 ′ has a wider inside diameter than the diameter of Allen screw 141 , thereby allowing the sidewards movement of brake 140 . Skilled persons will realize that other locking mechanisms can be used to lock stopper 124 in place in the well and prevent rotation of the stopper relative to the load. For example, no brake of cut out portion of disc 132 need be provided and Allen screw 141 could be screwed in the threads of an appropriately located channel through projection 136 ′ until it is firmly screwed against the bottom of the well. Similarly, screw 141 need not be an Allen screw, but can be any type of screw that can be turned from outside of the threaded base of the suspension lug through channel 110 , for example by the use of a thin screw driver.
[0045] In FIG. 8 is shown bushing 126 . The cylindrical annular upper part 144 of bushing 126 fits inside the annular wall 134 of stopper 124 and the hollow center 146 of bushing 126 slides over cylindrical post 116 (see FIG. 6 , FIG. 7 , and FIG. 10 ). The disk-like base 142 of bushing 126 fits into a cylindrical recess 148 in the bottom of stopper 124 (see FIG. 10 ). A retaining screw ( 130 shown in FIG. 10 ) is passed through the center of bushing 126 and threaded into well 118 , thereby pushing the base of the bushing against the stopper 124 to hold the parts of the rotation mechanism 102 together in place.
[0046] In FIG. 9 is shown return spring 128 . As will be described hereinbelow, return spring 128 supplies the force needed to cause suspension lug 100 to rotate ninety degrees when the load is released from the aircraft. Spring 128 fits around the outside of annular wall 134 of stopper 124 . One end of return spring 128 is bent at a right angle forming a short tail that fits into a hole 114 (see FIG. 11 ) in threaded base 104 . The other end of return spring 128 is straight and pushes against a projection (not shown) on the top of stopper 124 . Thus, if force is applied to rotate the lug relative to the stopper in one direction, the spring is compressed. The energy stored in the spring can later be released to cause relative rotation in the opposite direction.
[0047] FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of suspension lug 100 with the components of rotation mechanism 102 installed. FIG. 11 shows suspension lug 100 with part of threaded base 104 removed to reveal some of the components of rotation mechanism 102 . From FIG. 11 it can be seen how the return spring 128 fits around annular wall 134 on stopper 124 with its bent end inserted into hole 114 in threaded base 104 . From FIG. 10 and FIG. 11 , it can be seen how the retaining screw 130 passes through bushing 126 , which in turn passes through stopper 124 thereby holding the return spring 128 in place. Screwing retaining screw 130 into the threaded well 118 in cylindrical post 116 holds the rotation mechanism 102 in position inside threaded base 104 . Note that the dimensions of the components of rotation mechanism 102 are chosen to allow clearance spaces 150 and 152 between the top of annular wall 134 of stopper 124 and the top of annular hollow space 108 in threaded base 104 and between the head of retaining screw 130 and the top of cylindrical post 116 respectively. These clearance spaces, in addition to previously described recess 148 allow room for compression and expansion of spring 128 and free rotation of lug 100 relative to stopper 124 .
[0048] The principle of operation of the invention can be understood by referring to FIG. 12 . From FIG. 12 it can clearly be seen how the projection 136 ′, with brake 140 attached to it by Allen screw 141 , fits into the section of wall of threaded base 104 surrounding hollow space 108 that has been removed. This makes it possible to rotate suspension lug 100 relative to stopper 124 , within the limits defined by edges 122 . If, for example, stopper 124 is firmly anchored by means of brake 140 against the interior wall of the well of the load so that it can not move and suspension lug 100 is rotated clockwise as far as it can, i.e. until the side of projection 136 ′ hits the left edge 122 ; then return spring 128 will be tightened. If the suspension lug is then released, the spring will unwind causing the suspension lug 104 to rotate relative to the fixed stopper 124 until the side of projection 136 ′ hits right edge 122 preventing further rotation. According to the invention, the distances between right and left edges 122 are such that the range of rotation in either direction will be limited to exactly ninety degrees.
[0049] FIG. 13A to FIG. 13G schematically show the different stages in the installation and operation of the suspension lugs of the invention. In these figures, a section of the detachable load is represented by reference numeral 160 , the direction of flight of the load once it is released from the airplane is from left to right in each figure, and the direction of rotation of suspension lug 100 when threaded into the well in the load is represented by the curved arrows.
[0050] When it is required to attach the load to the aircraft the procedure followed by the ground crew is essentially the same as that followed in the prior art. The load and two suspension lugs 100 of the invention are brought from storage to a location close to the aircraft. If present, the protective cover of the well in the load is removed and suspension lug 100 is screwed into the well ( FIG. 13A ). Suspension lug 100 is screwed into the well as far as possible by hand without the use of tools. Since the threads of the well and those on the lug are not all created exactly the same, the rotation of the suspension lug 100 will be stopped at the bottom of the well with the lug oriented at some arbitrary angle with respect to the direction of flight ( FIG. 13B ). To properly orientate suspension lug 100 , it is now rotated in the opposite direction (unscrewed) a partial turn until the edge of the lug eye 106 is pointed in the direction of flight 20 ( FIG. 13C ).
[0051] The stopper 124 of rotation mechanism 102 is now locked in place. Referring to FIG. 13D and FIG. 20 , an Allen wrench is inserted into hole 110 and turned screwing Allen screw 141 into brake 140 causing the brake to jam against the threads on the inside of the well locking stopper 124 in place inside the well on the load.
[0052] After stopper 124 has been locked by means of Allen screw 141 ( FIG. 13D ), a tool 162 , for example a crescent or a pipe wrench, is used to rotate suspension lug 100 ninety degrees clockwise, as shown in FIG. 13E , from the orientation shown in FIG. 13D , so that the face of the lug eye 106 is pointed in the direction of flight 20 . Since the stopper can not move, when suspension lug 100 is rotated the return spring 128 will be placed in tension.
[0053] With the lug manually held in the position shown in FIG. 13E , the load is raised under the aircraft and the hook of the suspension apparatus on the aircraft (not shown) is slipped into lug eye 106 of suspension lug 100 of the invention ( FIG. 13F ) preventing lug 100 from rotating and keeping spring 128 in tension. The aircraft takes off and over the target hook 160 is slipped out of lug eye 106 . As the load separates from the aircraft, the return spring 128 is free to return to its untensioned state and when doing so causes suspension lug 100 to rotate ninety degrees in a counter clockwise direction relative to the fixed stopper 124 and load, i.e. lug rotates to the orientation it had in FIG. 13D . In its downward flight towards the target, the narrow edge of the lug eye 106 of the suspension lug 100 is pointed in the direction of flight ( FIG. 13G ) thereby greatly reducing the drag on the load caused by the suspension lugs when compared to the orientation of the prior art suspension lugs ( FIG. 1 ).
[0054] Theoretical calculations show that replacing standard suspension lugs with those of the invention will reduce the parasitic drag on the released load from 16% to 4%, which will increase the range of a gliding bomb by about 7% and a bomb propelled by a jet engine by about 10%.
[0055] Although embodiments of the invention have been described by way of illustration, it will be understood that the invention may be carried out with many variations, modifications, and adaptations, without exceeding the scope of the claims.
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A suspension lug for releasably suspends loads under aircraft. The suspension lug has a lug eye and a threaded base and a rotation mechanism is inserted into the threaded portion. When the suspension lug is threaded into a compatible well in the load and the load is released from the aircraft, the rotation mechanism causes the suspension lug to rotate by ninety degrees from an initial orientation in which the face of the lug eye is pointed in the direction of flight to a final orientation in which the edge of the lug eye is pointed in the direction of flight. The rotation of the lug eye significantly reduces the drag on the load. Also described are methods of manufacturing and using the suspension lug of the invention.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to an objective lens of an optical pickup device and to the optical pickup device, and in particular, to an objective lens wherein magnification is finite and yet the temperature characteristics are excellent for recording or reproduction for at least two optical information recording media each having a transparent base board with a different thickness and to an optical pickup device.
[0002] With regard to a recording/reproducing optical system for optical information recording media having a precision required for the conventional CD reproducing apparatus (incidentally, a recording/reproducing optical system or a recording/reproducing apparatus mentioned in the present specification includes a recording optical system, a reproducing optical system, a recording and reproducing optical system, and an apparatus employing the foregoing), an infinite conjugated optical system is disclosed in TOKKAISHO No. 57-76512, and a finite conjugated optical system is disclosed in TOKKAISHO No. 61-56314. Further, for reducing occurrence of aberration caused by a temperature change in the case of using an objective lens made of resins, those employing a coupling lens are disclosed in TOKKAIHEI No. 6-258573. However, lenses made of resin (plastic) are used widely for a recording/reproducing optical system, especially for its objective lens, because of the recent demand for low cost.
[0003] However, an objective lens made of resin materials has a problem that aberration caused by a change in a refractive index that is derived from a temperature change is greater than that of a lens made of glass materials. In general, a change of a refractive index in resin materials is different from that of a refractive index in glass materials by ten times or more. In this case, when a difference between a temperature of the standard design and a temperature in the environment used actually is represented by ΔT, aberration changed by this temperature difference ΔT is mainly tertiary spherical aberration. Let it be assumed that SA represents the tertiary spherical aberration components of wave front aberration expressed in an rms value, and a sign of SA is defined so that SA is greater than zero when the spherical aberration is positive (over), while, SA is smaller than zero when the spherical aberration is negative (under). Tertiary spherical aberration ΔSA (λrms) caused by temperature change ΔT can be expressed in the following expression by using numerical aperture NA of the objective lens on the optical information recording medium side (on the image side), focal length f, image forming magnification m, proportion coefficient k and light wavelength λ.
Δ SA/ΔT=k·f (1− m ) 4 ( NA ) 4 /λ (1)
[0004] Incidentally, when a lens made of a resin material has a positive refracting power, if a temperature rises, its tertiary spherical aberration turns out to be over. Namely, the coefficient k in the aforesaid expression takes a positive value. Further, when a single lens made of a resin material is made to be an objective lens, the coefficient k takes a greater positive value.
[0005] In the case of an objective lens used for a compact disc that is widely used presently, it can be said that aberration caused by a temperature change in the environment used does not arrive at the problematic level, because NA is about 0.45. However, optical information recording media are now promoted to be of high density.
[0006] To be concrete, there has been developed DVD (storage capacity: 4.7 GB) which is in the size mostly the same as that of CD (storage capacity: 640 MB) and has raised recording density, and it is now popularized rapidly. For reproduction of DVD, it is normal to use a laser beam with a prescribed wavelength for which a wavelength of the light source is in a range of 635-660 nm. A divergent light flux emitted from a laser light source is made to be a collimated light flux by a collimator lens generally, and then, it enters an objective lens whose NA on the DVD side is 0.6 or more to be converged on an information recording surface through a transparent base board of DVD.
[0007] In consideration of the foregoing from the viewpoint of wave front aberration, when NA, for example, is increased from 0.45 to 0.6 in the expression (1) above, wave front aberration λrms is increased to (0.6/0.45) 4 =3.16 times.
[0008] Though it is considered to make focal length f to be small for the purpose of keeping the wave front aberration small based on the expression (1), in this case, it is difficult to make f to be smaller than the present value, because it is actually necessary to secure a distance of focusing operation.
[0009] With the background stated above, there have been proposed various types of objective lenses and optical pickup devices for conducting recording or reproduction, by using a single light-converging optical system, for a plurality of optical information recording media each having a transparent base board with a different thickness. It is known that the use of plastic lenses for the aforesaid objective lens and optical pickup device is advantageous for lightening a load for an actuator in the course of focusing and tracking, and for moving the objective lens rapidly, for making an optical pickup device to be light in weight, and for lowering the cost. For example, there are known an objective lens made of plastic and an optical pickup device employing the same wherein a divergent light is made to enter the objective lens for recording or reproducing of CD for restraining occurrence of spherical aberration caused by a thickness difference between transparent base boards, by utilizing that a diameter of a spot necessary for recording or reproducing for DVD (thickness of the transparent base board is 0.6 mm) and CD (thickness of the transparent base board is 1.2 mm) each having different recording density for information, is different each other and a necessary numerical aperture of the objective lens on the image side is different.
[0010] In the optical pickup device of this type, if an objective lens is made to be the finite conjugated type objective lens which is suitable for a divergent light flux from a light source to enter and an optical pickup device is made to be one employing that objective lens, for both recording or reproducing of DVD and recording or reproducing of CD, there are obtained merits that the optical pickup device can be made small and compact totally and a collimator lens to make a divergent light flux from a light source to be unnecessary. However, an objective lens which is made of plastic and satisfies various performances necessary for an optical pickup device, and an optical pickup device employing such objective lens made of plastic are not on practical use, and studies for them have not made yet.
[0011] On the other hand, in the case of a lens system using a conventional objective lens made of resin materials, there has been generated aberration that is proportional to the fourth power of numerical aperture NA of the objective lens on the image side, and is caused by refractive index change An of resin material derived from a temperature change, and this aberration has made it difficult to realize an objective lens and an optical pickup device both having sufficient optical performances.
[0012] With the aforesaid background, the inventors of the invention repeated trials and errors for realizing the objective lens and the optical pickup device stated above, and found out that an improvement of temperature characteristics of an objective lens is important for the realization. To be more concrete, they found out that the realization can be carried out by an objective lens and an optical pickup device, wherein there is provided a diffraction construction which makes spherical aberration for temperature changes to be satisfactory, on at least a peripheral area on at least one surface of the objective lens.
[0013] A first object of the invention is to provide a practical objective lens and an optical pickup device, wherein a divergent light emitted from a light source enters the objective lens, and sufficient properties for temperature changes in ambient conditions used are satisfied. Further, the first object of the invention is to provide a practical objective lens and an optical pickup device, wherein a divergent light emitted from a light source enters the objective lens, for a plurality of optical information recording media each having a transparent base board with a different thickness, and sufficient properties for temperature changes in ambient conditions used are satisfied, while making recording or reproducing for each information to be possible.
[0014] Further, the present invention relates to an objective lens and an optical pickup apparatus having a good temperature characteristics and a wide allowable range for a wavelength change of an light source.
[0015] An information recording surface of an optical information recording medium such as CD and DVD is usually protected by a transparent base board having a thickness stipulated by a standard. For conducting recording and reproducing for the optical information recording media, there is used an objective lens that is corrected in terms of spherical aberration for the transparent base board having that thickness. As an objective lens for recording and reproducing for these optical information recording media, various types of objective lenses are now studied, and TOKKAIHEI No. 6-258573, for example, discloses an objective lens of a refraction type wherein both sides thereof are aspheric surfaces. On this objective lens, there is introduced an aspheric surface to correct aberration of an optical system.
[0016] [0016]FIG. 52 is a diagram showing how residual aberration (spherical aberration) is generated when a thickness of the transparent base board is changed. When the spherical aberration is worsened, a diameter of a light spot formed on an information surface of an optical information recording medium is changed from the desired diameter. The desired spot diameter (range of 1/e 2 of peak intensity), in this case, is approximated to Spot diameter (μm)=0.831×λ/NA, when the numerical aperture of the objective lens is represented by NA and a wavelength of the light source is represented by λ (μm). Therefore, further technologies are needed for securing interchangeability of optical information recording media each having a different thickness of the transparent base board.
[0017] TOKKAI No. 2000-81566 discloses technologies wherein spherical aberration for the specific transparent base board thickness is corrected in the wavelength used for CD or DVD, when a diffraction surface is united solidly with an aspheric surface of an objective lens. In this objective lens, over spherical aberration of base aspheric surface in a refraction system is corrected by under spherical aberration generated on the diffractive section. In this case, the diffractive section has a function to correct spherical aberration toward the under side in CD having a thick transparent base board, because the diffractive section has power that is proportional to the wavelength. Therefore, if power allocation for the refraction section and the diffractive section is properly selected, it is possible to correct spherical aberration in the transparent base board thickness of 0.6 mm for light source wavelength 650 nm in the case of using DVD and spherical aberration in the transparent base board thickness of 1.2 mm for light source wavelength 780 nm in the case of using CD. Further, TOKKAIHEI No. 11-274646 discloses an example wherein there is provided a diffraction surface which corrects fluctuations of a focus position caused by a refractive index change resulting from a temperature change of a plastic lens.
[0018] In these objective lenses, there is a tendency that a change of spherical aberration caused by temperature changes is increased as there are advanced a movement toward the finite of an optical pickup device, a movement toward a short wavelength and a movement toward high NA, for recording and reproducing for high density information. Amount of change δSA 3 of 3 rd order component of spherical aberration caused by temperature changes is expressed by the following expression, when NA represents a numerical aperture of an objective lens on the image side, f represents a focal length, m represents an image forming magnification and λ represents a wavelength of a laser light source.
(δ SA 3 /δT )∝ f ·(1− m ) 4 NA 4 /λ (116)
[0019] Therefore, there is a tendency that temperature characteristics are deteriorated more as a movement toward an objective lens for high NA and a movement toward the finite of the objective lens are advanced, or as a movement toward a short wavelength of a laser light source is advanced. Error characteristics (conventional Example 1) in the case of designing on a conventional refracting interface are shown in “Table 14”. Incidentally, from now on (including lens data of the table), the power multiplier of 10 (for example, 2.5×10 −3 ) is shown by the use of E (for example, 2.5×E−3).
TABLE 14 δSA 3 (λ rms) at DVD in Transparent temperature base board change f(mm) thickness (δT = +30° C., DVD m λ(nm) NA (mm) dn/dT(/° C.) δλ = +6 nm) Conventional 3.0 0 785 0.50 1.2 −1.20E-04 +0.011(CD) Example 1 Conventional 3.0 −1/7.0 650 0.60 0.6 −1.20E-04 +0.098 Example 2 Conventional 3.05 −1/6 650 0.60 0.6 −1.20E-04 −0.002 Example 3 Example 1 3.0 −1/7.0 650/780 0.60/0.45 0.6/1.2 −5.80E-06 +0.002 Example 2 3.0 −1/7.0 650/780 0.60/0.45 0.6/1.2 −1.20E-04, +0.027 +0.8E-06 Example 3 3.0 ∞ 660/790 0.65/0.45 0.6/1.2 −5.70E-06 +0.009 Example 4 3.0 ∞ 660/790 0.65/0.50 0.6/1.2 −1.20E-04, +0.019 +7.4E-06 Example 5 3.0 −1/7.0 650/780 0.60/0.45 0.6/1.2 −1.20E-04, −0.004 +0.8E-06 Example 6 3.0 −1/10.0 650/780 0.60/0.45 0.6/1.2 −5.80E-06 +0.002 δSA 3 (λ rms) at DVD in Minimum pitch of ring- wavelength change (δλ = +10 shaped diffractive zone nm) Type of objective lens (μm) +0.000 (CD) Refractive surface only — +0.008 Refractive surface only — +0.076 Diffractive surface 3 δSA 3 (λ rms) at DVD in Minimum pitch of wavelength Type of ring-shaped change objective diffractive zone DVD spot CD spot diameter (δλ = +10 nm) lens (μm) diameter (μm) (μm) +0.007 Refractive — 0.903 1.420 surface only +0.005 Refractive — 0.898 1.414 surface only +0.008 Diffractive 14 0.846 1.487 surface +0.032 Diffractive 9 0.851 1.265 surface −0.012 Diffractive 10 9.004 1.359 surface −0.001 Diffractive 8 8.900 1.430 surface
[0020] For the problems mentioned above, there is considered a method to improve temperature characteristics by employing diffraction, as shown in the prior art. However, when trying to improve temperature characteristics by employing diffraction, following two troubles are caused. First one of these troubles is that an objective lens turns out to be weak for wavelength characteristics. The direction in which spherical aberration is generated by temperature changes on a refraction section is originally different from that on a diffractive section, and when trying to improve temperature characteristics more, spherical aberration generated on the refraction section alone is canceled by strengthening effectiveness of the diffractive section relatively, but in the case of wavelength changes which are not followed by temperature changes, the aforesaid spherical aberration remains as residual aberration without being canceled, which is the reason why the objective lens turns out to be weak for wavelength characteristics.
[0021] The second trouble is that when trying to make the effectiveness of diffraction to be great, diffraction pitch becomes small and diffraction efficiency is lowered. There is a tendency, in particular, that a pitch becomes smaller as the position corresponding to the pitch moves in the direction toward the periphery of the objective lens. In the case of Conventional Example 2 in “Table 14” wherein temperature characteristics have been corrected thoroughly, a minimum pitch of the ring-shaped diffractive zone is 3 μm and diffraction efficiency is lowered to about 80% on the ring-shaped diffractive zone.
[0022] The invention is to solve the aforesaid problems, and the second object is to provide an objective lens which makes it possible to conduct recording and reproducing for optical information recording media each having a different transparent base board thickness such as DVD system (DVD-ROM and DVD+RAM) and CD system (CD-ROM and CD+RW) and an optical pickup device, while securing excellent temperature characteristics.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0023] Firstly, the structure to achieve the first object is explained.
[0024] When a diffractive section is provided on an objective lens, it is possible to divide into a refracting power of diffraction basic aspheric surface and a diffracting power of the diffractive section, even in the case of a single lens, and a degree of freedom in design is increased, compared with an occasion to construct a lens only with refraction. If this power allocation between the refracting power and the diffracting power is carried out properly, temperature characteristics can be corrected. Now, the correction of temperature characteristics in the case of introducing a plastic objective lens in a finite optical system will be explained.
[0025] When δSA/δT represents a change in an amount of tertiary spherical aberration for temperature changes of a spherical-aberration-corrected positive lens made of resin such as a single objective lens with an aspheric surface having no diffraction pattern that is commonly used for recording and reproducing of optical information recording media, the change is expressed by the following expression.
δ SA/δT =(δ SA/δn )·(δ n/δT )+(δ SA/δn )·(δ n/δλ )·(δλ/δ T )=(δ SA/δn ){(δ n/δT )+(δ n /δλ)·(δλ/δ T )} (4)
[0026] In this case, (δn/δT)<0 and (δn/δX)<0 hold for resin materials. (δn/δT)=0 and (δn/δλ)<0 hold for glass materials. (δn/δT)>0 holds for a semiconductor laser and (δk/δT)=0 holds for an SHG laser, a solid state laser and a gas laser.
[0027] Incidentally, though (δn/δT) for glass materials and (δk/δT) for an SHG laser, a solid state laser and a gas laser are made to be zero, these values are not zero to be exact. However, they are thought to be zero practically in the field of the invention, and thereby, the explanation can be simplified. Therefore, the explanation is forwarded under the assumption that these values are zero.
[0028] Now, when a light source is represented by an SHG laser, a solid state laser or a gas laser, and (δλ/δT)=0 holds, the following expression holds.
δ SA/δT =(δ SA/δn )·(δ n/δT ) (5)
[0029] If this lens is made of glass, (δn/δT)=0 holds, and therefore, δSA/δT=0 holds. On the other hand, if the lens is made of resin, (δn/δT)<0 holds, and (δSA/δn)<0 holds, because δSA/δT>0 holds for the lens of this kind. Further, (δX/δT)>0 holds when a light source is represented by a semiconductor laser.
[0030] In this case, even when the lens is made of glass, the following expression holds,
δ SA/δT =(δ SA/δn )·(δ n /δλ)·(δλ/δ T ) (6)
[0031] and δSA/δT>0 holds because of (δn/δx)<0 and (δSA/δn)<0.
[0032] When a wavelength of incident light turns out to be shorter irrespective of glass materials and resin materials, an absolute value of (δn/δX) turns out to be greater. When using a semiconductor laser with a short wavelength, therefore, it is necessary to pay attention to temperature changes for spherical aberration, even for glass materials.
[0033] On the other hand, when an amount of a change of tertiary spherical aberration for temperature changes is formulated in terms of δSA/δT, with respect to a resin aspherical single lens having a diffraction pattern, the following is obtained. In this case, it is necessary to take in both characteristics of the refracting power and characteristics of the diffracting power. When R is suffixed to amount of change δSA of a spherical aberration amount to which a refracting lens section contributes, and D is suffixed to amount of change δSA of a spherical aberration amount to which a diffracting power contributes for indicating, δSA/δT can be expressed as follows.
δ SA/δT =(δ SA R /δn )·(δ n/δT )+(δSA R /δn )·(δ n /δλ)·(δλ/δ T )+(δ SA D /δλ)·(δλ/δ T ) (7)
[0034] In this case, when a light source is represented by an SHG laser, a solid state laser or a gas laser, and when (δx/δT)=0 holds, the following expression holds.
δ SA/δT =(δSA R /δn )·(δ n/δT) (8)
[0035] In the case of a glass lens, in this case, (δn/δT)=0 naturally holds, and δSA/δT=0 holds independently of a value of (δSA R /δn). In the case of a resin lens, on the other hand, (δn/δT)<0 holds, and if (δSA R /δn)=0 holds, δSA/δT=0 can hold.
[0036] In the invention, therefore, a diffracting power is introduced to a resin aspherical single lens, so that (δSA R /δn)=0 may hold with respect to a refracting power. However, in the case of a refracting power alone, spherical aberration remains, but the use of a diffracting power makes it possible to correct spherical aberration of an optical information recording medium on one side.
[0037] On the other hand, in the case of a light source represented by a semiconductor laser, (δλ/δT)>0 holds, and in the case of an objective lens having characteristics of the aforesaid (δSA R /δn)=0, the following expression is obtained from the aforesaid expression (7).
δ SA/δT =(δ SA D /δλ)·(δλ/δ T ) (9)
[0038] However, (δSA D /δλ)≠0 usually holds, and it is understood that an amount of tertiary spherical aberration is changed by temperature.
[0039] Further, the expression (7) stated above can be deformed to the following expression.
δ SA/δT =(δ SA R /δn )·{(δ n/δT )·(δ n /δλ)·(δλ/δ T }+(δSA D /δλ)·(δλ/δ T ) (10)
[0040] In the case of a resin lens, in this case, (δSA/δT)<0 holds, a light source is represented by a semiconductor laser, and (ak/δT)>0 holds. Therefore, the following expression is obtained.
(δ n/δT )+(δ n /δλ)·(δλ/δ T )<0 (11)
[0041] When (δSA R /δn)<0 holds as an assumption, the first term of expression (10) turns out to be a positive value from expression (11). To make δSA/δT=0 to hold, the second term needs to take a negative value under the condition of (δSA D /δλ)<0, because of (δn/δT)>0.
[0042] In the resin aspherical single lens having a diffracting power with the characteristics stated above, δSA/δT>0 holds because (δSA R /δn)<0 and (δn/δT)<0 hold in the aforesaid expression (8), in the case of (δλ/δT)=0.
[0043] Spherical aberration δSA/δλ in the case where a temperature is constant and a wavelength only changes can be expressed by the following expression.
δ SA /δλ=(δ SA R /δn )·(δ n /δλ)+(δ SA D /δλ) (12)
[0044] Though the first term is positive and the second term is negative, the diffracting power mainly contributes greatly to chromatic aberration of an aspherical single lens having a diffracting power as is known widely, thus, a sign of δSA/δλ is determined by the second term of the above expression (12), and δSA/δλ<0 generally holds.
[0045] Namely, in the resin single lens into which a diffracting power is introduced, it is possible to make δSA/δT to hold even in the case of a light source represented by a semiconductor laser, by making δSA R /δT>0 and δSA D /δλ<0 to hold.
[0046] When (δSA R /δn)>0 holds, on the contrary, it is possible to make δSA/δT to hold even in the case of a light source represented by a semiconductor laser, by making δSA R /δT<0 and δSA D /δλ>0 to hold, though calculation is omitted here.
[0047] Namely, it is needed that a sign of δSA R /δT is opposite to that of δSA D /δλ. In this case, the relationship of δSA R /δT·δSA D /δλ holds. The invention makes it possible to provide an objective lens wherein sufficient functions can be secured even for changes of ambient temperatures used. In this case, when (δSA/δT) is made to be greater than zero, the characteristic of the objective lens is closer to that of a resin aspherical single lens having no diffracting power, and thereby, a load of diffracting power is less, which is preferable. The invention makes it possible to provide an objective lens wherein sufficient functions can be secured even for changes of ambient temperatures used.
[0048] The objective lens having the structure stated above makes it possible to correct spherical aberration and temperature for an optical information recording medium on one side. Further, to conduct recording/reproducing of an optical information recording medium on the other side, optical surface areas which can divide a light flux entering the objective lens into some areas are formed on at least one side of the objective lens. Then, a certain light flux in an intermediate section of the divided light flux is made to be a spherical aberration design corresponding to a transparent base board thickness of the other disc. Satisfactory allocation of these divided light fluxes makes it possible to correct spherical aberration and temperature of an optical information recording medium on one side and to correct spherical aberration of an optical information recording medium on the other side.
[0049] (1) The optical pickup device described in (1) having therein a light source and a light-converging optical system including an objective lens for converging a light flux emitted from the light source on an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium, and is capable of conducting recording and/or reproducing of information for a first optical information recording medium in which a thickness of a transparent base board is t 1 and for a second optical information recording medium in which a thickness of a transparent base board is t 2 (t 1 <t 2 ), wherein the objective lens is a plastic lens, a divergent light flux emitted from the light source enters the objective lens when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium and when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, and the following conditional expression is satisfied when λ represents a wavelength of the light source, δSA 1 /δU represents a change of spherical aberration for object-image distance change δU(|U|<0.5 mm) and δSA 2 /δT represents a change of spherical aberration for temperature change δT (|δT|≦30° C.).
|δ SA 1 /δU|·|δU|+|δSA 2 /δT|·|δT|≦ 0.07 λrms (14)
[0050] In the optical pickup device described in (1), when the sum total of |δSA 1 /δU|·|δU| and |δSA 2 /δT|·|δT| is looked and it is made to be not more than 0.07 λrms by providing the diffractive structure on the objective lens, for example, it is possible to conduct properly recording or reproducing of information for two optical information recording media even under the condition that a divergent light flux with a single light source wavelength enters the objective lens, and it is possible to omit a collimator lens for forming a collimated light flux that enters the objective lens, to attain cost reduction, and to make the structure of the optical pickup device to be compact.
[0051] Incidentally, the word “object-to-image distance” means a distance between a light source (a light emitting point) and an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium.
[0052] (2) In the optical pickup device described in (2), at least one surface of the objective lens is provided with a diffractive structure on at least a peripheral area in an effective diameter, and it is possible to conduct recording or reproducing of information for two optical information recording media properly even under the condition that a divergent light flux enters the objective lens, because the following conditional expression is satisfied when δSA1/δT represents a change of spherical aberration for temperature change δT in a light flux which has passed the diffractive structure on the peripheral area among light fluxes emitted from the light source.
|δ SA 1 /δT|≦ 0.002 λrms/° C. (15)
[0053] (3) In the optical pickup device described in (3), it is possible to conduct recording or reproducing of information for two optical information recording media properly even under the condition that a divergent light flux enters the objective lens, because the following conditional expression is satisfied when δSA1/δT represents a change of spherical aberration for temperature change δT in a light flux which has passed the diffractive structure on the peripheral area among light fluxes emitted from the light source.
|δSA 1 /δT|≦ 0.0005 λrms/° C. (16)
[0054] (4) In the optical pickup device described in (4), the diffractive structure on the peripheral area of the objective lens is a ring-shaped diffractive zone, and with regard to a light flux passing through the diffractive structure of the peripheral area of the objective lens among light fluxes emitted from the light source, an average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
2.00×10 −4 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 −2 (17)
[0055] (5) In the optical pickup device described in (5), an average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
1.00×10 −3 ≦=P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 −3 (18)
[0056] (6) In the optical pickup device described in (6), an average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦8.00×10 −3 (19)
[0057] (7) In the optical pickup device described in (7), the optical surface of the objective lens is composed of three or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and when the three or more kinds of optical surface areas are represented by an optical surface area closer to the optical axis, an intermediate optical surface area and an optical surface area closer to the outside, all arranged in this order from the optical axis side, the optical surface area closer to the outside is the area on the peripheral side stated above.
[0058] (8) In the optical pickup device described in (8), spherical aberration is discontinuous in at least one of a boundary between the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the intermediate optical surface and a boundary between the intermediate optical surface area and the optical surface area closer to the outside.
[0059] (9) In the optical pickup device described in (9), a diffractive section where ring-shaped diffractive zones are formed is formed on the optical surface area closer to the optical axis, and average pitch P in of the ring-shaped diffractive zones satisfies the following expression, when n-th order light represents a diffracted light with a maximum amount of light generated by the diffractive structure from a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the optical surface area closer to the light source among light fluxes emitted from the light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
3.00×10 −3 P in /(| n|·f )≦8.0×10 −2 (20)
[0060] (10) In the optical pickup device described in (10), the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium stated above.
[0061] (11) In the optical pickup device described in (11), when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, spherical aberration of the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to be discontinuous and to be flare component, for spherical aberration of the light flux passing through the optical surface area closer to the outside, while when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is used.
[0062] Incidentally, the flare component is one wherein an amount of spherical aberration is given to the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area, so that the light flux may be in the non-image-forming state at a focused position of a regular optical information recording medium, and the greater amount of spherical aberration is preferable. Further, the greater amount of a difference of steps at a position of a boundary between optical surfaces is preferable.
[0063] (12) In the optical pickup device described in (12), the intermediate optical surface area has a function to correct spherical aberration for thickness t (t 1 <t<t 2 ) of a transparent base board.
[0064] (13) In the optical pickup device described in (13), when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, a light flux passing mainly through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the optical surface area closer to the outside is used, while when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, a light flux passing mainly through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the intermediate optical surface area is used.
[0065] (14) In the optical pickup device described in (14), when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the following expressions are satisfied under the assumption that the intermediate optical surface area is formed within a range from the shortest distance from an optical axis NAH mm to NAL mm when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (21)
( NA 2 −0.20) f 2 ≦NAL ≦( NA 2 −0.04) f 2 (22)
[0066] (15) In the optical pickup device described in (15), when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, a light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to have under spherical aberration.
[0067] (16) In the optical pickup device described in (16), the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0068] (17) In the optical pickup device described in (17), the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct temperature characteristics when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0069] (18) In the optical pickup device described in (18), the optical surface of the objective lens is composed of two or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and when the two kinds of optical surface areas are represented by an optical surface area closer to the optical axis and an optical surface area closer to the outside, the optical surface area closer to the outside is the area on the peripheral side stated above.
[0070] (19) In the optical pickup device described in (19), a diffractive section where ring-shaped diffractive zones are formed is formed on the optical surface area closer to the optical axis, and average pitch P in of the ring-shaped diffractive zones satisfies the following expression, when n th order light represents a diffracted light with a maximum amount of light generated by the diffractive structure from a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the optical surface area closer to the light source among light fluxes emitted from the light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P in /(| n|·f )<8.0×10 −2 (23)
[0071] (20) In the optical pickup device described in (20), the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0072] (21) In the optical pickup device described in (21), the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration for thickness t (t 1 <t<t 2 ) of a transparent base board. (22) In the optical pickup device described in (22), when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, the optical surface area closer to the optical axis makes a light flux passing through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis to have under spherical aberration, and when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the optical surface area closer to the optical axis makes a light flux passing through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis to have over spherical aberration.
[0073] (23) In the optical pickup device described in (23), when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the following expression is satisfied under the assumption that the optical surface area closer to the optical axis is formed within a range of the shortest distance NAH mm from the optical axis, when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (24)
[0074] (24) In the optical pickup device described in (24), the following expression is satisfied by image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the first optical information recording medium.
−½ ≦m 1≦−{fraction (1/7.5)} (25)
[0075] (25) In the optical pickup device described in (25), image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the second optical information recording medium is nearly the same as m1.
[0076] (26) The optical pickup device described in (26) is represented by an optical pickup device having therein a first light source and a second light source each being different in terms of wavelength and a light-converging optical system including an objective lens for converging a light fluxes emitted from the first and the second light sources on an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium, and being capable of conducting recording and/or reproducing of information for a first optical information recording medium in which a thickness of a transparent base board is t 1 by using the first light source and the light-converging optical system and of conducting recording and/or reproducing of information for a second optical information recording medium in which a thickness of a transparent base board is t 2 (t 1 <t 2 ) by using the second light source and the light-converging optical system wherein the objective lens is a plastic lens, and when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, a divergent light flux emitted from the first light source enters the objective lens, and the following conditional expression is satisfied when λ1 represents a wavelength of the first light source, δSA 3 /δU represents a change of spherical aberration for object-image distance change δU (|δU|≦0.5 mm) and δSA 4 /δT represents a change of spherical aberration for temperature change δT (|δT|≦30° C.)
|δ SA 3 /δU|·|δU|+|δSA 4 /δT|·|δT≦ 0.07 λrms (26)
[0077] and when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, a divergent light flux emitted from the second light source enters the objective lens, and the following conditional expression is satisfied when λ2 represents a wavelength of the second light source, δSA 5 /δU represents a change of spherical aberration for object-image distance change δU(|δU|<0.5 mm) and δSA 6 /δT represents a change of spherical aberration for temperature change δT (|δT|≦30° C.).
|δ SA 5 /δU|·|δU|+|δSA 6 /δT|·|δT|≦ 0.07 λ2 rms (27)
[0078] In the optical pickup device described in (26), when the sum total of |δSA 3 /δU|·|U| and |δSA 4 /δT|·|δT| and the sum total of |δSA 5 /δU|·|U| and |δSA 6 /δT|·|δT| are looked and each sum total is made to be not more than 0.07 λ1rms and 0.07 λ2rms respectively by providing the diffractive structure on the objective lens, for example, it is possible to conduct properly recording or reproducing of information for two optical information recording media even under the condition that divergent light fluxes emitted from light sources being different in terms of wavelength enter the objective lens, and it is possible to omit a collimator lens for forming a collimated light flux that enters the objective lens, to attain cost reduction, and to make the structure of the optical pickup device to be compact.
[0079] (27) The optical pickup device described in (27) wherein at least one surface of the objective lens is provided with a diffractive structure on at least a peripheral area in an effective diameter, and the following conditional expression is satisfied when δSA1/δT represents a change of spherical aberration for temperature change δT in a light flux which has passed the diffractive structure on the peripheral area among light fluxes emitted from the first light source.
|δ SA 1 /δT|≦ 0.002 λ1rms/° C. (28)
[0080] (28) The optical pickup device described in (28) wherein δSA1/δT representing a change of spherical aberration for temperature change δT in a light flux which has passed the diffractive structure on the peripheral area among light fluxes emitted from the first light source satisfies the following conditional expression.
|δ SA 1 /δT|≦ 0.0005 λ1rms/° C. (29)
[0081] (29) The optical pickup device described in (29) wherein the diffractive structure on the peripheral area of the objective lens is a ring-shaped diffractive zone, and an average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression when n th order light represents a diffracted light with a maximum amount of light generated by the diffractive structure from a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the peripheral area of the objective lens among light fluxes emitted from the first light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
2.00×10 −4 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 −2 (30)
[0082] (30) The optical pickup device described in (30) wherein the average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
1.00×10 −3 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 −3 (31)
[0083] (31) The optical pickup device described in (31) wherein the average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦8.00×10 −3 (32)
[0084] (32) The optical pickup device described in (32) wherein the optical surface of the objective lens is composed of three or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and when the three or more kinds of optical surface areas are represented by an optical surface area closer to the optical axis, an intermediate optical surface area and an optical surface area closer to the outside, all arranged in this order from the optical axis side, the optical surface area closer to the outside is the area on the peripheral side stated above.
[0085] (33) The optical pickup device described in (32) wherein spherical aberration is discontinuous in at least one of a boundary between the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the intermediate optical surface and a boundary between the intermediate optical surface area and the optical surface area closer to the outside.
[0086] (34) The optical pickup device described in (34), wherein a diffractive section where ring-shaped diffractive zones are formed is formed on the optical surface area closer to the optical axis, and average pitch P in of the ring-shaped diffractive zones satisfies the following expression, when n th order light represents a diffracted light with a maximum amount of light generated by the diffractive structure from a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the optical surface area closer to the second light source among light fluxes emitted from the second light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P in /(| n|·f )≦8.0×10 −2 (33)
[0087] (35) The optical pickup device described in (35), the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium stated above.
[0088] (36) The optical pickup device described in (36), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, spherical aberration of the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to be discontinuous and to be flare component, for spherical aberration of the light flux passing through the optical surface area closer to the outside, while when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is used.
[0089] (37) The optical pickup device described in (37), wherein the intermediate optical surface area has a function to correct spherical aberration for thickness t (t 1 <t<t 2 ) of a transparent base board.
[0090] (38) The optical pickup device described in (38), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, a light flux passing mainly through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the optical surface area closer to the outside is used, while when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, a light flux passing mainly through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the intermediate optical surface area is used.
[0091] (39) In the optical pickup device described in (39), when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the following expressions are satisfied under the assumption that the intermediate optical surface area is formed within a range from the shortest distance from an optical axis NAH mm to NAL mm when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (34)
( NA 2 −0.20) f 2 <NAL ≦( NA 2 −0.04) f 2 (35)
[0092] (40) The optical pickup device described in (40), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, a light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to have over spherical aberration.
[0093] (41) The optical pickup device described in (41),wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0094] (42) The optical pickup device described in (42), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct temperature characteristics when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0095] (43) The optical pickup device described in (43), wherein the optical surface of the objective lens is composed of two or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and when the two kinds of optical surface areas are represented by an optical surface area closer to the optical axis and an optical surface area closer to the outside, the optical surface area closer to the outside is the area on the peripheral side stated above.
[0096] (44) The optical pickup device described in (44), wherein a diffractive section where ring-shaped diffractive zones are formed is formed on the optical surface area closer to the optical axis, average pitch P in of the ring-shaped diffractive zones satisfies the following expression, when nth order light represents a diffracted light with a maximum amount of light generated by the diffractive structure from a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the optical surface area closer to the second light source among light fluxes emitted from the second light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P in /(| n|·f )≦8.0×10 − (35)
[0097] (45) The optical pickup device described in (45), wherein the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0098] (46) The optical pickup device described in (46), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration for thickness t 1 of a transparent base board.
[0099] (47) The optical pickup device described in (47), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration for a light flux passing through that optical surface area when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, while the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to make the light flux passing through that optical surface area to be a flare component when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium.
[0100] (48) The optical pickup device described in (48), when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the following expression is satisfied under the assumption that the optical surface area closer to the optical axis is formed within a range of the shortest distance NAH mm from the optical axis, when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (36)
[0101] (49) The optical pickup device described in (49), wherein the following expression is satisfied by image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the first optical information recording medium.
−½ ≦m 1≦−{fraction (1/7.5)} (37)
[0102] (50) The optical pickup device described in (50), wherein image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the second optical information recording medium is nearly the same as m1.
[0103] (51) The optical pickup device described in (51), wherein there are provided a light source and a light-converging optical system including the objective lens for converging a divergent light flux that is emitted from the light source and enters objective lens on an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium, and the objective lens of the optical pickup device capable of recording and/or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium having a t1-thick transparent base board and for the second optical information recording medium having a t2-thick transparent base board (t 1 <t 2 ) is a plastic lens and at least one side thereof is provided with a diffractive structure on at least a peripheral area within an effective diameter, and thus, the following expression is satisfied, when δSA1/δT represents a change in spherical aberration for temperature change δT in a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the peripheral area among light fluxes emitted from the light source, and λ represents a wavelength of the light source.
|δ SA 1 /δT|≦ 0.002 λrms/° C. (38)
[0104] In the objective lens described in (51), by providing the diffractive structure that satisfies the expression (38) on the aforesaid peripheral area, it is possible to conduct properly recording or reproducing of information for two optical information recording media, even under the condition that the objective lens is arranged on the optical pickup device and a divergent light flux emitted from the light source enters the objective lens, thus, it is possible to omit a collimator lens for forming a collimated light flux that enters the objective lens, to attain cost reduction, and to make the structure of the optical pickup device to be compact.
[0105] (52) The objective lens described in (52), wherein δSA1/δT representing a change of spherical aberration for temperature change δT in a light flux which has passed the diffractive structure on the peripheral area among light fluxes emitted from the light source satisfies the following conditional expression.
|δSA1 /δT|≦ 0.0005 λrms/° C. (39)
[0106] (53) The objective lens described in (53) wherein the diffractive structure on the peripheral area of the objective lens is a ring-shaped diffractive zone, and average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression, when n th order light represents a diffracted light with the greatest amount of light generated by the diffractive structure and by a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the peripheral area of the object lens among light fluxes emitted from the light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
2.00×10 −4 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 −2 (40)
[0107] (54) The objective lens described in (54) wherein average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
1.00×10 −3 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 −3 (41)
[0108] (55) The objective lens described in (54) wherein average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦8.00×10 −3 (42)
[0109] (56) The objective lens described in (56) wherein the optical surface of the objective lens is composed of three or more types of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis, and when the three types of optical surface areas are represented by an optical surface area closer to the optical axis, an intermediate optical surface area and an optical surface area closer to the outside, in this order from the optical axis side, the optical surface area closer to the outside is the aforesaid peripheral area.
[0110] (57) The objective lens described in (57) wherein spherical aberration is discontinuous in at least one of a boundary between the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the intermediate optical surface and a boundary between the intermediate optical surface area and the optical surface area closer to the outside.
[0111] (58) The objective lens described in (58) wherein a diffractive section having thereon a ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed on the optical surface area closer to the optical axis, and average pitch P in of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression, when nth order light represents a diffracted light with the greatest amount of light generated by the diffractive structure and by a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the optical surface area closer to the light source among light fluxes emitted from the light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P in /(| n|·f )≦8.00×10 −2 (43)
[0112] (59) The objective lens described in (59) wherein the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium stated above.
[0113] (60) The objective lens described in (60), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, spherical aberration of the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to be discontinuous and to be flare component, for spherical aberration of the light flux passing through the optical surface area closer to the outside, while when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is used.
[0114] (61) The objective lens described in (61), wherein the intermediate optical surface area has a function to correct spherical aberration for thickness t (t 1 <t<t 2 ) of a transparent base board.
[0115] (62) The objective lens described in (62), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, a light flux passing mainly through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the optical surface area closer to the outside is used, while when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, a light flux passing mainly through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the intermediate optical surface area is used.
[0116] (63) The objective lens described in (63), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the following expressions are satisfied under the assumption that the intermediate optical surface area is formed within a range from the shortest distance from an optical axis NAH mm to NAL mm when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (44)
( NA 2 −0.20) f 2 ≦NAL ≦( NA 2 −0.04) f 2 (45)
[0117] (64) The objective lens described in (64), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, a light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to have under spherical aberration.
[0118] (65) The objective lens described in (65), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0119] (66) The objective lens described in (66), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct temperature characteristics when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0120] (67) The objective lens described in (67), wherein the optical surface of the objective lens is composed of two or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and when the two kinds of optical surface areas are represented by an optical surface area closer to the optical axis and an optical surface area closer to the outside, the optical surface area closer to the outside is the area on the peripheral side stated above.
[0121] (68) The objective lens described in (68), wherein a diffractive section where ring-shaped diffractive zones are formed is formed on the optical surface area closer to the optical axis, average pitch P in of the ring-shaped diffractive zones satisfies the following expression, when nth order light represents a diffracted light with a maximum amount of light generated by the diffractive structure from a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the optical surface area closer to the light source among light fluxes emitted from the light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P in /( |n|·f )≦8.0×10 −2 (46)
[0122] (69) The objective lens described in (69), wherein the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0123] (70) The objective lens described in (70), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration for thickness t (t 1 <t<t 2 ) of a transparent base board.
[0124] (71) The objective lens described in (71), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, the optical surface area closer to the optical axis makes a light flux passing through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis to have under spherical aberration, and when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the optical surface area closer to the optical axis makes a light flux passing through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis to have over spherical aberration.
[0125] (72) The objective lens described in (72), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the following expression is satisfied under the assumption that the optical surface area closer to the optical axis is formed within a range of the shortest distance NAH mm from the optical axis, when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (47)
[0126] (73) The objective lens described in (73), wherein the following expression is satisfied by image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the first optical information recording medium.
−½ ≦m 1≦−{fraction (1/7.5)} (48)
[0127] (74) The objective lens described in (74), wherein image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the second optical information recording medium is nearly the same as m1.
[0128] (75) The objective lens described in (75) is represented by an objective lens of an optical pickup device employing a first light source and a second light source each being different in terms of wavelength and a light-converging optical system including the objective lens for converging divergent light fluxes emitted from the first and the second light sources and enter the objective lens on an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium, and being capable of conducting recording and/or reproducing of information for a first optical information recording medium in which a thickness of a transparent base board is t 1 , and of conducting recording and/or reproducing of information for a second optical information recording medium in which a thickness of a transparent base board is t 2 (t 1 <t 2 ), wherein the objective lens is a plastic lens, and at least one side of the objective lens is provided with a diffractive structure on at least a peripheral area within an effective diameter, and the following expression is satisfied, when δSA1/δT represents a change in spherical aberration for temperature change δT in a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the peripheral area among light fluxes emitted from the first light source, and λ1 represents a wavelength of the first light source.
|δ SA 1 /δT|≦ 0.002 λ1 rms/° C. (49)
[0129] In the objective lens described in (75), by providing the diffractive structure that satisfies the expression (49) on the aforesaid peripheral area, it is possible to conduct properly recording or reproducing of information for two optical information recording media, even under the condition that the objective lens is arranged on the optical pickup device and a divergent light flux emitted from the light source having a different wavelength enters the objective lens, thus, it is possible to omit a collimator lens for forming a collimated light flux that enters the objective lens, to attain cost reduction, and to make the structure of the optical pickup device to be compact.
[0130] (76) The objective lens described in (76), wherein δSA1/δT representing a change of spherical aberration for temperature change δT in a light flux which has passed the diffractive structure on the peripheral area among light fluxes emitted from the first light source satisfies the following conditional expression.
|δ SA 1 /δT|≦ 0.0005 λ1 rms/° C. (50)
[0131] (77) The objective lens described in (77) wherein the diffractive structure on the peripheral area of the objective lens is a ring-shaped diffractive zone, and average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression, when n-th order light represents a diffracted light with the greatest amount of light generated by the diffractive structure and by a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the peripheral area of the object lens among light fluxes emitted from the first light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
2.00×10 −4 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 2 (51)
[0132] (78) The objective lens described in (78) wherein average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
1.00×10 −3 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 −3 (52)
[0133] (79) The objective lens described in (79) wherein average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦8.00×10 −3 (53)
[0134] (80) The objective lens described in (80) wherein the optical surface of the objective lens is composed of three or more types of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis, and when the three types of optical surface areas are represented by an optical surface area closer to the optical axis, an intermediate optical surface area and an optical surface area closer to the outside, in this order from the optical axis side, the optical surface area closer to the outside is the aforesaid peripheral area.
[0135] (81) The objective lens described in (81) wherein spherical aberration is discontinuous in at least one of a boundary between the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the intermediate optical surface and a boundary between the intermediate optical surface area and the optical surface area closer to the outside.
[0136] (82) The objective lens described in (82) wherein a diffractive section having thereon a ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed on the optical surface area closer to the optical axis, and average pitch P in of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression, when n th order light represents a diffracted light with the greatest amount of light generated by the diffractive structure and by a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the optical surface area closer to the second light source among light fluxes emitted from the second light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P in /(| n|·f )≦8.00×10 −2 (54)
[0137] (83) The objective lens described in (83) wherein the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium stated above.
[0138] (84) The objective lens described in (84), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, spherical aberration of the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to be discontinuous and to be flare component, for spherical aberration of the light flux passing through the optical surface area closer to the outside, while when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is used.
[0139] (85) The objective lens described in (85), wherein the intermediate optical surface area has a function to correct spherical aberration for thickness t (t 1 <t<t 2 ) of a transparent base board.
[0140] (86) The objective lens described in (86), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, a light flux passing mainly through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the optical surface area closer to the outside is used, while when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, a light flux passing mainly through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the intermediate optical surface area is used.
[0141] (87) The objective lens described in (87), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the following expressions are satisfied under the assumption that the intermediate optical surface area is formed within a range from the shortest distance from an optical axis NAH mm to NAL mm when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (55)
( NA 2 −0.20) f 2 ≦NAL ≦( NA 2 −0.04) f 2 (56)
[0142] (88) The objective lens described in (88), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, a light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to have over spherical aberration.
[0143] (89) The objective lens described in (89), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0144] (90) The objective lens described in (90), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct temperature characteristics when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0145] (91) The objective lens described in (91), wherein the optical surface of the objective lens is composed of two or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and when the two kinds of optical surface areas are represented by an optical surface area closer to the optical axis and an optical surface area closer to the outside, the optical surface area closer to the outside is the area on the peripheral side stated above.
[0146] (92) The objective lens described in (92), wherein a diffractive section where ring-shaped diffractive zones are formed is formed on the optical surface area closer to the optical axis, average pitch P in of the ring-shaped diffractive zones satisfies the following expression, when n-th order light represents a diffracted light with a maximum amount of light generated by the diffractive structure from a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the optical surface area closer to the second light source among light fluxes emitted from the second light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P in /(| n|·f )≦8.0×10 −2 (57)
[0147] (93) The objective lens described in (93), wherein the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0148] (94) The objective lens described in (94), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration for thickness t 1 of a transparent base board.
[0149] (95) The objective lens described in (95), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration for the light flux passing through that optical surface area, while when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to make the light flux passing through that optical surface to be flare components.
[0150] (96) The objective lens described in (96), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the following expression is satisfied under the assumption that the optical surface area closer to the optical axis is formed within a range of the shortest distance NAH mm from the optical axis, when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (58)
[0151] (97) The objective lens described in (97), wherein the following expression is satisfied by image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the first optical information recording medium.
−½ ≦m 1≦{fraction (1/7.5)} (59)
[0152] (98) The objective lens described in (98), wherein image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the second optical information recording medium is nearly the same as m1.
[0153] (99) The objective lens described in (99) is represented by an objective lens of an optical pickup device having a light source and a light-converging optical system including the objective lens for converging a divergent light flux that is emitted from the light source and enters the objective lens on an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium, and being an objective lens of an optical pickup device capable of conducting recording and/or reproducing of information for a first optical information recording medium in which a thickness of a transparent base board is t1, and for a second optical information recording medium in which a thickness of a transparent base board is t 2 (t 1 <t 2 ), wherein the objective lens is a plastic lens, and at least one side of the objective lens is provided with at least two types of areas within an effective diameter in the direction from the optical axis of the objective lens toward the periphery, and the diffractive structure is provided on at least an area on the peripheral portion within the effective diameter, and the following expression is satisfied, when δSA1/δT represents a change in spherical aberration for temperature change δT in a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the peripheral area among light fluxes emitted from the light source, and λ represents a wavelength of the light source, and an area inside the peripheral area is designed to correct spherical aberration for recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium.
|δSA1 /δT|≦ 0.002 λ rms/° C.
[0154] In the objective lens described in (99), change δSA1/δT of spherical aberration for a temperature change is corrected by the diffractive structure on the aforesaid peripheral area in recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium, and spherical aberration is corrected by the area inside the peripheral area in recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium, and therefore, it is possible to conduct properly recording or reproducing of information for both optical information recording media, even under the condition that the objective lens is arranged on the optical pickup device and divergent light fluxes emitted from the light sources enter the objective lens, thus, it is possible to omit a collimator lens for forming a collimated light flux that enters the objective lens, to attain cost reduction, and to make the structure of the optical pickup device to be compact.
[0155] (100) The objective lens described in (100), wherein δSA1/δT representing a change of spherical aberration for temperature change δT in a light flux which has passed the diffractive structure on the peripheral area among light fluxes emitted from the light source satisfies the following conditional expression.
|δ SA 1 /δT|≦ 0.0005 λrms/° C. (60)
[0156] (101) The objective lens described in (101) wherein the diffractive structure on the peripheral area of the objective lens is a ring-shaped diffractive zone, and average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression, when n-th order light represents a diffracted light with the greatest amount of light generated by the diffractive structure and by a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the peripheral area of the object lens among light fluxes emitted from the light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
2.00×10 −4 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 −2 (61)
[0157] (102) The objective lens described in (102) wherein average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
1.00×10 −3 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 −3 (62)
[0158] (103) The objective lens described in (103) wherein average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦8.00×10 −3 (3)
[0159] (104) The objective lens described in (104) wherein the optical surface of the objective lens is composed of three or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and when the three or more kinds of optical surface areas are represented by an optical surface area closer to the optical axis, an intermediate optical surface area and an optical surface area closer to the outside, all arranged in this order from the optical axis side, the optical surface area closer to the outside is the area on the peripheral side stated above.
[0160] (105) The objective lens described in (105) wherein spherical aberration is discontinuous in at least one of a boundary between the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the intermediate optical surface and a boundary between the intermediate optical surface area and the optical surface area closer to the outside.
[0161] (106) The objective lens described in (106) wherein a diffractive section having thereon a ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed on the optical surface area closer to the optical axis, and average pitch P in of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression, when n th order light represents a diffracted light with the greatest amount of light generated by the diffractive structure and by a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the optical surface area closer to the light source among light fluxes emitted from the light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P in /(| n|·f )≦8.00×10 −2 (64)
[0162] (107) The objective lens described in (107) wherein the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium stated above.
[0163] (108) The objective lens described in (108), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, spherical aberration of the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to be discontinuous and to be flare component, for spherical aberration of the light flux passing through the optical surface area closer to the outside, while when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is used.
[0164] (109) The objective lens described in (109), wherein the intermediate optical surface area has a function to correct spherical aberration for thickness t (t 1 <t<t 2 ) of a transparent base board.
[0165] (110) The objective lens described in (110), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, a light flux passing mainly through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the optical surface area closer to the outside is used, while when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, a light flux passing mainly through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the intermediate optical surface area is used.
[0166] (111) The objective lens described in (111), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the following expressions are satisfied under the assumption that the intermediate optical surface area is formed within a range from the shortest distance from an optical axis NAH mm to NAL mm when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (65)
( NA 2 −0.20) f 2 ≦NAL ≦( NA 2 −0.04) f 2 (66)
[0167] (112) The objective lens described in (112), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, a light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to have under spherical aberration.
[0168] (113) The objective lens described in (113), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0169] (114) The objective lens described in (114), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct temperature characteristics when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0170] (115) The objective lens described in (115), wherein the optical surface of the objective lens is composed of two or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and when the two kinds of optical surface areas are represented by an optical surface area closer to the optical axis and an optical surface area closer to the outside, the optical surface area closer to the outside is the area on the peripheral side stated above.
[0171] (116) The objective lens described in (116), wherein a diffractive section where ring-shaped diffractive zones are formed is formed on the optical surface area closer to the optical axis, and average pitch P in of the ring-shaped diffractive zones satisfies the following expression, when nth order light represents a diffracted light with a maximum amount of light generated by the diffractive structure from a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the optical surface area closer to the light source among light fluxes emitted from the light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P in /(| n|·f )≦8.0×10 −2 (67)
[0172] (117) The objective lens described in (117), wherein the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0173] (118) The objective lens described in (118), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration for thickness t (t 1 <t<t 2 ) of a transparent base board.
[0174] (119) The objective lens described in (119), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, the optical surface area closer to the optical axis makes a light flux passing through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis to have under spherical aberration, and when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the optical surface area closer to the optical axis makes a light flux passing through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis to have over spherical aberration.
[0175] (120) The objective lens described in (120), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the following expression is satisfied under the assumption that the optical surface area closer to the optical axis is formed within a range of the shortest distance NAH mm from the optical axis, when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (68)
[0176] (121) The objective lens described in (121), wherein the following expression is satisfied by image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the first optical information recording medium.
−½ ≦m 1≦{fraction (1/7.5)} (69)
[0177] (122) The objective lens described in (122), wherein image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the second optical information recording medium is nearly the same as m1.
[0178] (123) The objective lens described in (123) is represented by an objective lens of an optical pickup device having a first light source and a second light source each being different each other in terms of wavelength and a light-converging optical system including the objective lens for converging divergent light fluxes emitted from the first and the second light sources and enter the objective lens on an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium, and being capable of conducting recording and/or reproducing of information for a first optical information recording medium in which a thickness of a transparent base board is t 1 by using the first light source and the light-converging optical system, and of conducting recording and/or reproducing of information for a second optical information recording medium in which a thickness of a transparent base board is t 2 (t 1 <t 2 ) by using the second light source and the light-converging optical system, wherein the objective lens is a plastic lens, and at least one side of the objective lens is provided with at least two types of areas within an effective diameter in the direction from the optical axis of the objective lens toward the periphery, and the diffractive structure is provided on at least an area on the peripheral portion within the effective diameter, and the following expression is satisfied, when δSA1/δT represents a change in spherical aberration for temperature change δT in a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the peripheral area among light fluxes emitted from the first light source, and λ represents a wavelength of the light source, and an area inside the peripheral area is designed to correct spherical aberration for recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium.
|δ SA 1 /δT|≦ 0.002 λrms/° C. (70)
[0179] In the objective lens described in (123), change δSA1/δT of spherical aberration for a temperature change is corrected by the diffractive structure on the aforesaid peripheral area in recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium, and spherical aberration is corrected by the area inside the peripheral area in recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium, and therefore, it is possible to conduct properly recording or reproducing of information for both optical information recording media, even under the condition that the objective lens is arranged on the optical pickup device and divergent light fluxes each having a different light source wavelength respectively enter the objective lens, thus, it is possible to omit a collimator lens for forming a collimated light flux that enters the objective lens, to attain cost reduction, and to make the structure of the optical pickup device to be compact.
[0180] (124) The objective lens described in (124), wherein δSA1/δT representing a change of spherical aberration for temperature change δT in a light flux which has passed the diffractive structure on the peripheral area among light fluxes emitted from the first light source satisfies the following conditional expression.
|δ SA 1 /δT|≦ 0.0005 λrms/° C. ( 71)
[0181] (125) The objective lens described in (125) wherein the diffractive structure on the peripheral area of the objective lens is a ring-shaped diffractive zone, and average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression, when n th order light represents a diffracted light with the greatest amount of light generated by the diffractive structure and by a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the peripheral area of the object lens among light fluxes emitted from the first light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
2.00×10 −4 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 −2 (72)
[0182] (126) The objective lens described in (126) wherein average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone mentioned above satisfies the following expression.
1.00×10 −3 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 −3 (73)
[0183] (127) The objective lens described in (127) wherein average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
3.00×10×10 −3 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦8.00×10 −3 (74)
[0184] (128) The objective lens described in (128) wherein the optical surface of the objective lens is composed of three or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and when the three or more kinds of optical surface areas are represented by an optical surface area closer to the optical axis, an intermediate optical surface area and an optical surface area closer to the outside, all arranged in this order from the optical axis side, the optical surface area closer to the outside is the area on the peripheral side stated above.
[0185] (129) The objective lens described in (129) wherein spherical aberration is discontinuous in at least one of a boundary between the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the intermediate optical surface and a boundary between the intermediate optical surface area and the optical surface area closer to the outside.
[0186] (130) The objective lens described in (130) wherein a diffractive section having thereon a ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed on the optical surface area closer to the optical axis, and average pitch P in of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression, when nth order light represents a diffracted light with the greatest amount of light generated by the diffractive structure and by a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the optical surface area closer to the second light source among light fluxes emitted from the second light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P in /(| n|·f )≦8.00×10 −2 (75)
[0187] (131) The objective lens described in (131) wherein the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium stated above.
[0188] (132) The objective lens described in (132), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, spherical aberration of the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to be discontinuous and to be flare component, for spherical aberration of the light flux passing through the optical surface area closer to the outside, while when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is used.
[0189] (133) The objective lens described in (133), wherein the intermediate optical surface area has a function to correct spherical aberration for thickness t (t 1 <t<t 2 ) of a transparent base board.
[0190] (134) The objective lens described in (134), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, a light flux passing mainly through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the optical surface area closer to the outside is used, while when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, a light flux passing mainly through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the intermediate optical surface area is used.
[0191] (135) The objective lens described in (135), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the following expressions are satisfied under the assumption that the intermediate optical surface area is formed within a range from the shortest distance from an optical axis NAH mm to NAL mm when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (76)
( NA 2 −0.20) f 2 ≦NAL ≦( NA 2 −0.04) f 2 (77)
[0192] (136) The objective lens described in (136), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, a light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to have over spherical aberration.
[0193] (137) The objective lens described in (137), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0194] (138) The objective lens described in (138), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct temperature characteristics when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0195] (139) The objective lens described in (139), wherein the optical surface of the objective lens is composed of two or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and when the two kinds of optical surface areas are represented by an optical surface area closer to the optical axis and an optical surface area closer to the outside, the optical surface area closer to the outside is the area on the peripheral side stated above.
[0196] (140) The objective lens described in (140), wherein a diffractive section where ring-shaped diffractive zones are formed is formed on the optical surface area closer to the optical axis, and average pitch P in of the ring-shaped diffractive zones satisfies the following expression, when n th order light represents a diffracted light with a maximum amount of light generated by the diffractive structure from a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the optical surface area closer to the second light source among light fluxes emitted from the second light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P in /(| n|·f )≦8.0×10 −2 (78)
[0197] (141) The objective lens described in (141), wherein the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0198] (142) The objective lens described in (142), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration for thickness t 1 of a transparent base board.
[0199] (143) The objective lens described in (143), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration for the light flux passing through that optical surface area, while when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to make the light flux passing through that optical surface area to be a flare component.
[0200] (144) The objective lens described in (144), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the following expression is satisfied under the assumption that the optical surface area closer to the optical axis is formed within a range of the shortest distance NAH mm from the optical axis, when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (80)
[0201] (145) The objective lens described in (145), wherein the following expression is satisfied by image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the first optical information recording medium.
−½ ≦m 1≦{fraction (1/7.5)} (81)
[0202] (146) The objective lens described in (146), wherein image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the second optical information recording medium is nearly the same as m1.
[0203] (147) The objective lens described in (147) is represented by an objective lens of an optical pickup device having a light source and a light-converging optical system including the objective lens for converging a divergent light flux that is emitted from the light source and enters the objective lens on an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium, and being an objective lens of an optical pickup device capable of conducting recording and/or reproducing of information for a optical information recording medium in which a thickness of a transparent base board is t 1 , wherein the objective lens is a plastic lens, and at least one side of the objective lens is provided with a diffractive structure on at least a peripheral area within an effective diameter, and the following expression is satisfied, when δSA1/δT represents a change in spherical aberration for temperature change δT in a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the peripheral area among light fluxes emitted from the light source, and λ represents a wavelength of the light source.
|δ SA 1 /δT|≦ 0.002 λrms/° C. (82)
[0204] In the objective lens described in (147), change δSA1/δT of spherical aberration for a temperature change is corrected properly by the diffractive structure on the aforesaid peripheral area in recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium, and therefore, it is possible to conduct properly recording or reproducing of information for both optical information recording media, even under the condition that the objective lens is arranged on the optical pickup device and divergent light fluxes emitted from the light sources enter the objective lens, thus, it is possible to omit a collimator lens for forming a collimated light flux that enters the objective lens, to attain cost reduction, and to make the structure of the optical pickup device to be compact.
[0205] (148) The objective lens described in (148), wherein δSA1/δT representing a change of spherical aberration for temperature change δT in a light flux which has passed the diffractive structure on the peripheral area among light fluxes emitted from the light source satisfies the following conditional expression.
|δ SA 1 /δT|≦ 0.0005 λrms/° C. (83)
[0206] (149) The objective lens described in (149) wherein the diffractive structure on the peripheral area of the objective lens is a ring-shaped diffractive zone, and average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression, when n-th order light represents a diffracted light with the greatest amount of light generated by the diffractive structure and by a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the peripheral area of the object lens among light fluxes emitted from the light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
2.00×10 −4 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 −2 (84)
[0207] (150) The objective lens described in (150) wherein average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
1.00×10 −3 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 −3 (85)
[0208] (151) The objective lens described in (151) wherein average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦8.00×10 −3 (86)
[0209] (152) The objective lens described in (152) wherein the optical surface of the objective lens is composed of three or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and when the three or more kinds of optical surface areas are represented by an optical surface area closer to the optical axis, an intermediate optical surface area and an optical surface area closer to the outside, all arranged in this order from the optical axis side, the optical surface area closer to the outside is the area on the peripheral side stated above.
[0210] (153) The objective lens described in (153) wherein spherical aberration is discontinuous in at least one of a boundary between the optical surface area closer to the optical axis and the intermediate optical surface and a boundary between the intermediate optical surface area and the optical surface area closer to the outside.
[0211] (154) The objective lens described in (154) wherein a diffractive section having thereon a ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed on the optical surface area closer to the optical axis, and average pitch P in of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression, when n th order light represents a diffracted light with the greatest amount of light generated by the diffractive structure and by a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the optical surface area closer to the light source among light fluxes emitted from the light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P in /(| n|·f )≦8.00×10 −2 (87)
[0212] (155) The objective lens described in (155) wherein the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to correct spherical aberration.
[0213] (156) The objective lens described in (156), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the optical information recording medium, the following expressions are satisfied under the assumption that the intermediate optical surface area is formed within a range from the shortest distance from an optical axis NAH mm to NAL mm when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 <NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (88)
( NA 2 −0.20) f 2 ≦NAL ≦( NA 2 −0.04) f 2 (89)
[0214] (157) The objective lens described in (157), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration.
[0215] (158) The objective lens described in (158), wherein the optical surface area closer to the optical axis has a function to correct temperature characteristics.
[0216] (159) The objective lens described in (159), wherein the optical surface of the objective lens is composed of two or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and when the two kinds of optical surface areas are represented by an optical surface area closer to the optical axis and an optical surface area closer to the outside, the optical surface area closer to the outside is the area on the peripheral side stated above.
[0217] (160) The objective lens described in (160), wherein a diffractive section where ring-shaped diffractive zones are formed is formed on the optical surface area closer to the optical axis, and average pitch P in of the ring-shaped diffractive zones satisfies the following expression, when n-th order light represents a diffracted light with a maximum amount of light generated by the diffractive structure from a light flux passing through the diffractive structure on the optical surface area closer to the light source among light fluxes emitted from the light source, and f represents a focal length of the objective lens.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P in /(| n|·f )≦8.0×10 −2 (90)
[0218] (161) The objective lens described in (161), wherein the optical surface area closer to the outside has a function to correct spherical aberration.
[0219] (162) The objective lens described in (162), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the optical information recording medium, the following expression is satisfied under the assumption that the optical surface area closer to the optical axis is formed within a range of the shortest distance from an optical axis NAH mm from the optical axis when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (91)
[0220] (163) The objective lens described in (163), wherein the following expression is satisfied by image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the first optical information recording medium.
−½ ≦m 1≦{fraction (1/7.5)} (92)
[0221] (164) The objective lens described in (164), wherein image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the second optical information recording medium is nearly the same as m1.
[0222] (165) The optical pickup device described in (165), wherein the objective lens described in either one of (51)-(164) is employed.
[0223] (166) The objective lens described in (166) is represented by an objective lens for conducting recording and/or reproducing of information for the optical information recording medium by converging light emitted from a light source on an information recording surface of the optical information recording medium through a transparent base board thereof, wherein a surface on at least one side of the objective lens is constituted with at least two or more kinds of optical surface areas in the effective diameter of the objective lens, and a diffractive section to utilize n order light on which a ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed is formed on an optical surface area that is outermost in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis, or on the surface on the other side through which a light flux passing through the outermost optical surface area passes, and average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression when a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f.
2.00×10 4 ≦=P out /(| n|·f )≦3.50×10 −3 (93)
[0224] In the foregoing, in the case of an objective lens where a divergent light flux enters, for example, m shown in expression (1) is not zero, and an amount of change of spherical aberration for temperature change is increased. Therefore, a ring-shaped diffractive zone is provided as in the objective lens described in (166), and its average pitch P out is made to satisfy expression (93), which makes it possible to control a change of spherical aberration for the temperature change and to obtain excellent characteristics even when the divergent light flux enters. Thus, a collimator can be omitted, and compactness and low cost can be attained accordingly.
[0225] (167) The objective lens described in (167) wherein average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
1.00×10 −3 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 −3 (94)
[0226] (168) The objective lens described in (168) wherein the optical surface on at least one side of the objective lens is constituted with three or more types of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis, and an intermediate optical surface area among the aforesaid optical surface areas is provided with a discontinuous section in terms of spherical aberration for at least one optical surface area among the outside and inside optical surface areas.
[0227] (169) The objective lens described in (169) wherein at least one of the refraction section and the diffractive section is formed on the intermediate optical surface area.
[0228] (170) The objective lens described in (170) wherein there is formed a diffractive section on which a ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed, on the optical surface area including an optical axis excluding the aforesaid intermediate optical surface area, and average pitch P in of that ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P in /(| n|·f )≦6.00×10 −2 (95)
[0229] (171) The objective lens described in (171) wherein the surface on at least one side of the objective lens is constituted with two types of optical surfaces and a diffractive section on which a ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed is formed on the optical surface area including an optical axis, and average pitch P in of that ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
3.00×10 −3 ≦P in /(| n|·f )≦6.00×10 −2 (96)
[0230] (172) The objective lens described in (172) is characterized to be made of plastic materials.
[0231] (173) The objective lens described in (173) is represented by an objective lens of an optical pickup device having a light source emitting light fluxes for the first optical information recording medium having a t 1 -thick transparent base board and for the second optical information recording medium having a t 2 -thick transparent base board (t 1 <t 2 ) and a light-converging optical system including an objective lens converging the light fluxes emitted from the light source on an information recording surface through the transparent base boards of the first and second optical information recording media, and conducting recording and/or reproducing of information for each of the optical information recording media, wherein a surface on at least one side of the objective lens is constituted with at least two or more kinds of optical surface areas in the effective diameter of the objective lens, and a diffractive section to utilize nth order light on which a ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed is formed on an optical surface area that is outermost in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis, or on the surface on the other side through which a light flux passing through the outermost optical surface area passes, and average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression when a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f.
2.00×10 −4 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.50×10 −3 (97)
[0232] In the case of an objective lens where a divergent light flux enters as stated above, m shown in expression (1) is not zero, and an amount of change of spherical aberration for temperature change is increased accordingly. Therefore, a ring-shaped diffractive zone is provided as in the objective lens described in (173), and its average pitch P out is made to satisfy expression (97), which makes it possible to control a change of spherical aberration for the temperature change and to obtain excellent characteristics even when the divergent light flux enters. Incidentally, the optical pickup device employing the objective lens described in (173) is capable of recording or reproducing information for optical information recording media in plural types, and therefore, it is possible to omit a collimator lens by using divergent light fluxes, and to attain compactness and low cost of the apparatus accordingly, which is preferable.
[0233] (174) The objective lens described in (174) wherein average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
1.00×10 −3 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 −3 (98)
[0234] (175) The objective lens described in (175) wherein a divergent light emitted from the light source enters the objective lens.
[0235] (176) The objective lens described in (176), wherein the following expression is satisfied by image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens in the course of conducting recording or reproduction of information for the first optical information recording medium.
−½ ≦m 1≦{fraction (1/7.5)} (99)
[0236] (177) The objective lens described in (177), wherein image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the second optical information recording medium is nearly the same as m1.
[0237] (178) The objective lens described in (178), wherein the outermost optical surface area has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0238] (179) The objective lens described in (179) wherein the optical surface area on at least one side of the objective lens is composed of three or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, spherical aberration given to the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to be discontinuous to be a flare component with respect to spherical aberration of the outermost optical surface area, and when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the light source passing through the intermediate optical surface area is used.
[0239] (180) The objective lens described in (180) wherein the intermediate optical surface area has a function to correct spherical aberration for thickness t (t 1 <t<t 2 ) of a transparent base board.
[0240] (181) The objective lens described in (181) wherein light fluxes passing respectively through the optical surface area mainly including an optical axis and the outermost optical surface area are used when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, and light fluxes passing respectively through the optical surface area mainly including an optical axis and the intermediate optical surface area are used when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium.
[0241] (182) The objective lens described in (182) wherein when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the following expressions are satisfied under the assumption that the intermediate optical surface area is formed within a range from NAH mm to NAL mm in terms of the distance from an optical axis, when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (100)
( NA 2 −0.20) f 2 ≦NAL ≦( NA 2 −0.04) f 2 (101)
[0242] (183) The objective lens described in (183) wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first and second optical information recording media, light fluxes relating to the same light source wavelength are used, while, when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to have under spherical aberration.
[0243] (184) The objective lens described in (184) wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first and second optical information recording media, light fluxes relating to the light source wavelengths which are different each other are used, while, when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to have over spherical aberration.
[0244] (185) The objective lens described in (185) wherein the optical surface area including the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration when conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0245] (186) The objective lens described in (186) wherein the optical surface area including the optical axis has a function to correct temperature characteristics when conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0246] (187) The objective lens described in (187) wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first and second optical information recording media, light fluxes relating to the same light source wavelength are used, and the surface on at least one side is composed of optical surfaces of two or more kinds, and the optical surface area including the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration for thickness t (t 1 <t<t 2 ) of a transparent base board.
[0247] (188) The objective lens described in (188) wherein, the optical surface area including the optical axis makes a light flux passing through it to have under spherical aberration, when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, and to have over spherical aberration, when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium.
[0248] (189) The objective lens described in (189) wherein when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the following expression is satisfied under the assumption that the area where spherical aberration is corrected for thickness t of the transparent base board is formed within a range of distance NAH mm from the optical axis, when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (102)
[0249] (190) The objective lens described in (190) is related to an optical pickup device having a light source emitting light fluxes for the first optical information recording medium having a t 1 -thick transparent base board and for the second optical information recording medium having a t 2 -thick transparent base board (t 1 <t 2 ) and a light-converging optical system including an objective lens converging the light fluxes emitted from the light source on an information recording surface through the transparent base boards of the first and second optical information recording media, and conducting recording and/or reproducing of information for each of the optical information recording media, wherein a surface on at least one side of the objective lens is constituted with at least two or more kinds of optical surface areas in the effective diameter of the objective lens, and a diffractive section to utilize n th order light on which a ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed is formed on an optical surface area that is outermost in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis, or on the surface on the other side through which a light flux passing through the outermost optical surface area passes, and average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression when a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f.
2.00×10 −3 ≦P out /( |n|·f )≦3.00×10 −3 (103)
[0250] (191) The optical pickup device described in (191) wherein average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone satisfies the following expression.
1.00×10 −3 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.00×10 −3 (104)
[0251] (192) The optical pickup device described in (192) wherein a divergent light emitted from the light source enters the objective lens.
[0252] (193) The optical pickup device described in (193), wherein the following expression is satisfied by image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens in the course of conducting recording or reproduction of information for the first optical information recording medium.
−½ ≦m 1≦{fraction (1/7.5)} (105)
[0253] (194) The optical pickup device described in (194), wherein there is provided a distance adjustment means that adjusts a distance between the light source and the objective lens or between the light source and an information recording surface of the optical information recording medium.
[0254] (195) The optical pickup device described in (195), wherein the distance adjustment means adjusts the distance in accordance with a wavelength of the light source in room temperature.
[0255] (196) The optical pickup device described in (196), wherein there is provided a temperature adjustment means that adjusts an ambient temperature.
[0256] (197) The optical pickup device described in (197), wherein the light source is a semiconductor laser, and the temperature adjustment means adjusts a temperature of the semiconductor laser.
[0257] (198) The optical pickup device described in (198), wherein the objective lens is driven in terms of focusing under the state in which the image forming magnification is constant substantially.
[0258] (199) The optical pickup device described in (199), wherein image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the second optical information recording medium is nearly the same as m1.
[0259] (200) The optical pickup device described in (200), wherein the outermost optical surface area has a function to correct spherical aberration when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0260] (201) The optical pickup device described in (201), wherein the optical surface area on at least one side of the objective lens is composed of three or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, spherical aberration given to the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to be discontinuous to be a flare component with respect to spherical aberration of the outermost optical surface area, and when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the light source passing through the intermediate optical surface area is used.
[0261] (202) The optical pickup device described in (202), wherein the intermediate optical surface area has a function to correct spherical aberration for thickness t (t 1 <t<t 2 ) of a transparent base board.
[0262] (203) The optical pickup device described in (203), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, a light flux passing through the optical surface area including mainly the optical axis and the outermost optical surface area is used, and when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, a light flux passing through the optical surface area including mainly the optical axis and the intermediate optical surface area is used.
[0263] (204) The optical pickup device described in (204), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the following expressions are satisfied under the assumption that the intermediate optical surface area is formed within a range from NAH mm to NAL mm in terms of the distance from an optical axis, when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (106)
( NA 2 −0.20) f 2 ≦NAL ≦( NA 2 −0.04) f 2 (107)
[0264] (205) The optical pickup device described in (205), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first and second optical information recording media, light fluxes relating to the same light source wavelength are used, while, when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to have under spherical aberration.
[0265] (206) The optical pickup device described in (206), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first and second optical information recording media, light fluxes relating to the light source wavelengths which are different each other are used, while, when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, the light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area is made to have over spherical aberration.
[0266] (207) The optical pickup device described in (207), wherein the optical surface area including the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration when conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0267] (208) The optical pickup device described in (208), wherein the optical surface area including the optical axis has a function to correct temperature characteristics when conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0268] (209) The optical pickup device described in (209), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first and second optical information recording media, light fluxes relating to the same light source wavelength are used, and the surface on at least one side is composed of optical surfaces of two or more kinds, and the optical surface area including the optical axis has a function to correct spherical aberration for thickness t (t 1 <t<t 2 ) of a transparent base board.
[0269] (210) The optical pickup device described in (210), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, the optical surface area including the optical axis makes a light flux passing through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis to have under spherical aberration, and when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the optical surface area closer to the optical axis makes a light flux passing through the optical surface area closer to the optical axis to have over spherical aberration.
[0270] (211) The optical pickup device described in (211), wherein when recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium, the following expression is satisfied under the assumption that the intermediate optical surface area is formed within a range of distance NAH mm from an optical axis when a necessary numerical aperture is represented by NA 2 and a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f 2 .
( NA 2 −0.03) f 2 ≦NAH ≦( NA 2 +0.03) f 2 (107)
[0271] (212) The optical pickup device described in (212), wherein a change of spherical aberration for temperature change in a light flux which has passed the outermost optical surface area is in the following range, when λ1 represents a wavelength of the light source.
|δ SA 1 /δT|< 0.0005 λ1 rms/° C. (108)
[0272] (213) The objective lens described in (213) is represented by an objective lens of an optical pickup device having a light source emitting light fluxes for the first optical information recording medium having a t 1 -thick transparent base board and for the second optical information recording medium having a t 2 -thick transparent base board (t 1 <t 2 ) and a light-converging optical system including an objective lens converging the light fluxes emitted from the light source on an information recording surface through the transparent base boards of the first and second optical information recording media, and conducting recording and/or reproducing of information for each of the optical information recording media, wherein a surface on at least one side of the objective lens is constituted with at least two or more kinds of optical surface areas in the effective diameter of the objective lens, and a ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed on an optical surface area that is outermost in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis, or on an area of the surface on the other side through which a light flux passing through the outermost optical surface area passes, thereby, when conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium, correction of temperature characteristics for a light flux passing through the outermost optical surface area is conducted, and a design of spherical aberration for recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium is conducted, on the other hand, for a light flux passing through the area that is inside the outer optical surface area.
[0273] In the objective lens described in (213) employing the ring-shaped diffractive zone, temperature characteristics are corrected for the light flux passing the outermost optical surface area when recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium, and there is conducted a design of spherical aberration for recording or reproducing of information of the second optical information recording medium for the light flux passing through the area inside the outer optical surface area. Therefore, it is possible to conduct correction of temperature characteristics and a design of spherical aberration, on a well-balanced basis.
[0274] (214) The objective lens described in (214) wherein the following expression is satisfied by image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens in the course of conducting recording or reproduction of information for the first optical information recording medium.
−½ ≦m 1≦{fraction (1/7.5)} (109)
[0275] (215) The objective lens described in (215) wherein image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the second optical information recording medium is nearly the same as m1.
[0276] (216) The objective lens described in (216) wherein the optical surface area on at least one side of the objective lens is composed of three or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and the optical surface area to correct spherical aberration for a light flux for recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium is arranged inside the optical surface area for recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium.
[0277] (217) The objective lens described in (217) wherein the optical surface area on at least one side of the objective lens is composed of three or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and the optical surface area to correct temperature characteristics for a light flux for recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium is arranged inside the optical surface area for recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium.
[0278] (218) The objective lens described in (218) is represented by an objective lens of an optical pickup device having therein a first light source with wavelength λ 1 that emits a light flux to the first optical information recording medium having a t 1 -thick transparent base board, a second light source with wavelength λ 2 (λ 1 <λ 2 ) that emits a light flux to the second optical information recording medium having a t 2 -thick (t 1 <t 2 ) transparent base board, and a light-converging optical system including an objective lens that converges light fluxes emitted respectively from the first and second light sources on the information recording surface respectively through transparent base boards of the first and second optical information recording media, and conducts recording and/or reproducing of information for each optical information recording medium, wherein a surface on at least one side of the objective lens is constituted with at least two or more kinds of optical surface areas in the effective diameter of the objective lens, and a ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed on an optical surface area that is outermost in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis, or on an area of the surface on the other side through which a light flux passing through the outermost optical surface area passes, thereby, when conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium, correction of temperature characteristics for a light flux passing through the outermost optical surface area is conducted, and a design of spherical aberration for recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium is conducted, on the other hand, for a light flux passing through the area that is inside the outer optical surface area.
[0279] (219) The objective lens described in (219) wherein the following expression is satisfied by image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens in the course of conducting recording or reproduction of information for the first optical information recording medium.
−½ ≦m 1≦{fraction (1/7.5)} (110)
[0280] (220) The objective lens described in (220) wherein image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the second optical information recording medium is nearly the same as m1.
[0281] (221) The objective lens described in (221) wherein the optical surface area on at least one side of the objective lens is composed of three or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, an optical surface area used only when the second light source with wavelength λ 2 is used in the intermediate optical surface area is formed, and the optical surface area to conduct correction of spherical aberration for the light flux from the first light source with wavelength λ 1 is arranged inside the intermediate optical surface area.
[0282] (222) The objective lens described in (222) wherein the optical surface area on at least one side of the objective lens is composed of three or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, an optical surface area used only when the second light source with wavelength λ 2 is used in the intermediate optical surface area is formed, and the optical surface area to conduct correction of temperature characteristics for the light flux from the first light source with wavelength λ 1 is arranged inside the intermediate optical surface area.
[0283] (223) The objective lens described in (223) wherein an optical surface area for the exclusive use of the light flux from the second light source and the outermost optical surface area are adjacent to each other.
[0284] (224) The objective lens described in (224) wherein average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone utilizing n-th order light satisfies the following expression, when a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f.
2.00×10 −4 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.5×10 −3 (111)
[0285] (225) The objective lens described in (225) wherein spherical aberration in light fluxes passing respectively through the outermost optical surface area and the intermediate optical surface area adjacent to the outermost optical surface area is discontinuous.
[0286] (226) The objective lens described in (226) wherein at least one of a diffractive section and a refraction section is arranged on the intermediate optical surface area.
[0287] (227) The objective lens described in (227) which is made of plastic materials.
[0288] (228) The optical pickup device described in (228) is represented by an optical pickup having a light source emitting light fluxes for the first optical information recording medium having a t 1 -thick transparent base board and for the second optical information recording medium having a t 2 -thick transparent base board (t 1 <t 2 ) and a light-converging optical system including an objective lens converging the light fluxes emitted from the light source on an information recording surface through the transparent base boards of the first and second optical information recording media, and conducting recording and/or reproducing of information for each of the optical information recording media, wherein a surface on at least one side of the objective lens is constituted with at least two or more kinds of optical surface areas in the effective diameter of the objective lens, and a ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed on an optical surface area that is outermost in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis, or on an area of the surface on the other side through which a light flux passing through the outermost optical surface area passes, thereby, when conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium, correction of temperature characteristics for a light flux passing through the outermost optical surface area is conducted, and a design of spherical aberration for recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium is conducted, on the other hand, for a light flux passing through the area that is inside the outer optical surface area.
[0289] (229) The optical pickup device described in (229) wherein the following expression is satisfied by image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens in the course of conducting recording or reproduction of information for the first optical information recording medium.
−½ ≦m 1≦{fraction (1/7.5)} (112)
[0290] (230) The optical pickup device described in (230) wherein image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the second optical information recording medium is nearly the same as m1.
[0291] (231) The optical pickup device described in (231) wherein the optical surface area on at least one side of the objective lens is composed of three or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and the optical surface area to correct spherical aberration for a light flux for recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium is arranged inside the optical surface area for recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium.
[0292] (232) The optical pickup device described in (232) wherein the optical surface area on at least one side of the objective lens is composed of three or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and the optical surface area to correct temperature characteristics for a light flux for recording or reproducing information for the first optical information recording medium is arranged inside the optical surface area for recording or reproducing information for the second optical information recording medium.
[0293] (233) The optical pickup device described in (233) is represented by an optical pickup device having therein a first light source with wavelength λ 1 that emits a light flux to the first optical information recording medium having a t 1 -thick transparent base board, a second light source with wavelength λ 2 (λ 1 <λ 2 ) that emits a light flux to the second optical information recording medium having a t 2 -thick (t 1 <t 2 ) transparent base board, and a light-converging optical system including an objective lens that converges light fluxes emitted respectively from the first and second light sources on the information recording surface respectively through transparent base boards of the first and second optical information recording media, and conducts recording and/or reproducing of information for each optical information recording medium, wherein a surface on at least one side of the objective lens is constituted with at least two or more kinds of optical surface areas in the effective diameter of the objective lens, and a ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed on an optical surface area that is outermost in the direction perpendicular to the optical axis of the objective lens, or on an area of the surface on the other side through which a light flux passing through the outermost optical surface area passes, thereby, when conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium, correction of temperature characteristics for a light flux passing through the outermost optical surface area is conducted, and a design of spherical aberration for recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium is conducted, on the other hand, for a light flux passing through the area that is inside the outer optical surface area.
[0294] (234) The optical pickup device described in (234) wherein the following expression is satisfied by image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens in the course of conducting recording or reproduction of information for the first optical information recording medium.
−½ ≦m 1≦{fraction (1/7.5)} (113)
[0295] (235) The optical pickup device described in (235) wherein image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens in conducting recording or reproduction of information for the second optical information recording medium is nearly the same as m.
[0296] (236) The optical pickup device described in (236) wherein the optical surface area on at least one side of the objective lens is composed of three or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and an optical surface area to correct spherical aberration for the light flux from the first light source with wavelength λ1 is arranged inside the optical surface area for the light flux from the second light source with wavelength λ 2 .
[0297] (237) The optical pickup device described in (237) wherein the optical surface area on at least one side of the objective lens is composed of three or more kinds of optical surface areas arranged in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis, and an optical surface area to correct temperature characteristics for the light flux from the first light source with wavelength λ1 is arranged inside the optical surface area for the light flux from the second light source with wavelength λ 2 .
[0298] (238) The optical pickup device described in (238) wherein an optical surface area for the light flux from the second light source and the outermost optical surface area are adjacent to each other.
[0299] (239) The optical pickup device described in (239) wherein average pitch P out of the ring-shaped diffractive zone utilizing nth order light satisfies the following expression, when a focal length of the objective lens is represented by f.
2.00×10 −4 ≦P out /(| n|·f )≦3.5×10 −3 (114)
[0300] (240) The optical pickup device described in (240) wherein spherical aberration in the outermost optical surface area and in the optical surface area for the light flux from the second light source is discontinuous.
[0301] (241) The optical pickup device described in (241) wherein at least one of a diffractive section and a refraction section is arranged on the optical surface area for the exclusive use of the light flux from the second light source.
[0302] (242) The optical pickup device described in (242), wherein a change of spherical aberration for temperature change in a light flux which has passed the outermost optical surface area is in the following range, when λ1 represents a wavelength of the light source at the room temperature.
|δ SA 1 /δT|≦ 0.0005 λ1 rms/° C. (115)
[0303] (243) The optical pickup device described in (243) wherein the objective lens is made of plastic materials.
[0304] (244) The objective lens described in (244) wherein the expression of |n|=1 holds for the diffraction number of order represented by n.
[0305] (245) The optical pickup device described in (245) wherein the expression of |n|=1 holds for the diffraction number of order represented by n.
[0306] The structure to attain the second object is explained hereinafter.
[0307] (2-1) The objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-1) is represented by an objective lens for an optical pickup device having therein
[0308] a first light source with wavelength λ1 for conducting recording or reproducing for information by radiating a light flux to the first optical information recording medium having transparent base board thickness t 1 , a second light source with wavelength λ2 (λ1<λ2) for conducting recording or reproducing for information by radiating a light flux to the second optical information recording medium having transparent base board thickness t 2 (t 1 <t 2 ), and a light-converging optical system including the objective lens that converges light fluxes emitted from the first and the second light sources on the information recording surface through transparent base boards of the first and the second optical information recording media, wherein the objective lens is made of a uniform optical material, a value of refractive index change (hereinafter referred to as refractive index temperature dependency) dn/dT for the temperature change of the optical materials is expressed by the following expression under the conditions of the aforesaid light source wavelength and the room temperature environment,
| dn/dT|≦ 10.0×10 −6 (/° C .) (117)
[0309] the objective lens is formed in a way that each of at least two optically functional surfaces arranged in the direction intersecting an optical axis has a different optical function, and a light flux passing through at least the outermost optically functional surface is used only for recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium.
[0310] By using a material having small temperature dependency for the objective lens, it is possible to make a change in spherical aberration caused by temperature changes to be small. Therefore, when the objective lens is composed of a refracting interface, it is easy to make temperature characteristics to be compatible with wavelength characteristics, because wavelength dependency is originally small. Further, even in the case of constituting the objective lens with a diffraction surface, a pitch of the ring-shaped diffractive zone is not required to be small, because temperature characteristics are improved even when the effectiveness of diffraction is not enhanced, which is different from a conventional objective lens. In addition, when an objective lens is provided with a plurality of optically functional surfaces each being designed properly, it is possible to attain a spot diameter which is needed for optical information recording media each having a different transparent base board thickness, and thereby to conduct recording or reproducing for each optical information recording medium. In this case, the optically functional surface that makes the optical function to be different includes optical surfaces each being completely different from others such as a refracting interface and a surface of a diffractive structure, and optical surfaces in the same type, for example, aspheric surfaces each having a different function which are formed by different aspherical coefficients, and optical surfaces each having a diffractive structure based on a different design.
[0311] (2-2) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-2), when each optically functional surface is formed to have a step at a boundary section, it is easy to manipulate an amount of discontinuousness of spherical aberration, and for example, a main spot light can be separated greatly from a flare light on a recording surface of an optical information recording medium.
[0312] (2-3) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-3) represents an example to constitute an objective lens only with a refracting interface. When a necessary numerical aperture of the first optical information recording medium is greater than that of the second optical information recording medium, it is possible to form a sport diameter required for the second optical information recording medium, by utilizing the first optical information recording medium and the second optical information recording medium in common at an area near the optical axis and by designing so that an intermediate optically functional surface is used for the second optical information recording medium. When the first optical information recording medium is used, a light flux passing through the intermediate optically functional surface turns out to be a flare light, but if the spherical aberration correction for the first optical information recording medium is made on the outermost optically functional surface, the required spot diameter can be formed on the first optical information recording medium.
[0313] (2-4) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-4), it is preferable for correction of spherical aberration on the second optical information recording medium that the step on the boundary section farther from the optical axis is greater than that on the boundary section closer to the optical axis on the intermediate optically functional surface.
[0314] (2-5) As in the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-5), if spherical aberration for recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium is corrected to 0.04 λ 1 rms or less for the innermost optically functional surface and the outermost optically functional surface, and if spherical aberration is corrected to be smallest for the optical information recording medium with transparent base board thickness t c (t 1 <t c <t 2 ), an amount of spot light for each spot light can be enhanced, which is more preferable from the viewpoint of the utility factor of using light.
[0315] (2-6) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-6), the objective lens has at least two optically functional surfaces and at least one optically functional surface has a diffractive structure, the optically functional surface closest to the optical axis is designed so that spherical aberration in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first and second optical information recording media may be corrected by the use of a light flux passing through the optically functional surface closest to the optical axis, and on the outermost optically functional surface, spherical aberration in the first optical information recording medium is corrected, and over spherical aberration is generated on the second optical information recording medium, therefore, each optically functional surface is made to correspond to a plurality of optical information recording media each having a different transparent base board thickness, thus recording or reproducing of information can be conducted properly for these optical information recording media.
[0316] (2-7) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-7), a light flux passing through each optically functional surface passes through the diffractive structure with either surface of the objective lens (namely, the surface closer to the light source or the surface closer to the optical information recording medium), while, a diffraction pitch of the diffractive structure of the outermost optically functional surface is in a range from 5 μm to 40 μm, thereby it is possible to control a decline of diffraction efficiency while keeping the productivity for the objective lens.
[0317] (2-8) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-8), over spherical aberration generated in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium is increased toward the periphery from the optical axis, and therefore, recording or reproducing of information can be conducted properly for a plurality of optical information recording media each having a different transparent base board thickness.
[0318] (2-9) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-9), spherical aberration generated in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium is discontinuous on the boundary section of the optically functional surface, and an amount of discontinuousness of spherical aberration is in a range from 10 μm to 30 μm, thus, if the amount of discontinuousness of spherical aberration is not less than 10 μm, it is possible to control that a flare approaches the main spot, while if the amount of discontinuousness of spherical aberration is not more than 30 μm, it is possible to improve temperature characteristics satisfactorily.
[0319] (2-10) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-10), it is possible to keep the diffraction efficiency to be high because recording or reproducing of information is conducted by the use of the diffracted light in the same order on the innermost optically functional surface for both the first optical information recording medium and the second optical information recording medium.
[0320] (2-11) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-11), it is possible to lower a light amount for flare light by lowering efficiency of diffracted light generated by the diffractive structure of the outside optically functional surface, for example, and thereby to conduct recording or reproducing of information properly for a plurality of optical information recording media each having a different transparent base board thickness, because diffraction order n ot of the diffracted light having the highest intensity generated at the diffractive structure on the outside optically functional surface and diffraction order n in of the diffracted light having the highest intensity generated at the diffractive structure on the inside optically functional surface satisfy the following expression when conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium.
|n ot |≧|n in | (3)
[0321] (2-12) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-12), with regard to the diffractive structure, a serrated ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed, and a design basis wavelength of the ring-shaped diffractive zone formed on the outside optically functional surface is different from that of the ring-shaped diffractive zone formed on the inside optically functional surface, and therefore, it is preferable, from the viewpoint of balance of an amount of light, to employ the design basis wavelength that is between λ 1 and λ 2 on the inside optically functional surface used for both the first and second optical information recording media from a viewpoint of diffraction efficiency, and it is advantageous in terms of an amount of light to make the design basis wavelength to be close to λ 1 , because the outside optically functional surface is utilized only for the first optical information recording medium.
[0322] (2-13) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-13), the objective lens has at least three optically functional surfaces wherein the innermost optically functional surface is composed only of a refracting interface and the intermediate optically functional surface has a diffractive structure, and when a light flux used for recording or reproducing of information for the first and second optical information recording media passes through the intermediate optically functional surface, it is possible to conduct recording or reproducing of information properly for a plurality of optical information recording media each having a different transparent base board thickness.
[0323] (2-14) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-14), recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium can be conducted properly, because a serrated ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed on the outermost optically functional surface and a design basis wavelength λ 0 satisfies the following expression.
0.9λ 1 ≦λ 0 ≦1.1λ 1
[0324] (2-15) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-15), the outermost optically functional surface can also be composed only of a refracting interface.
[0325] (2-16) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-16), image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens for recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium can satisfy the following expression.
−¼ ≦m 1≦⅛ (119)
[0326] In this case, if image forming magnification m1 is not less than the lower limit, image height characteristics are excellent, while if it is not more than the upper limit, a working distance of the objective lens can be secured, which is preferable.
[0327] (2-17) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-17), image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens for recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium can satisfy the following expression.
0.98 m 1 ≦m 2≦1.02 m 1 (120)
[0328] When m1 is different from m2 in this case, and when an image forming position on the first optical information recording medium and that on the second optical information recording medium are made to be almost common for the objective lens, a light emission point is shifted, and there is the possibility of complicated optical system including preparation of two sensors for signal detection. Namely, if the expression (120) is satisfied, signal detection in the course of recording and reproducing for each of the first optical information recording medium and the second optical information recording medium can be conducted by a single sensor.
[0329] (2-18) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-18), if an aperture-stop in the case of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium is the same as that in the case of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium, it is possible to simplify the construction of the optical pickup device.
[0330] (2-19) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-19), if necessary numerical aperture NA1 in the case of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium satisfies the following expression, it is possible to conduct high density information recording or high density information reproducing.
NA1≧0.60 (121)
[0331] (2-20) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-20), if wavelength λ1 of the first light source is not more than 670 nm, a high density optical information recording medium such as DVD representing the first optical information recording medium can be used.
[0332] (2-21) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-21), when the optical material is represented by optical glass and dispersion value νd is greater than 50, a change of refractive index caused by temperature changes is less and axial chromatic aberration can be made excellent, which is preferable. Incidentally, the objective lens described in either one of the aforesaid structures 1-21 has the same action and effect as those stated above, even in the invention including the optical pickup device employing that objective lens, the objective lens wherein a plurality of optical elements are cemented, and the optical pickup device employing the aforesaid objective lens all will be explained later.
[0333] (2-22) The optical pickup device described in (2-22) is represented by an optical pickup device having therein a first light source with wavelength λ 1 arranged to conduct recording or reproducing of information by radiating a light flux to the first optical information recording medium having transparent base board thickness t 1 , a second light source with wavelength λ 2 (λ 1 <λ 2 ) arranged to conduct recording or reproducing of information by radiating a light flux to the second optical information recording medium having transparent base board thickness t 2 (t 1 <t 2 ), and a light-converging optical system including an objective lens that converges light fluxes radiated respectively from the first and second light sources on information recording surfaces through transparent base boards respectively of the first and second optical information recording media, wherein the objective lens is made of uniform optical material, refractive index change dn/dT of the optical material for temperature changes satisfies the following expression under the conditions of the wavelength of the light source and the temperature environment for room temperature,
| dn/dT|< 10.0×10 −6 (/° C.) (127)
[0334] the objective lens is formed to make an optical action to be different on each of at least two optically functional surfaces arranged in the direction intersecting an optical axis, and a light flux passing through at least the outermost optically functional surface is used only for recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-1).
[0335] (2-23) In the optical pickup device described in (2-23), each optically functional surface mentioned above is formed to have a step at the boundary section. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-2).
[0336] (2-24) In the optical pickup device described in (2-24), the objective lens is composed only of a refracting interface, at least three optically functional surfaces are formed, a light flux passing through the innermost optically functional surface is used for conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first and second optical information recording media, a light flux passing through the intermediate optically functional surface is used for conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium, and a light flux passing through the outermost optically functional surface is used for conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-3).
[0337] (2-25) In the optical pickup device described in (2-25), a height of the step on the boundary section that is farther from an optical axis is greater than that on the boundary section that is closer to the optical axis, on the intermediate optically functional surface. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-4).
[0338] (2-26) In the optical pickup device described in (2-26), with respect to the innermost optically functional surface and the outermost optically functional surface, spherical aberration in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium is corrected to 0.04 λ 1 rms or less, and the intermediate optically functional surface is corrected so that its spherical aberration for the optical information recording medium having transparent base board thickness t c (t 1 <t c <t 2 ) may be the minimum. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-5).
[0339] (2-27) In the optical pickup device described in (2-27), the objective lens has at least two optically functional surfaces, and at least one of them has a diffractive structure, and the optically functional surface closest to the optical axis is designed to correct its spherical aberration in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first and second optical information recording media by using the light flux passing through the optically functional surface closest to the optical axis, and on the outermost optically functional surface, spherical aberration for the first optical information recording medium is corrected, while over spherical aberration is generated for the second optical information recording medium. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-6).
[0340] (2-28) In the optical pickup device described in (2-28), a light flux passing through each optically functional surface mentioned above passes through the aforesaid diffractive structure on either surface of the objective lens, and a diffraction pitch of the diffractive structure on the outermost optically functional surface is in a range from 5 μm to 40 μm. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-7).
[0341] (2-29) In the optical pickup device described in (2-29), the over spherical aberration generated in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium is made to be increased gradually in the direction from the optical axis side toward the periphery. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-8).
[0342] (2-30) In the optical pickup device described in (2-30), the spherical aberration generated in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium is discontinuous at the boundary section of the optically functional surface, and an amount of discontinuousness of the spherical aberration is in a range from 10 μm to 30 μm. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-9).
[0343] (2-31) In the optical pickup device described in (2-31), recording or reproducing of information is conducted by the use of the diffracted light in the same order on the innermost optically functional surface, for the first and second optical information recording media. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-10).
[0344] (2-32) In the optical pickup device described in (2-32), when conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium, diffraction order n ot of the diffracted light having the highest intensity generated at the diffractive structure on the outside optically functional surface and diffraction order n in of the diffracted light having the highest intensity generated at the diffractive structure on the inside optically functional surface satisfy the following expression.
|n ot |≧|n in | (128)
[0345] Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-11).
[0346] (2-33) In the optical pickup device described in (2-33), in the diffractive structure stated above, a serrated ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed, and a design basis wavelength of the ring-shaped diffractive zone formed on the outside optically functional surface is different from that of the ring-shaped diffractive zone formed on the inside optically functional surface. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-12).
[0347] (2-34) In the optical pickup device described in (2-34), the objective lens has at least three optically functional surfaces wherein the innermost optically functional surface is composed only of a refracting interface and the intermediate optically functional surface has a diffractive structure, and a light flux used for recording or reproducing of information for the first and second optical information recording media passes through the intermediate optically functional surface. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-13).
[0348] (2-35) In the optical pickup device described in (2-35), a serrated ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed on the outermost optically functional surface, and design basis wavelength λ 0 of the outermost optically functional surface satisfies 9λ 1 ≦λ 0 ≦1.1λ 1 . Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-14).
[0349] (2-36) In the optical pickup device described in (2-36), the outermost optically functional surface is composed only of a refracting interface. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-15).
[0350] (2-37) In the optical pickup device described in (2-37), image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens for conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium satisfies the following expression.
−¼ ≦m 1≦⅛ (129)
[0351] Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-16).
[0352] (2-38) In the optical pickup device described in (2-38), image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens for conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium satisfies the following expression.
0.98 m1≦m2≦1.02 m1 (130)
[0353] Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-17).
[0354] (2-39) In the optical pickup device described in (2-39), an aperture-stop in the case of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium is the same as that in the case of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-18).
[0355] (2-40) In the optical pickup device described in (2-40), necessary numerical aperture NA1 in the case of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium satisfies the following expression.
NA1 ≧0.60 (131)
[0356] Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-19).
[0357] (2-41) In the optical pickup device described in (2-41), wavelength λ1 of the first light source is not more than 670 nm. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-20).
[0358] (2-42) In the optical pickup device described in (2-42), the optical material is represented by optical glass and dispersion value νd is greater than 50. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-21).
[0359] (2-43) The objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-43) is represented by an objective lens of an optical pickup device having therein a first light source with wavelength λ 1 arranged to conduct recording or reproducing of information by radiating a light flux to the first optical information recording medium having transparent base board thickness t 1 , a second light source with wavelength 2 (λ1<λ 2 ) arranged to conduct recording or reproducing of information by radiating a light flux to the second optical information recording medium having transparent base board thickness t 2 (t 1 <t 2 ), and a light-converging optical system including an objective lens that converges light fluxes radiated respectively from the first and second light sources on information recording surfaces through transparent base boards respectively of the first and second optical information recording media, wherein the objective lens is a cemented lens formed by cementing plural optical elements made of at least two kinds of optical materials, a value of refractive index change dn/dT of the optical material used for the optical element having stronger power component among the plural optical elements for temperature changes satisfies the following expression,
| dn/dT|≦ 10.0×10 −6 (/° C.) (127)
[0360] and the objective lens is formed to make an optical action to be different on each of at least two optically functional surfaces arranged in the direction intersecting an optical axis, and a light flux passing through at least the outermost optically functional surface is used only for recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium, and therefore, it is possible to conduct recording or reproducing of information properly for plural optical information recording media each having a different transparent base board thickness by forming the objective lens by combining a material whose refractive index change for temperature changes is small and another material that is different from the previous material. When forming the objective lens by cementing optical elements, if temperature dependency of the material for the lens having stronger power is made to be lower, it is possible to make the total temperature dependency of the cemented objective lens to be low.
[0361] (2-44) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-44), at least one of optical elements other than those having stronger power components among the aforesaid plural optical elements is made of plastic material, and therefore, a different optically functional surface can easily be constituted because of characteristics that forming is easy, which is an advantage.
[0362] (2-45) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-45), a plurality of optically functional surfaces are formed on an optical surface of the optical element that is made of plastic material, thus, an objective lens which can be easily manufactured is provided.
[0363] (2-46) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-46), each optically functional surface mentioned above is formed to have a step at the boundary section. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-2).
[0364] (2-47) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-47), the objective lens is composed only of a refracting interface, at least three optically functional surfaces are formed, a light flux passing through the innermost optically functional surface is used for conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first and second optical information recording media, a light flux passing through the intermediate optically functional surface is used for conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium, and a light flux passing through the outermost optically functional surface is used for conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-3).
[0365] (2-48) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-48), a height of the step on the boundary section that is farther from an optical axis is greater than that on the boundary section that is closer to the optical axis, on the intermediate optically functional surface. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-4).
[0366] (2-49) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-49), with respect to the innermost optically functional surface and the outermost optically functional surface, spherical aberration in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium is corrected to 0.04 λ1 rms or less, and the intermediate optically functional surface is corrected so that its spherical aberration for the optical information recording medium having transparent base board thickness t c (t 1 <t c <t 2 ) may be the minimum. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-5).
[0367] (2-50) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-50), the objective lens has at least two optically functional surfaces, and at least one of them has a diffractive structure, and the optically functional surface closest to the optical axis is designed to correct its spherical aberration in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first and second optical information recording media by using the light flux passing through the optically functional surface closest to the optical axis, and on the outermost optically functional surface, spherical aberration for the first optical information recording medium is corrected, while over spherical aberration is generated for the second optical information recording medium. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-6).
[0368] (2-51) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-51), a light flux passing through each optically functional surface mentioned above passes through the aforesaid diffractive structure on either surface of the objective lens, and a diffraction pitch of the diffractive structure on the outermost optically functional surface is in a range from 5 μm to 40 μm. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-7).
[0369] (2-52) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-52), the over spherical aberration generated in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium is made to be increased gradually in the direction from the optical axis side toward the periphery. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-8).
[0370] (2-53) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-53), the spherical aberration generated in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium is discontinuous at the boundary section of the optically functional surface, and an amount of discontinuousness of the spherical aberration is in a range from 10 μm to 30 μm. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-9).
[0371] (2-54) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-54), recording or reproducing of information is conducted by the use of the diffracted light in the same order on the innermost optically functional surface, for the first and second optical information recording media. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-10).
[0372] (2-55) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-55), when conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium, diffraction order not of the diffracted light having the highest intensity generated at the diffractive structure on the outside optically functional surface and diffraction order n in of the diffracted light having the highest intensity generated at the diffractive structure on the inside optically functional surface satisfy the following expression.
|n ot |≧|n in | (128)
[0373] Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-11).
[0374] (2-56) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-56), in the diffractive structure stated above, a serrated ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed, and a design basis wavelength of the ring-shaped diffractive zone formed on the outside optically functional surface is different from that of the ring-shaped diffractive zone formed on the inside optically functional surface. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-12).
[0375] (2-57) In the objective lens for an optical pickup device described in (2-57), the objective lens has at least three optically functional surfaces wherein the innermost optically functional surface is composed only of a refracting interface and the intermediate optically functional surface has a diffractive structure, and a light flux used for recording or reproducing of information for the first and second optical information recording media passes through the intermediate optically functional surface. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-13).
[0376] (2-58) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-58), a serrated ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed on the outermost optically functional surface, and design basis wavelength λ 0 of the outermost optically functional surface satisfies 9λ 1 ≦λ 0 ≦1.1λ 1 . Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-14).
[0377] (2-59) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-59), the outermost optically functional surface is composed only of a refracting interface. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-15).
[0378] (2-60) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-60), image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens for conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium satisfies the following expression.
¼ ≦m 1≦⅛ (129)
[0379] Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-16). (2-61) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-61), image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens for conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium satisfies the following expression.
0.98 m 1 ≦m 2≦1.02 m 1 (130)
[0380] Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-17).
[0381] (2-62) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-62), an aperture-stop in the case of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium is the same as that in the case of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-18)
[0382] (2-63) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-63), necessary numerical aperture NA1 in the case of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium satisfies the following expression.
NA1≧0.60 (131)
[0383] Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-19).
[0384] (2-64) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-64), wavelength λ1 of the first light source is not more than 670 nm. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-20).
[0385] (2-65) In the objective lens of an optical pickup device described in (2-65), the optical material is represented by optical glass and dispersion value νd is greater than 50. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-21).
[0386] (2-66) The optical pickup device described in (2-66) is represented by an optical pickup device having therein a first light source with wavelength λ 1 arranged to conduct recording or reproducing of information by radiating a light flux to the first optical information recording medium having transparent base board thickness t 1 , a second light source with wavelength λ 2 (λ 1 <λ 2 ) arranged to conduct recording or reproducing of information by radiating a light flux to the second optical information recording medium having transparent base board thickness t 2 (t 1 <t 2 ), and a light-converging optical system including an objective lens that converges light fluxes radiated respectively from the first and second light sources on information recording surfaces through transparent base boards respectively of the first and second optical information recording media, wherein the objective lens is made of uniform optical material, refractive index change dn/dT of the optical material for temperature changes satisfies the following expression under the conditions of the wavelength of the light source and the temperature environment for room temperature,
| dn/dT|≦ 10.0×10 6 (/° C .) (127)
[0387] the objective lens is formed to make an optical action to be different on each of at least two optically functional surfaces arranged in the direction intersecting an optical axis, and a light flux passing through at least the outermost optically functional surface is used only for recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-43).
[0388] (2-67) In the optical pickup device described in (2-67), at least one of optical elements other than the optical element having stronger power component among the aforesaid plural optical elements is made of a plastic material. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-44).
[0389] (2-68) In the optical pickup device described in (2-68), a plurality of optically functional surfaces are formed on an optical surface of the optical element that is made of plastic material. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-45).
[0390] (2-69) In the optical pickup device described in (2-69), each optically functional surface mentioned above is formed to have a step at the boundary section. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-2).
[0391] (2-70) In the optical pickup device described in (2-70), the objective lens is composed only of a refracting interface, at least three optically functional surfaces are formed, a light flux passing through the innermost optically functional surface is used for conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first and second optical information recording media, a light flux passing through the intermediate optically functional surface is used for conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium, and a light flux passing through the outermost optically functional surface is used for conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-3).
[0392] (2-71) In the optical pickup device described in (2-71), a height of the step on the boundary section that is farther from an optical axis is greater than that on the boundary section that is closer to the optical axis, on the intermediate optically functional surface. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-4).
[0393] (2-72) In the optical pickup device described in (2-72), with respect to the innermost optically functional surface and the outermost optically functional surface, spherical aberration in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium is corrected to 0.04 λ 1 rms or less, and the intermediate optically functional surface is corrected so that its spherical aberration for the optical information recording medium having transparent base board thickness t c (t 1 <t c <t 2 ) may be the minimum. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-5).
[0394] (2-73) In the optical pickup device described in (2-73), the objective lens has at least two optically functional surfaces, and at least one of them has a diffractive structure, and the optically functional surface closest to the optical axis is designed to correct its spherical aberration in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first and second optical information recording media by using the light flux passing through the optically functional surface closest to the optical axis, and on the outermost optically functional surface, spherical aberration for the first optical information recording medium is corrected, while over spherical aberration is generated for the second optical information recording medium. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-6).
[0395] (2-74) In the optical pickup device described in (2-74), a light flux passing through each optically functional surface mentioned above passes through the aforesaid diffractive structure on either surface of the objective lens, and a diffraction pitch of the diffractive structure on the outermost optically functional surface is in a range from 5 μm to 40 μm. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-7).
[0396] (2-75) In the optical pickup device described in (2-75), the over spherical aberration generated in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium is made to be increased gradually in the direction from the optical axis side toward the periphery. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-8).
[0397] (2-76) In the optical pickup device described in (2-76), the spherical aberration generated in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium is discontinuous at the boundary section of the optically functional surface, and an amount of discontinuousness of the spherical aberration is in a range from 10 μm to 30 μm. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-9).
[0398] (2-77) In the optical pickup device described in (2-77), recording or reproducing of information is conducted by the use of the diffracted light in the same order on the innermost optically functional surface, for the first and second optical information recording media. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-10).
[0399] (2-78) In the optical pickup device described in (2-78), when conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium, diffraction order not of the diffracted light having the highest intensity generated at the diffractive structure on the outside optically functional surface and diffraction order n in of the diffracted light having the highest intensity generated at the diffractive structure on the inside optically functional surface satisfy the following expression.
|n ot |≧|n in | (128)
[0400] Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-11). (2-79) In the optical pickup device described in (2-79), in the diffractive structure stated above, a serrated ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed, and a design basis wavelength of the ring-shaped diffractive zone formed on the outside optically functional surface is different from that of the ring-shaped diffractive zone formed on the inside optically functional surface. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-12).
[0401] (2-80) In the optical pickup device described in (2-80), the objective lens has at least three optically functional surfaces wherein the innermost optically functional surface is composed only of a refracting interface and the intermediate optically functional surface has a diffractive structure, and a light flux used for recording or reproducing of information for the first and second optical information recording media passes through the intermediate optically functional surface. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-13).
[0402] (2-81) In the optical pickup device described in (2-81), a serrated ring-shaped diffractive zone is formed on the outermost optically functional surface, and design basis wavelength λ 0 of the outermost optically functional surface satisfies 9λ 1 ≦λ 0 ≦1.1λ 1 . Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-14).
[0403] (2-82) In the optical pickup device described in (2-82), the outermost optically functional surface is composed only of a refracting interface. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-15).
[0404] (2-83) In the optical pickup device described in (2-83), image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens for conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium satisfies the following expression.
−¼ ≦m 1≦⅛ (129)
[0405] Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-16).
[0406] (2-84) In the optical pickup device described in (2-84), image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens for conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium satisfies the following expression.
0.98 m 1≦ m 2≦1.02 m 1 (130)
[0407] Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-17).
[0408] (2-85) In the optical pickup device described in (2-85), an aperture-stop in the case of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium is the same as that in the case of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-18).
[0409] (2-86) In the optical pickup device described in (2-86), necessary numerical aperture NA1 in the case of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium satisfies the following expression.
NA1≦0.60 (131)
[0410] Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-19). (2-87) In the optical pickup device described in (2-87), wavelength λ 1 of the first light source is not more than 670 nm. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-20).
[0411] (2-88) In the optical pickup device described in (2-88), the optical material is represented by optical glass and dispersion value νd is greater than 50. Action and effect of the invention stated above are the same as those of the invention described in (2-21).
[0412] (2-89) In the optical pickup device described in (2-89), with respect to an objective lens of the optical pickup device having therein a first light source with wavelength λ 1 arranged to conduct recording or reproducing of information by radiating a light flux to the first optical information recording medium having transparent base board thickness t 1 , a second light source with wavelength λ 2 (λ 1 <λ 2 ) arranged to conduct recording or reproducing of information by radiating a light flux to the second optical information recording medium having transparent base board thickness t 2 (t 1 <t 2 ), and a light-converging optical system including an objective lens that converges light fluxes radiated respectively from the first and second light sources on information recording surfaces through transparent base boards respectively of the first and second optical information recording media, the objective lens is made of uniform optical material or is composed of cemented lenses, and refractive index change dn/dT for temperature changes of the optical material having the strongest power among those used for constituting the objective lens satisfies the following expression,
| dn/dT|≦ 10.0×10 −6 (/° C .) (127)
[0413] and there is provided a restricting member which lowers transmission factor of ray of light or intercepts the ray of light in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium on at least the peripheral portion of the objective lens, and ray of light passing through at least the vicinity of an optical axis has been corrected in terms of spherical aberration in the course of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first and second optical information recording media, thus, it is possible to conduct recording or reproducing properly for a plurality of optical information recording media each having a different transparent base board thickness, by using a material having less change in refractive index for temperature changes for the objective lens and by restricting an amount of irradiation for the second optical information recording medium by the intercepting member.
[0414] (2-90) In the optical pickup device described in (2-90), if there is provided a wavelength-selecting diaphragm that transmits ray of light having wavelength λ 1 emitted from the first light source and intercepts ray of light emitted from the second light source, the structure can be simplified, which is preferable.
[0415] (2-91) In the optical pickup device described in (2-91), at least one side of the objective lens is entirely covered by diffractive structure or is provided with two or more optically functional surfaces, and therefore, it is possible to conduct recording or reproducing of information properly for a plurality of optical information recording media each having a different transparent base board thickness.
[0416] (2-92) In the optical pickup device described in (2-92), image forming magnification m1 of the objective lens in the case of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the first optical information recording medium and image forming magnification m2 of the objective lens in the case of conducting recording or reproducing of information for the second optical information recording medium satisfy the following expression.
0.98 m 1≦ m 2≦1.02 m 1 (130)
[0417] In the present specification, when “an optical surface area” is expressed with spherical aberration, if the spherical aberration comes under either one of the following cases, it is assumed that there exist optical surface areas which are different from each other at a boundary represented by h.
[0418] (a) Spherical aberration is discontinuous at h representing a boundary (FIG. 1( a )).
[0419] (b) Though spherical aberration is continuous at h, the first order differentiation is discontinuous (FIG. 1( b )).
[0420] (c) Spherical aberration is discontinuous at h for a certain wavelength (FIG. 1( a )).
[0421] The area which is divided under the conditions stated above and through which each light flux passes is respectively regarded as “an optical surface area”. Therefore, when one surface of a lens is looked, if a refraction section and a diffractive section exist on the surface, these sections are regarded as separate “optical surface areas” which are different from each other at a boundary portion between the refraction section and the diffractive section (see FIGS. 2 ( a ) and 2 ( c )). Further, even when the diffractive section is formed on the entire surface, when diffractive sections each designed for a different object are mixed together, they are regarded as separate optical surface areas based on the condition of the Item (c) above (see FIG. 2( b )). Furthermore, even when aspheric surfaces expressed with the same aspheric surface coefficient are formed on the surface on one side of a lens, for example, when discontinuous portions are formed on the surface on the other side, they are assumed to be the separate optical surface areas.
[0422] In the present specification, “an area on the peripheral side” is one optical surface area of the aforesaid “optical surface area”, and it means the optical surface area closer to the peripheral side than the optical surface area including an optical axis among a plurality of optical surface areas. Further, “an area on the peripheral side” is an area existing on a part of either one of the following areas (a)-(f). It is preferable that 80% or more of either one of the following areas (a)-(f) is represented by “the area on the peripheral side”, and it is preferable that 100% of either one of the following areas (a)-(f) is represented by “the area on the peripheral side”. Next, areas (a)-(f) will be explained.
[0423] With regard optical disks popularized presently, there has generally been published a specification handbook in which wavelengths to be used and numerical apertures of light fluxes entering the optical disks are stipulated. Evaluation of optical disks is made by an optical disk evaluating instrument on which an optical pickup device having therein a light source with a wavelength and a light-converging optical system having a numerical aperture both based on the specification handbook is mounted. However, a wavelength of a light source on the optical pickup device provided on an actual optical disk apparatus does not always follow the specification handbook.
[0424] With regard to stipulations of the optical pickup device for measurement of CD, as an example, a wavelength is 780±10 nm and a numerical aperture is 0.45±0.01.
[0425] However, in the case of the optical pickup device provided on an actual CD player, a semiconductor laser whose oscillation wavelength at an ordinary temperature is longer than 790 nm is used as a light source from the viewpoint of a laser life and cost, in an example of a wavelength. With respect to the numerical aperture, on the other hand, there is also an occasion to use NA 0.43 for avoiding an influence of an error or to use NA 0.47 for improving basic performances.
[0426] On an optical pickup device provided on a DVD player having both functions for reproduction of DVD and that of CD, a light source with a wavelength of 650 nm is used for reproduction of DVD, and the same light source is used also for reproduction of CD. In this case, a diameter of an image forming spot of the light-converging optical system having no aberration is proportional to a wavelength, and is inversely proportional to a numerical aperture of a light flux entering the optical disk. Therefore, NA to obtain, under 650 nm, the image forming spot with the same diameter as that for NA 0.45 under 780 nm is 0.375, and the numerical aperture of about 0.38 is used. The basis why the optical pickup device that does not comply with the specifications of the optical disk has been put to practical use is considered to be the case that needs in the market have been changed from those in the initial stage of development and peripheral technologies have made progress.
[0427] An apparatus to use both DVD and CD on an interchangeable basis includes those in the following six types presently.
[0428] (1) An optical disk apparatus which employs an optical pickup device having only a light source with a wavelength of about 655 nm to conduct reproducing of DVD and reproducing of either one of CD and CD-ROM.
[0429] (2) An optical disk apparatus which employs an optical pickup device having a first light source with a wavelength of about 655 nm and a second light source with a wavelength of about 785 nm to conduct reproducing of DVD, reproducing of either one of CD-R and CD-RW.
[0430] (3) An optical disk apparatus which employs an optical pickup device having a first light source with a wavelength of about 655 nm and a second light source with a wavelength of about 785 nm to conduct reproducing of DVD, reproducing of either one of CD and CD-ROM and recording/reproducing of either one of CD-R and CD-RW.
[0431] (4) An optical disk apparatus which employs an optical pickup device having only a light source with a wavelength of about 655 nm to conduct reproducing of DVD, recording/reproducing of either one of DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-R and MMVF and reproducing of either one of CD and CD-ROM.
[0432] (5) An optical disk apparatus which employs an optical pickup device having a first light source with a wavelength of about 655 nm and a second light source with a wavelength of about 785 nm to conduct reproducing of DVD, recording/reproducing of either one of DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-R and MMVF and reproducing of either one of CD and CD-ROM and of either one of CD-R and CD-RW.
[0433] (6) An optical disk apparatus which employs an optical pickup device having a first light source with a wavelength of about 655 nm and a second light source with a wavelength of about 785 nm to conduct reproducing of DVD, recording/reproducing of either one of DVD-RAM, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, DVD-R and MMVF, reproducing of either one of CD and CD-ROM and recording/reproducing of either one of CD-R and CD-RW.
[0434] Since the numerical aperture necessary for recording and reproducing for each type of disk is different from others in each optical disk apparatus, the area on the peripheral side mentioned in the invention varies. Therefore, the area on the peripheral side is determined as follows, in accordance with a type of the optical disk apparatus.
[0435] (a) The area on the peripheral side of the objective lens in the apparatus of the aforesaid Item (1) is an area where the numerical aperture is 0.38 based on the maximum numerical aperture (usually, 0.6-0.63) for the light flux emitted from the first light source to enter the optical disk.
[0436] (b) The area on the peripheral side of the objective lens in the apparatus of the aforesaid Item (2) is an area where the numerical aperture for the light flux emitted from the second light source to enter the optical disk is 0.45 based on the numerical aperture (usually, 0.6-0.63) for the light flux emitted from the first light source to enter the optical disk.
[0437] (c) The area on the peripheral side of the objective lens in the apparatus of the aforesaid Item (3) is an area where the numerical aperture for the light flux emitted from the second light source to enter the optical disk is 0.50 based on the maximum numerical aperture (usually, 0.6-0.63) for the light flux emitted from the first light source to enter the optical disk.
[0438] (d) The area on the peripheral side of the objective lens in the apparatus of the aforesaid Item (4) is an area where the numerical aperture is 0.38 based on the maximum numerical aperture (usually, 0.6-0.65) for the light flux emitted from the first light source to enter the optical disk.
[0439] (e) The area on the peripheral side of the objective lens in the apparatus of the aforesaid Item (5) is an area where the numerical aperture for the light flux emitted from the second light source to enter the optical disk is 0.45 based on the maximum numerical aperture (usually, 0.6-0.65) for the light flux emitted from the first light source to enter the optical disk.
[0440] (f) The area on the peripheral side of the objective lens in the apparatus of the aforesaid Item (6) is an area where the numerical aperture for the light flux emitted from the second light source to enter the optical disk is 0.50 based on the maximum numerical aperture (usually, 0.6-0.65) for the light flux emitted from the first light source to enter the optical disk.
[0441] A diffractive structure (diffractive section) provided on “the area on the peripheral side” may be provided either on the side of an objective lens closer to a light source or on the side of an objective lens closer to an optical information recording medium, or it may further be provided on both sides thereof, and the diffractive structure is provided with at least a function to correct temperature characteristics for the prescribed light flux passing through the area on the peripheral side.
[0442] Incidentally, “the outermost optical surface area” or “the outermost circumferential optical surface area” means an optical surface area on the outermost side in the effective diameter, and it is most preferable that a diffractive structure is provided on that optical surface area. However, it does not affect the invention to provide, without departing from the technical spirit and the effect of the invention, a refraction section having no diffractive structure on a part of the outermost optical surface area in an effective diameter within a range that a spot diameter and light intensity both suitable for an optical information recording medium (for example, DVD compared with CD) whose necessary numerical aperture is relatively great are obtained. On the other hand, providing an optical surface area having no influence on recording or reproducing for the optical information recording medium substantially on the outermost optical surface area in an effective diameter has no influence on the invention. Even when the optical surface area of this kind exists in the effective diameter, it should be ignored.
[0443] Further, “correcting temperature characteristics” means that the following expression is satisfied by change (SA1/δT) of spherical aberration for temperature changes, even when a wavelength of a light source is changed and a refractive index of the objective lens is changed both by temperature changes (λ represents a wavelength of a light source).
|δ SA 1 /δT|≦ 0.002 λrms/° C.
[0444] In addition, “an average pitch” is assumed to be (a width of an area of ring-shaped diffractive zone in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis viewed in a section including the optical axis)÷(number of rings in a ring-shaped diffractive zone). Further, “correcting spherical aberration” is to correct to the level of not more than the diffraction limit power, and it means that 0.07 λrms and downward (hereat, λ represents a wavelength of a light source) is satisfied when wave front aberration is obtained. Further, “m2≈m1” means relationship of magnification on the level wherein recording and reproducing for each optical information recording medium can be conducted with the same sensor size for both the first optical information recording medium and the second optical information recording medium. The relationship of magnification on the level wherein both recording and reproducing can be conducted with one sensor is more preferable.
[0445] With regard to “under spherical aberration or over spherical aberration”, it is assumed that “under” means an occasion where an image intersects an optical axis at this side of a paraxial image point, and “over” means an occasion where an image intersects an optical axis at the far side of a paraxial image point, both in spherical aberration where a position of a paraxial image point is the origin, as shown in FIG. 3.
[0446] “Diffractive surface”, “diffractive section”, “diffractive structure” or “ring-shaped diffractive zone” used in the present specification means a section where a relief is provided on the surface of an objective lens to provide a function to converge or diverge a light flux through diffraction. With regard to a form of the relief, there is known a form wherein a ring-shaped diffractive zone that is almost in the form of concentric circle whose center is an optical axis is formed on the surface of objective lens OL as shown in FIG. 4( b ), and a section of the ring-shaped diffractive zone on a plane including the optical axis looks like a serration. The form of the relief includes a form of this kind which is especially called “a ring-shaped diffractive zone”.
[0447] An objective lens in a narrow sense in the present specification is a lens having a light-converging function arranged at the position closest to an optical information recording medium to face it under the condition that the optical information recording medium is loaded in an optical pickup device, while an objective lens in a wide sense is a lens group capable of being operated by an actuator at least in the direction of its optical axis together with that lens. This lens group in this case means at least one or more lenses (for example, two lenses). Therefore, numerical aperture NA of the objective lens on the optical information recording medium side (image side) in the present specification means numerical aperture NA of the lens surface positioned to be closest to the optical information recording medium side on the objective lens. Further, necessary numerical aperture NA in the present specification is a numerical aperture stipulated by specifications of each optical information recording medium, or it is a numerical aperture of the objective lens having the diffraction limit power capable of obtaining a spot diameter necessary for recording or reproducing of information in accordance with a wavelength of a light source used for each optical information recording medium.
[0448] In this specification, the second optical information recording medium means CD type optical disks in various types such as, for example, CD=R, CD-RW, CD-Video and CD-ROM, and the first optical information recording medium means DVD type optical disks in various types such as DVD-ROM, DVD-RAM, DVD-R, DVD-RW, CD=RW and DVD-Video. Further, thickness t of a transparent base board mentioned in the specification includes t=0. In addition, “when using DVD (CD)” means “when conducting recording or reproducing of information for DVD (CD)”.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0449] FIGS. 1 ( a ) to 1 ( c ) are diagrams showing a condition that spherical aberration is discontinuous.
[0450] FIGS. 2 ( a ) to 2 ( b ) are sectional views of an objective lens for illustrating an optical surface area.
[0451] [0451]FIG. 3 is a diagram showing whether aberration is under or over.
[0452] FIGS. 4 ( a ) and 4 ( b ) are diagrams showing a ring-shaped diffractive zone of a diffractive section.
[0453] [0453]FIG. 4( b ) shows a pitch of ring-shaped diffractive zones.
[0454] [0454]FIG. 5 is a schematic structure diagram of an optical pickup device.
[0455] [0455]FIG. 6 is a sectional view showing a schematic structure of an objective lens of the first embodiment.
[0456] [0456]FIG. 7 is a schematic structure diagram of an optical pickup device.
[0457] FIGS. 8 ( a ) and 8 ( b ) are sectional views showing a schematic structure of an objective lens of the second embodiment.
[0458] [0458]FIG. 8( a ) shows a condition that how a light flux is used for the first optical information recording medium (DVD) and
[0459] [0459]FIG. 8( b ) shows a condition that how a light flux is used for the second optical information recording medium (CD).
[0460] [0460]FIG. 9 is a sectional view showing a schematic structure of an objective lens of the third and fourth embodiments.
[0461] [0461]FIG. 10 is a sectional view showing a schematic structure of an objective lens of the fifth embodiment.
[0462] [0462]FIG. 11 is a spherical aberration diagram for an objective lens in Example 1 where DVD is used.
[0463] [0463]FIG. 12 is a spherical aberration diagram for an objective lens in Example 1 where CD is used.
[0464] [0464]FIG. 13 is a spherical aberration diagram for an objective lens in Example 2 where DVD is used.
[0465] [0465]FIG. 14 is a spherical aberration diagram for an objective lens in Example 2 where CD is used.
[0466] [0466]FIG. 15 is a sectional view showing a schematic structure of an objective lens related to a variation example.
[0467] [0467]FIG. 16 is a spherical aberration diagram for an objective lens in Example 3 where DVD is used.
[0468] [0468]FIG. 17 is a spherical aberration diagram for an objective lens in Example 3 where CD is used.
[0469] [0469]FIG. 18 is a spherical is an aberration diagram for an objective lens in Example 4 where DVD is used.
[0470] [0470]FIG. 19 is a spherical aberration diagram for an objective lens in Example 4 where CD is used.
[0471] [0471]FIG. 20 is a spherical aberration diagram for an objective lens in Example 5 where DVD is used.
[0472] [0472]FIG. 21 is a spherical aberration diagram for an objective lens in Example 5 where CD is used.
[0473] [0473]FIG. 22 is a spherical aberration diagram for an objective lens in Example 6 where DVD is used.
[0474] [0474]FIG. 23 is a spherical aberration diagram for an objective lens in Example 6 where CD is used.
[0475] FIGS. 24 ( a ) and 24 ( b ) are sectional views showing a schematic structure of an objective lens related to another variation example.
[0476] [0476]FIG. 24( a ) shows a condition that how a light flux is used for the first optical information recording medium (DVD) and
[0477] [0477]FIG. 24( b ) shows a condition that how a light flux is used for the second optical information recording medium (CD).
[0478] FIGS. 25 ( a ) and 25 ( b ) are sectional views showing a schematic structure of an objective lens related to still another variation example.
[0479] [0479]FIG. 25( a ) shows a condition that how a light flux is used for the first optical information recording medium (DVD) and
[0480] [0480]FIG. 25( b ) shows a condition that how a light flux is used for the second optical information recording medium (CD).
[0481] FIGS. 26 ( a ) and 26 ( b ) are sectional views showing a schematic structure of an objective lens related to still another variation example.
[0482] [0482]FIG. 26( a ) shows a condition that how a light flux is used for the first optical information recording medium (DVD) and
[0483] [0483]FIG. 26( b ) shows a condition that how a light flux is used for the second optical information recording medium (CD).
[0484] [0484]FIG. 27 is a schematic structure diagram of an optical pickup device.
[0485] FIGS. 28 ( a ) and 28 ( b ) are sectional views of primary portions of an objective lens in the Seventh Embodiment.
[0486] FIGS. 29 ( a ) and 29 ( b ) are diagrams showing an example of a design (target characteristics) of spherical aberration related to the Seventh Embodiment.
[0487] [0487]FIG. 30 is a sectional view of primary portions of an objective lens related to the variation of the Seventh Embodiment.
[0488] [0488]FIG. 31 is a diagram showing an example wherein a wavelength selecting diaphragm is provided on an optical pickup device.
[0489] FIGS. 32 ( a ) and 32 ( b ) are sectional views of primary portions of an objective lens related to the Eighth Embodiment.
[0490] FIGS. 33 ( a ) and 33 ( b ) are diagrams showing an example of a design (target characteristics) of spherical aberration related to the Eighth Embodiment.
[0491] [0491]FIG. 33( a ) show a spherical aberration diagram for DVD and
[0492] [0492]FIG. 33( b ) show a spherical aberration diagram for CD.
[0493] [0493]FIG. 34 is a sectional view of primary portions of an objective lens related to the variation of the Eighth Embodiment.
[0494] [0494]FIG. 35 is a diagram showing an example wherein a coupling lens is provided on an optical pickup device.
[0495] [0495]FIG. 36 is a sectional view of primary portions of an objective lens related to the Ninth Embodiment.
[0496] FIGS. 37 ( a ) and 37 ( b ) are diagrams showing an example of a design (target characteristics) of spherical aberration related to the Ninth Embodiment.
[0497] [0497]FIG. 37( a ) show a spherical aberration diagram for DVD and
[0498] [0498]FIG. 37( b ) show a spherical aberration diagram for CD.
[0499] [0499]FIG. 38 is a sectional view of primary portions of an objective lens related to the Tenth Embodiment.
[0500] FIGS. 39 ( a ) and 39 ( b ) are diagrams showing an example of a design (target characteristics) of spherical aberration related to the Tenth Embodiment.
[0501] [0501]FIG. 39( a ) show a spherical aberration diagram for DVD and
[0502] [0502]FIG. 3( b ) show a spherical aberration diagram for CD.
[0503] FIGS. 40 ( a ) and 40 ( b ) are spherical aberration diagrams of an objective lens in Example 7.
[0504] [0504]FIG. 40( a ) show a spherical aberration diagram for DVD and
[0505] [0505]FIG. 40( b ) show a spherical aberration diagram for CD.
[0506] FIGS. 41 ( a ) and 41 ( b ) each shows a form of a spot on an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium for an objective lens in the Example 7.
[0507] [0507]FIG. 41( a ) is a diagram for CD and
[0508] [0508]FIG. 41( b ) is a diagram for DVD.
[0509] FIGS. 42 ( a ) and 42 ( b ) are spherical aberration diagrams of an objective lens in Example 8.
[0510] [0510]FIG. 42( a ) show a spherical aberration diagram for DVD and
[0511] [0511]FIG. 42( b ) show a spherical aberration diagram for CD.
[0512] FIGS. 43 ( a ) and 43 ( b ) each shows a form of a spot on an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium for an objective lens in the Example 8.
[0513] [0513]FIG. 43( a ) is a diagram for CD and
[0514] [0514]FIG. 43( b ) is a diagram for DVD.
[0515] FIGS. 44 ( a ) and 44 ( b ) each is a spherical aberration diagram of an objective lens in Example 9.
[0516] [0516]FIG. 44( a ) show a spherical aberration diagram for DVD and
[0517] [0517]FIG. 44( b ) show a spherical aberration diagram for CD.
[0518] [0518]FIG. 45( a ) and 45 ( b ) each shows a form of a spot on an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium for an objective lens in the Example 9.
[0519] FIG. 45 ( a ) is a diagram for CD and
[0520] [0520]FIG. 45( b ) is a diagram for DVD.
[0521] FIGS. 46 ( a ) and 46 ( b ) each is a spherical aberration diagram of an objective lens in Example 10.
[0522] [0522]FIG. 46( a ) show a spherical aberration diagram for DVD and
[0523] [0523]FIG. 46( b ) show a spherical aberration diagram for CD.
[0524] FIGS. 47 ( a ) and 47 ( b ) each shows a form of a spot on an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium for an objective lens in the Example 10.
[0525] [0525]FIG. 47( a ) is a diagram for CD and
[0526] [0526]FIG. 47( b ) is a diagram for DVD.
[0527] FIGS. 48 ( a ) and 48 ( b ) each is a spherical aberration diagram of an objective lens in Example 11.
[0528] [0528]FIG. 48( a ) show a spherical aberration diagram for DVD and
[0529] [0529]FIG. 48( b ) show a spherical aberration diagram for CD.
[0530] FIGS. 49 ( a ) and 49 ( b ) each shows a form of a spot on an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium for an objective lens in the Example 11.
[0531] [0531]FIG. 49( a ) is a diagram for CD and
[0532] [0532]FIG. 49( b ) is a diagram for DVD.
[0533] FIGS. 50 ( a ) and 50 ( b ) each is a spherical aberration diagram of an objective lens in Example 12.
[0534] [0534]FIG. 50( a ) show a spherical aberration diagram for DVD and
[0535] [0535]FIG. 50( b ) show a spherical aberration diagram for CD.
[0536] FIGS. 51 ( a ) and 51 ( b ) each shows a form of a spot on an information recording surface of an optical information recording medium for an objective lens in the Example 12.
[0537] [0537]FIG. 51( a ) is a diagram for CD and
[0538] [0538]FIG. 51( b ) is a diagram for DVD.
[0539] [0539]FIG. 52 is a diagram showing how residual aberration (spherical aberration) is generated when a thickness of a transparent base board is changed.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0540] Referring to the drawings, the invention will further be explained in detail.
[0541] (First Embodiment)
[0542] First embodiment will be explained as follows. FIG. 5 is a schematic structure diagram of an optical pickup device. In optical pickup device 100 shown in FIG. 5, a light flux emitted from semiconductor laser 111 representing a light source passes through beam splitter 120 representing a light merging means, then, stopped down by diaphragm 17 to the prescribed numerical aperture, and forms a spot on information recording surface 220 through diffraction-integrated objective lens 160 and through transparent base board 210 of high density recording optical disk 200 representing an optical information recording medium. A wavelength (standard wavelength) of the semiconductor laser light is 650 nm.
[0543] A reflected light flux modulated by information bit on information recording surface 220 passes through the diffraction-integrated objective lens 160 again to be changed into a converged light, then, further passes through diaphragm 17 to be reflected on beam splitter 120 and passes through cylindrical lens 180 to be subjected to astigmatism and magnification change, and is converged on a light-receiving surface of optical detector 300 . Incidentally, the numeral 150 in the drawing represents an actuator serving as a distance adjusting means for focus control and tracking control. Including an embodiment which will be explained later, it is preferable that the actuator 150 drives objective lens 160 in terms of focusing under the state wherein an image forming magnification is substantially constant.
[0544] Incidentally, including an embodiment which will be explained later, when objective lens 160 is driven in terms of tracking in the direction perpendicular to its optical axis by actuator 150 , the relative position of the objective lens 160 to semiconductor laser 111 representing a light source is changed, and in this case, the position where an astigmatism component of wave front aberration of the light flux emerging out of the objective lens 160 is minimum is a position where the optical axis of the objective lens 160 is deviated from the center of a light flux emitted from the semiconductor laser 111 , and therefore, it is possible to expand a range where an astigmatism is smaller than the prescribed value. When the distance between the semiconductor laser and an information recording surface of the optical image recording medium is made to be greater than 10 mm and to be smaller than 40 mm, optical pickup device 100 can be made compact, which is preferable.
[0545] Further, the diaphragm 17 was also established properly to comply with specifications of the objective lens in the example so that a numerical aperture on the disk 16 side may be a prescribed value. In the present embodiment, it is also possible to provide a liquid crystal shutter just ahead of the diaphragm 17 . Incidentally, in the present embodiment and in another embodiment described later, it is conceivable that a temperature sensor that detects a temperature of a semiconductor laser representing a light source is provided, and a temperature of the semiconductor laser (or an ambient temperature) is adjusted by a temperature adjusting means including a Peltier element by the use of signals outputted from the temperature sensor.
[0546] [0546]FIG. 6 is a sectional schematic view of objective lens 160 . On surface S 1 of the objective lens 160 closer to a light source, there are formed three optical surface areas A 1 , A 2 and A 3 . The optical surface area A 2 between h 1 and h 2 each representing a height from an optical axis is formed by a refraction section composed of an aspheric surface and each of the optical surface areas A 1 and A 3 which are adjacent to the optical surface area A 2 is formed by a diffractive section.
[0547] The optical surface areas A 1 that is outside the height h 1 determines power allocation for refraction power and diffraction power of the outermost diffractive section so that correction of spherical aberration and correction of temperature characteristics in the course of using DVD may be the prime object.
[0548] Now, when CD is used, over spherical aberration is caused in the design wherein spherical aberration is corrected with a transparent base board thickness (t 1 =0.6 mm) of DVD, because the transparent base board thickness is greater than the thickness of DVD. As it stands, therefore, recording and reproducing are usually impossible. To realize interchangeability, therefore, design of recording and reproducing for CD is conducted for intermediate optical surface area A 2 . To be concrete, the design is conducted to correct spherical aberration for the assumed base board (example, t=0.9 mm) whose thickness is in a range from t 1 to t 2 , without making the spherical aberration to be zero thoroughly in CD (t 2 =1.2 mm).
[0549] On the paraxial optical surface area A 3 , there is formed a diffractive section in the same way as in the outermost area A 1 , and power allocation for refraction power and diffraction power of the diffractive section is determined so that correction of spherical aberration and correction of temperature characteristics in the course of using DVD may be the prime object. In this case, generation of spherical aberration caused by a difference in transparent base board thickness is proportional to the fourth power of NA, and on the contrary, in the low NA area, the rate of generation of spherical aberration is less, even when deviated from the designed thickness of the base board. Therefore, by designing properly the paraxial area A 3 in which a transparent base board thickness for DVD is designed to be t 1 and intermediate optical surface area A 2 , it is possible, even CD is used, to make a light spot formed by optical surface area A 3 including an optical axis and by intermediate optical surface area A 2 to be not more than the diffraction limit (0.07 λrms or less: λ represents a wavelength of a light source here), at a certain position on the over side from the paraxial image point.
[0550] In the case of using CD, a light flux passing through the outermost area A 1 only turns out to be a flare component, and only a light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area A 2 and paraxial optical surface area A 3 contributes to a CD spot. Though these are not always free from aberration completely, it is possible to realize an amount of spherical aberration (about 0.04 λrms) which is especially preferable for practical use. In the case of using DVD, a light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area A 2 only turns out to be a flare component, and a light flux passing through the outermost area A 1 and paraxial optical surface area A 3 is used for forming a spot. Therefore, correction of spherical aberration and correction of temperature characteristics in the course of using DVD are kept.
[0551] Incidentally, the invention is not limited to the aforesaid embodiment. Though the intermediate optical surface area A 2 is composed of the refraction section, the same effect is obtained even when the intermediate optical surface area A 2 is composed of the diffractive section having the same spherical aberration. Further, it is naturally possible to realize even when the refraction section and the diffractive section exist mixedly on the intermediate optical surface area A 2 . Further, diffractive sections may be formed on both sides in the direction of the optical axis. In addition, the paraxial optical surface area A 3 does not need to be established to be thoroughly free from aberration in using DVD, and residual aberration of CD may be made less as shown in the second embodiment described later. In this case, spherical aberration may be caused on the portion close to the optical axis.
[0552] An optical surface of the objective lens does not need to be composed strictly of three optical surface areas, and it may be composed of more optical surface areas. In that case, it is also possible to arrange so that at least one optical surface area for correcting a base board thickness and temperature characteristics in using DVD exists on the optical surface area outside necessary numerical aperture NA of CD, at least one optical surface area for forming CD spot exists on at least one area inside necessary numerical aperture NA of CD, and at least one optical surface area for correcting a base board thickness and temperature characteristics in using DVD exists on the area near an optical axis.
[0553] (Second Embodiment)
[0554] Next, the second embodiment will be explained. This embodiment is one wherein a wavelength of a light source under which DVD is used is different from that under which CD is used, and explanation of portions in this embodiment which are the same as those in the first embodiment will be omitted. In the optical pickup device (that is of a type of two light sources and one detector) related to the present embodiment shown in FIG. 7, there are provided semiconductor laser 111 (designed wavelength λ=650 nm) representing the first light source for reproducing the first optical disk (DVD) and semiconductor laser 112 (designed wavelength λ1=780 nm) representing the second light source for reproducing the second optical disk (CD).
[0555] First, when reproducing the first optical disk, a beam is emitted from the first semiconductor laser 111 , and the light flux thus emitted passes through beam splitter 190 which is a light merging means for light emitted from the semiconductor laser 111 and for that emitted from the semiconductor laser 112 , then, passes through beam splitter 120 , and is stopped down by diaphragm 17 to be converged by objective lens 160 on information recording surface 220 through transparent base board 210 of first optical disk 200 .
[0556] Then, the light flux modulated by information bit and reflected on the information recording surface 220 passes through the objective lens 160 as well as diaphragm 17 again, then, enters the beam splitter 120 to be reflected therein, and is given astigmatism by cylindrical lens 180 to enter optical detector 300 , where signals are obtained through reading of information recorded on the first optical disk 200 by the use of signals outputted from the optical detector 300 .
[0557] Further, detection of focusing and detection of tracking are conducted by detecting a change in an amount of light caused by changes in form and position of a spot on the optical detector 300 . Based on this detection, two-dimension actuator 150 representing a distance adjusting means moves objective lens 160 so that a light flux emitted from the first semiconductor laser 111 may form images on recording surface 220 of the first optical disk 200 , and moves objective lens 160 so that a light flux emitted from the first semiconductor laser 111 may form images on the prescribed track.
[0558] When reproducing the second optical disk, a beam is emitted from the second semiconductor laser 112 , and the light flux thus emitted is reflected on beam splitter 190 which is a light merging means, and is converged on information recording surface 220 through beam splitter 120 , diaphragm 17 and objective lens 160 in the same way as in the light flux emitted from the first semiconductor 111 , and through transparent base board 210 of the second optical disk 200 .
[0559] Then, the light flux modulated by information bit and reflected on information recording surface 220 enters the optical detector 300 through the objective lens 160 , diaphragm 17 , beam splitter 120 and cylindrical lens 180 again, and signals are obtained through reading of information recorded on the second optical disk 200 by the use of signals outputted from the optical detector 300 .
[0560] In the same way as in the first optical disk, detection of focusing and detection of tracking are conducted by detecting a change in an amount of light caused by changes in a form and a position of the spot on the optical detector 300 , and two-dimension actuator 150 moves objective lens 160 for focusing and tracking.
[0561] [0561]FIG. 8 shows a schematic sectional view of an objective lens. On surface S 1 of the objective lens 160 closer to a light source, there are formed three optical surface areas A 1 , A 2 and A 3 . Each optical surface area is composed of a diffractive section, and outermost optical surface area A 1 and optical surface area A 3 near an optical axis are diffraction surfaces under the same design concept, while, intermediate optical surface area A 2 between h 1 and h 2 each representing a height from an optical axis is a diffractive section designed from a viewpoint that is different from that for diffractive sections on both sides of the intermediate optical surface area A 2 .
[0562] The outermost optical surface area A 1 and optical surface area A 3 near an optical axis conduct correction of a base board thickness and correction of temperature characteristics in the course of using DVD. When using CD, in this case, under spherical aberration is generated on the light flux passing through the aforesaid diffractive section as spherical aberration for the color corresponding to the wavelength of the light source that is longer compared with that for DVD. In this case, to make it possible to conduct reproducing and recording for CD, the optical design of intermediate optical surface area A 2 is made so that spherical aberration which is different from that for the diffractive sections on both sides may be given to the intermediate optical surface area A 2 . Even in the present embodiment, spherical aberration is not made to be zero perfectly in CD (t 2 =1.2 mm), but a base board (for example, t=0.9 mm) having a certain thickness between t 1 and t 2 is assumed, and spherical aberration is corrected for that base board, in the design. Though the corresponding portion has under spherical aberration when using DVD, it turns out to be flare light which is far from the main spot.
[0563] On the other hand, when using CD, a light flux passing through the outermost optical surface area A 1 only turns out to be flare component, and those contributing to CD spot are only intermediate optical surface area A 2 and optical surface area A 3 near an optical axis (see FIG. 8 (b)). Though these are not free from aberration completely, an amount of spherical aberration capable of being used practically (about 0.04 λrms) can be realized. When using DVD, a light flux passing through intermediate optical surface area A 2 is a flare component (see FIG. 8( a )), and outermost optical surface area A 1 and optical surface area A 3 near an optical axis are used for forming the spot. Therefore, interchangeability with CD can be realized under the condition where correction of spherical aberration and correction of temperature characteristics are kept in the course of using DVD.
[0564] Incidentally, the invention is not limited to the aforesaid embodiment. Though the intermediate optical surface area A 2 is composed of the refraction section, the same effect is obtained even when the intermediate optical surface area A 2 is composed of the diffractive section having the same spherical aberration. Further, it is naturally possible to realize even when the refraction section and the diffractive section exist mixedly on the intermediate optical surface area A 2 . Further, diffractive sections may be formed on both sides in the direction of the optical axis. In addition, the paraxial optical surface area A 3 does not need to be established to be thoroughly free from aberration in using DVD, and residual aberration of CD may be made less. In this case, spherical aberration may be caused on the portion close to the optical axis.
[0565] An optical surface of the objective lens does not need to be composed strictly of three optical surface areas, and it may be composed of more optical surface areas. In that case, it is also possible to arrange so that at least one optical surface area for correcting a base board thickness and temperature characteristics in using DVD exists on the optical surface area outside necessary numerical aperture NA of CD, at least one optical surface area for forming CD spot exists on at least one area inside necessary numerical aperture NA of CD, and at least one optical surface area for correcting a base board thickness and temperature characteristics in using DVD exists on the area near an optical axis.
[0566] (Third Embodiment)
[0567] Next, the third embodiment will be explained. This embodiment is one wherein a wavelength of a light source under which DVD is used is the same as that under which CD is used, and explanation of portions in this embodiment which are the same as those in the aforesaid embodiment will be omitted. An optical pickup device is the same as one shown in FIG. 5 in terms of structure. A schematic structure diagram of an objective lens is shown in FIG. 9.
[0568] On surface S 1 of objective lens 160 closer to a light source, there are formed three optical surface areas A 1 , A 2 and A 3 each being designed optically based on a different concept. However, from the viewpoint of using a light flux, a light flux passing through the outermost optical surface area A 1 and the innermost optical surface area A 3 is used to form an optical spot on a recording surface in the case of using DVD, and a light flux passing through the intermediate optical surface area A 2 and the innermost optical surface area A 3 is used to form an optical spot in the case of using CD, in the same way as in the embodiment explained already.
[0569] A diffraction surface of optical surface area A 1 outside h 1 representing a height from optical axis X is designed for correction of a base board thickness and temperature characteristics in the case of using DVD, in the same way as in the first embodiment, and when using CD, over flare light is generated. Intermediate optical surface area A 2 is designed to correct spherical aberration for the assumed base board having a certain thickness between t 1 and t 2 (for example, t=0.9 mm) for a purpose of interchangeability with CD, and it is used for forming a spot in the case of using CD, and an under flare light is generated when DVD is used. On the innermost optical surface area A 3 , the refraction surface is designed for correcting a base board thickness of DVD basically, and a form of spherical aberration on the portion near an optical axis is devised for lessening residual aberration in the case of using CD. This area is also used for forming main spot light for DVD and CD, which has been described already.
[0570] Incidentally, the invention is not limited to the aforesaid embodiment. Though the intermediate optical surface area A 2 is composed of the refraction section, the same effect is obtained even when the intermediate optical surface area A 2 is composed of the diffractive section having the same spherical aberration. Further, it is naturally possible to realize even when the refraction section and the diffractive section exist mixedly on the intermediate optical surface area A 2 . Further, diffractive sections may be formed on both sides in the direction of the optical axis. In addition, the paraxial optical surface area A 3 does not need to be established to be thoroughly free from aberration in using DVD, and residual aberration of CD may be made less. In this case, spherical aberration may be caused on the portion close to the optical axis.
[0571] An optical surface of the objective lens does not need to be composed strictly of three optical surface areas, and it may be composed of more optical surface areas. In that case, it is also possible to arrange so that at least one optical surface area for correcting a base board thickness and temperature characteristics in using DVD exists on the optical surface area outside necessary numerical aperture NA of CD, at least one optical surface area for forming CD spot exists on at least one area inside necessary numerical aperture NA of CD, and at least one optical surface area for correcting a base board thickness and temperature characteristics in using DVD exists on the area near an optical axis.
[0572] (Fourth Embodiment)
[0573] Next, the fourth embodiment will be explained. This embodiment is one wherein a wavelength of a light source under which DVD is used is different from that under which CD is used, and an optical pickup device is the same as one shown in FIG. 7 in terms of structure. A schematic sectional view of an objective lens is the same as one shown in FIG. 9.
[0574] On a surface of an objective lens closer to a light source, there are formed three optical surface areas A 1 , A 2 and A 3 each being designed optically based on a different concept. However, from the viewpoint of using a light flux, a light flux passing through the out side and the inside is used to form an spot light on a recording surface in the case of using DVD, and a light flux passing through the intermediate portion and the inside is used to form a spot light in the case of using CD, in the same way as in the embodiment explained already.
[0575] A diffraction surface of optical surface area A 1 outside h 1 representing a height from optical axis X is designed for correction of a base board thickness and temperature characteristics in the case of using DVD, in the same way as in the first embodiment, and when using CD, under flare light is generated. Intermediate optical surface area A 2 is designed to correct spherical aberration for the assumed base board having a certain thickness between t 1 and t 2 (for example, t=0.9 mm) for a purpose of interchangeability with CD, and it is used for forming a spot in the case of using CD, and an over flare light is generated when DVD is used. On the innermost optical surface area A 3 , the refraction surface is designed for correcting a base board thickness of DVD basically, and a form of spherical aberration on the portion near an optical axis is devised for lessening residual aberration in the case of using CD. Spherical aberration of this area generated when CD is used is under one which is opposite to that in the third embodiment. This area is also used for forming main spot light for DVD and CD, which has been described already.
[0576] Incidentally, the invention is not limited to the aforesaid embodiment. Though the intermediate optical surface area A 2 is composed of the refraction section, the same effect is obtained even when the intermediate optical surface area A 2 is composed of the diffractive section having the same spherical aberration. Further, it is naturally possible to realize even when the refraction section and the diffractive section exist mixedly on the intermediate optical surface area A 2 . Further, diffractive sections may be formed on both sides in the direction of the optical axis. In addition, the paraxial optical surface area A 3 does not need to be established to be thoroughly free from aberration in using DVD, and residual aberration of CD may be made less. In this case, spherical aberration may be caused on the portion close to the optical axis.
[0577] An optical surface of the objective lens does not need to be composed strictly of three optical surface areas, and it may be composed of more optical surface areas. In that case, it is also possible to arrange so that at least one optical surface area for correcting a base board thickness and temperature characteristics in using DVD exists on the optical surface area outside necessary numerical aperture NA of CD, at least one optical surface area for forming CD spot exists on at least one area inside necessary numerical aperture NA of CD, and at least one optical surface area for correcting a base board thickness and temperature characteristics in using DVD exists on the area near an optical axis.
[0578] (Fifth Embodiment)
[0579] Next, the fifth embodiment will be explained. This embodiment is one wherein a wavelength of a light source under which DVD is used is the same as that under which CD is used, and an optical pickup device is the same as one shown in FIG. 5 in terms of structure. A schematic structure diagram of an objective lens is shown in FIG. 10.
[0580] On surface S 1 of objective lens 160 closer to a light source, there are formed two optical surface areas A 1 and A 2 each being designed optically based on a different concept. From the viewpoint of using a light flux, a light flux passing through the outside and the inside is used to form a spot light on a recording surface in the case of using DVD, and a light flux passing through the inside is used to form a spot light on a recording surface in the case of using CD.
[0581] A diffraction surface of optical surface area A 1 outside h 1 representing a height from optical axis X is designed for correction of a base board thickness and temperature characteristics in the case of using DVD, in the same way as in the first embodiment, and when using CD, over flare light is generated. Inside optical surface area A 2 is designed to correct spherical aberration for the assumed base board having a certain thickness between t 1 and t 2 (for example, t=0.9 mm) for a purpose of interchangeability with CD, and it is used for forming a spot in the case of using CD, and it is used to contribute to forming a spot light when DVD is used. Further, a form of spherical aberration on the portion near an optical axis is devised for lessening residual aberration in the case of using CD. Spherical aberration generated on this area when CD is used is under spherical aberration which is opposite to that in the third embodiment. This area is also used for forming main spot light for DVD and CD, which has been described already. Incidentally, the invention is not limited to the aforesaid embodiment. Though the inside optical surface area A 2 is composed of the refraction section, the same effect is obtained even when the inside optical surface area A 2 is composed of the diffractive section having the same spherical aberration. Further, it is naturally possible to realize even when the diffractive section and the refraction section exist mixedly on the intermediate optical surface area A 2 . Further, diffractive sections may be formed on both sides in the direction of the optical axis.
[0582] (Sixth Embodiment)
[0583] Next, the sixth embodiment will be explained. This embodiment is one wherein a wavelength of a light source under which DVD is used is different from that under which CD is used, and an optical pickup device is the same as one shown in FIG. 7 in terms of structure. A schematic sectional view of an objective lens is shown in FIG. 15.
[0584] On surface S 1 of objective lens 160 closer to a light source, there are formed two optical surface areas A 1 and A 2 each being designed optically based on a different concept. From the viewpoint of using a light flux, a light flux passing through the outside and the inside is used to form a spot light on a recording surface in the case of using DVD, and a light flux passing through the inside is used to form a spot light on a recording surface in the case of using CD.
[0585] A diffraction surface of optical surface area A 1 outside h 1 representing a height from optical axis X is designed for correction of a base board thickness and temperature characteristics in the case of using DVD, in the same way as in the first embodiment, and when using CD, over flare light is generated. Intermediate optical surface area A 2 is designed to correct spherical aberration for the assumed base board having a certain thickness between t 1 and t 2 (for example, t=0.9 mm) while utilizing spherical aberration for the color corresponding to the longer length in terms of a length of a light source compared with DVD, for a purpose of interchangeability with CD, and it is used for forming a spot in the case of using CD, and it is used to contribute to forming a spot light when DVD is used. Therefore, when using CD, a light flux passing through the outside optical surface area A 1 only turns out to be flare component, and what is contributing to forming of a spot light for CD is a light flux passing through the inside optical surface area A 2 , and when using DVD, a light flux passing through the outside optical surface area A 1 and a light flux passing through the inside optical surface area A 2 are used for forming a spot light. Therefore, interchangeability with CD can be realized under the condition where correction of spherical aberration and correction of temperature characteristics are kept in the course of using DVD.
[0586] Further, in many actual optical pickup devices, a distance between an emission point and each disk surface is constant, and there is a high possibility that an actual image forming magnification for DVD is different from that for CD. However, the distance between an emission point and a lens surface is made to be the same for DVD and CD in the following examples, because that strictness does not matter in substance of the invention.
[0587] Incidentally, the invention is not limited to the present embodiment. Though a diffractive section is used to constitute the inside optical surface area A 2 , the effect is the same even when a refraction section having the same spherical aberration is used. Further, even when the diffractive section and the refraction section exit mixedly on the inside optical surface area A 2 , it is naturally possible to realize. In addition, the diffractive section may further be formed on both sides in the direction of an optical axis.
[0588] Examples of the objective lens which is favorably used in the optical pickup device in the embodiment described above will be explained as follows.
[0589] In general, a pitch of a ring-shaped diffractive zone on the diffraction surface is defined by using a phase difference function or an optical path difference function. To be concrete, phase difference function Φb is expressed by the following “Numeral 1” in a unit of radian, and optical path difference function ΦB is expressed by the following “Numeral 2” in a unit of mm.
Φ b = ∑ i = 1 ∞ b 2 i h 2 i ( Numeral 1 ) Φ B = ∑ i = 1 ∞ B 2 i h 2 i ( Numeral 2 )
[0590] These two expression methods are different each other in terms of a unit, but they are the same in terms of expressing a pitch of a ring-shaped diffractive zone. Namely, if phase difference function coefficient b is multiplied by λ/2π for main wavelength λ (unit mm), it is possible to convert into optical path difference function coefficient B, while, if optical path difference function coefficient B is divided by λ/2π on the contrary, it is possible to convert into phase difference function coefficient b.
[0591] Based on the definition stated above, it is possible to make a lens to have power, by making the secondary coefficient of the phase difference function or of the optical path difference function to be the value other than zero. Further, it is possible to control spherical aberration by making the coefficient of the phase difference function or of the optical path difference function other than the secondary coefficient, for example, quaternary coefficient, 6-th order coefficient, 8-th order coefficient and 10-th order coefficient. Controlling in this case means that spherical aberration is corrected on the whole by giving opposite spherical aberration to the diffractive section for spherical aberration of the refraction section or that the total spherical aberration is made to be a desired flare amount by manipulating spherical aberration of the diffractive section.
[0592] In addition, the diffraction surface mentioned above is formed on the surface on at least one side, and that surface has thereon an aspherical form expressed by the following expression “Numeral 3”.
Z = h 2 / R 0 1 + 1 - ( 1 + κ ) ( h / R 0 ) 2 + ∑ i = 1 ∞ A i h Pi ( Numeral 3 )
[0593] In the expression, Z represents an axis in the direction of an optical axis, h represents an axis in the direction perpendicular to an optical axis (height from an optical axis: advancing direction of light is positive), R 0 represents a paraxial radius of curvature, κ represents the constant of the cone, A represents the aspherical coefficient and P represents the number of power of the aspheric surface.
[0594] Incidentally, from now on (including lens data of the table), the power multiplier of 10 (for example, 2.5×10 −3 ) is shown by the use of E (for Example, 2.5×E−3).
EXAMPLE 1
[0595] With regard to the example of the objective lens which can be used for the Embodiment 1 mentioned above, data of the objective lens are shown in Table 1. FIG. 11 is a spherical aberration diagram for DVD and FIG. 12 is that for CD. Necessary numerical aperture NA of DVD is 0.60 and that of CD is 0.45.
TABLE 1 Example 1 f 1 = 3.05 mm, f2 = 3.05 mm, m1 = −1/6.01, m2 = −1/6.01 NAH = 1.373 mm, NAL = 1.22 mm Pout = 0.00367 mm, Pin = 0.04368 mm n = 1 δSA1/δT = 0.0001λrms/° C. δSA/δU = 0.063λrms/mm DVD ith di CD sur- (650 ni di ni face ri nm) (650 nm) (650 nm) (650 nm) 0 20.006 1.0 20.006 1.0 Emission point 1 ∞ 0.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Aperture φ4.452 nm 2 2.11184 1.72 1.54094 1.72 1.54094 2′ 2.11184 1.72 1.54094 1.72 1.54094 2″ 2.11184 1.72 1.54094 1.72 1.54094 3 −5.3457 2.20 1.0 1.83 1.0 4 ∞ 0.6 1.577866 1.2 1.577866 5 ∞ Aspherical data 2nd surface (0 < h < 1.22 mm: Optical surface area including optical axis) Aspherical coefficient κ −1.6695 × E−0 A1 +1.0619 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 −1.6783 × E−3 P2 6.0 A3 +1.2711 × E−4 P3 8.0 A4 +1.9174 × E−8 P4 10.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Standard wavelength 650 nm) B2 −3.8401 × E−3 B4 −1.2957 × E−4 B6 −2.8158 × E−5 B8 +9.8536 × E−6 B10 −1.9454 × E−7 2′nd surface (1.22 mm < h < 1.373 mm: Intermediate optical surface area) Aspherical coefficient κ −1.6536 × E−0 A1 +1.0637 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 −1.6905 × E−3 P2 6.0 A3 +1.2505 × E−4 P3 8.0 A4 −1.76l5 × E−7 P4 10.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Standard wavelength 650 nm) B2 −3.8920 × E−3 B4 −1.3036 × E−4 B6 −2.4328 × E−5 B8 +1.1263 × E−5 B10 −1.3503 × E−6 2″nd surface (1.373 mm < h: Outside optical surface area) Aspherical coefficient κ −1.6695 × E−0 A1 −1.0619 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 −1.6783 × E−3 P2 6.0 A3 +1.2711 × E−4 P3 8.0 A4 +1.9174 × E−8 P4 10.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Standard wavelength 650 nm) B2 −3.8401 × E−3 B4 −1.2957 × E−4 B6 −2.8158 × E−5 B8 +9.8536 × E−6 B10 −1.9454 × E−7 3rd surface Aspherical coefficient κ −3.1740 × E+1 A1 +4.1021 × E−3 P1 4.0 A2 −6.9699 × E−4 P2 6.0 A3 +6.7716 × E−5 P3 8.0 A4 −6.4184 × E−6 P4 10.0 A5 +1.8509 × E−7 P5 12.0
EXAMPLE 2
[0596] With regard to the example of the objective lens which can be used for the Embodiment 2 mentioned above, data of the objective lens are shown in Table 2. FIG. 13 is a spherical aberration diagram for DVD and FIG. 14 is that for CD. Necessary numerical aperture NA of DVD is 0.60 and that of CD is 0.45.
TABLE 2 Example 2 f 1 = 3.05 mm, f2 = 3.06 mm,m1 = −1/6.01,m2 = −1/5.97 NAH = 1.370 mm, NAL = 0.81 mm Pout = 0.00369 mm, Pin = 0.1600 mm n = 1 δSA1/δT = 0.0001λrms/° C. δSA/δU = 0.0632λ,rms/mm DVD ith di CD sur- (650 ni di ni face ri nm) (650 nm) (780 nm) (780 nm) 0 20.006 1.0 20.006 1.0 Emission point 1 ∞ 0.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Aperture φ4.452 mm 2 2.11184 1.72 1.54094 1.72 1.53729 2′ 2.11184 1.72 1.54094 1.72 1.53729 2″ 2.11184 1.72 1.54094 1.72 1.53729 3 −5.3457 2.20 1.0 1.83 1.0 4 ∞ 0.6 1.577866 1.2 1.570839 5 ∞ Aspherical data 2nd surface (0 < h < 0.81 mm: Optical surface area including optical axis) Aspherical coefficient κ −1.6695 × E−0 A1 +1.0619 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 −1.6783 × E−3 P2 6.0 A3 +1.2711 × E−4 P3 8.0 A4 +1.9174 × E−8 P4 10.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Standard wavelength 650 nm) B2 −3.8401 × E−3 B4 −1.2957 × E−4 B6 −2.8158 × E−5 B8 +9.8536 × E−6 B10 −1.9454 × E−7 2′nd surface (0.81 mm < h < 1.370 mm: Intermediate optical surface area) Aspherical coefficient κ −1.5361 × E−0 A1 +1.2030 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 −7.7324 × E−4 P2 6.0 A3 +4.5188 × E−4 P3 8.0 A4 −1.3696 × E−4 P4 10.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Standard wavelength 780 nm) B2 −2.5830 × E−3 B4 +3.8438 × E−4 B6 +2.0764 × E−5 B8 −1.9229 × E−5 B10 −8.1530 × E−6 2″nd surface (1.370 mm < h: Outside optical surface area) Aspherical coefficient κ −1.6695 × E−0 A1 +1.0619 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 −1.6783 × E−3 P2 6.0 A3 +1.2711 × E−4 P3 8.0 A4 +1.9174 × E−8 P4 10.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Standard wavelength 650 nm) B2 −3.8401 × E−3 B4 −1.2957 × E−4 B6 −2.8158 × E−5 B8 +9.8536 × E−6 B10 −1.9454 × E−7 3rd surface Aspherical coefficient κ −3.1740 × E+1 A1 +4.1021 × E−3 P1 4.0 A2 −6.9699 × E−4 P2 6.0 A3 +6.7716 × E−5 P3 8.0 A4 −6.4184 × E−6 P4 10.0 A5 +1.8509 × E−7 P5 12.0
EXAMPLE 3
[0597] With regard to the example of the objective lens which can be used for the Embodiment 6 mentioned above, data of the objective lens are shown in Table 2. FIG. 16 is a spherical aberration diagram for DVD and FIG. 17 is that for CD. necessary numerical aperture NA of DVD is 0.60 and that of CD is 0.45.
TABLE 3 f 1 = 3.20 mm, f2 = 3.21 mm,m1 = −1/6.8, m2 = −1/6.8 NAH = 1.66681 mm Pout = 0.0217 mm, Pin = 0.111 mm n = 1 δSA2/δT = 0.00077λrms/° C. δSA1/δU = 0.066λrms/mm ith di ni sur- (655 (655 di ni face ri nm) nm) (785 nm) (785 nm) 0 2.43289 24.699 1 ∞ 0.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Aperture φ4.3108 mm 2 2.219924 2.6 1.54094 2.6 1.53716 2′ 2.321811 2.5938 1.54094 2.5938 1.53716 3 −4.6282 1.97666 1.0 1.60656 1.0 4 ∞ 0.6 1.57752 1.2 1.57063 5 ∞ Aspherical data 2nd surface (0 < h < 1.66681 mm: Optical surface area including optical axis) Aspherical coefficient κ −2.0664 × E−0 A1 +1.4172 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 +1.8597 × E−4 P2 6.0 A3 −7.6246 × E−4 P3 8.0 A4 +2.9680 × E−4 P4 10.0 A5 −5.9552 × E−5 P5 12.0 A6 +5.2766 × E−6 P6 14.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Standard wavelength 720 nm) B4 −1.9684 × E−3 B6 +5.8778 × E−4 B8 −1.7198 × E−4 B10 +1.8183 × E−5 2′nd surface (1.66681 mm < h: Outside optical surface area) Aspherical coefficient κ −5.2521 × E−1 A1 +7.2310 × E−3 P1 4.0 A2 −5.3542 × E−3 P2 6.0 A3 +1.6587 × E−3 P3 8.0 A4 −2.9617 × E−4 P4 10.0 A5 +3.0030 × E−5 P5 12.0 A6 −1.6742 × E−6 P6 14.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Standard wavelength 655 nm) B2 +2.7391 × E−3 B4 −4.3035 × E−3 B6 +1.1732 × E−3 B8 −1.6358 × E−4 B10 +7.6874 × E−6 3rd surface Aspherical coefficient κ −2.14215 × E−0 A1 +3.14404 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 −1.58639 × E−2 P2 6.0 A3 +6.63865 × E−3 P3 8.0 A4 −1.73208 × E−3 P4 10.0 A5 +2.34860 × E−4 P5 12.0 A6 −1.30087 × E−5 P6 14.0
EXAMPLE 4
[0598] With regard to another example of the objective lens which can be used for the Embodiment 6 mentioned above, data of the objective lens are shown in Table 2. FIG. 18 is a spherical aberration diagram for DVD and FIG. 19 is that for CD. Necessary numerical aperture NA of DVD is 0.60 and that of CD is 0.45.
TABLE 4 f 1 = 3.20 mm, f2 = 3.21 mm,m1 = −1/6.8, m2 = −1/6.8 NAH = 1.66681 mm Pout = 0.0190 mm, Pin = 0.111 mm n= 1 δSA2/δT = 0.00070λrms/° C. δSA1/δU = 0.054λrms/mm ith di ni sur- (655 (655 di ni face ri nm) nm) (785 nm) (785 nm) 0 24.3312 24.7024 1 ∞ 0.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Aperture φ4.3108 mm 2 2.21708 2.6 1.54094 2.6 1.53716 2′ 2.315273 2.5938 1.54094 2.5938 1.53716 3 −4.6451 1.9744 1.0 1.6032 1.0 4 ∞ 0.6 1.57752 1.2 1.57063 5 ∞ Aspherical data 2nd surface (0 < h < 1.66681 mm: Optical surface area including optical axis) Aspherical coefficient κ −1.9916 × E−0 A1 +1.2271 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 +2.6623 × E−4 P2 6.0 A3 −4.8051 × E−4 P3 8.0 A4 +9.4489 × E−5 P4 10.0 A5 −2.6250 × E−6 P5 12.0 A6 −1.0534 × E−6 P6 14.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Standard wavelength 720 nm) B4 −2.3605 × E−3 B6 +8.0849 × E−4 B8 −2.1222 × E−4 B10 +1.7503 × E−5 2′nd surface (1.66681 mm < h: Outside optical surface area) Aspherical coefficient κ −5.5582 × E−1 A1 +6.7989 × E−3 P1 4.0 A2 −5.4908 × E−3 P2 6.0 A3 +1.6536 × E−3 P3 8.0 A4 −2.9300 × E−4 P4 10.0 A5 +3.0799 × E−5 P5 12.0 A6 −1.7778 × E−6 P6 14.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Standard wavelength 655 nm) B2 +2.8609 × E−3 B4 −4.3411 × E−3 B6 +1.1344 × E−3 B8 −1.6710 × E−4 B10 +9.1424 × E−6 3rd surface Aspherical coefficient κ −6.70263 × E−1 A1 +2.98350 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 −1.51427 × E−2 P2 6.0 A3 +6.64091 × E−3 P3 8.0 A4 −1.74128 × E−3 P4 10.0 A5 +2.32281 × E−4 P5 12.0 A6 −1.25448 × E−5 P6 14.0
EXAMPLE 5
[0599] With regard to another example of the objective lens which can be used for the Embodiment 6 mentioned above, data of the objective lens are shown in Table 2. FIG. 20 is a spherical aberration diagram for DVD and FIG. 21 is that for CD. Necessary numerical aperture NA of DVD is 0.60 and that of CD is 0.45.
TABLE 5 f 1 = 3.20 mm, f2 = 3.21 mm,m1 = −1/6.8, m2 = −1/6.8 NAH = 1.66681 mm Pout= 0.0144 mm, Pin = 0.0556 mm n= 1 δSA2/δT = 0.00102λrms/° C. δSA1/δU = 0.057λrms/mm ith di sur- (655 ni di ni face ri nm) (655 nm) (785 nm) (785 nm) 0 24.3403 24.7307 1 ∞ 0.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Aperture 4.3108 mm 2 2.28859 2.6 1.54094 2.6 1.53716 2′ 2.43366 2.5928 1.54094 2.5928 1.53716 3 −4.7132 1.9653 1.0 1.5749 1.0 4 ∞ 0.6 1.57752 1.2 1.57063 5 ∞ Aspherical data 2nd surface (0 < h < 1.66681 mm: Optical surface area including optical axis) Aspherical coefficient κ −1.0061 × E−0 A1 +4.2439 × E−3 P1 4.0 A2 −1.4759 × E−3 P2 6.0 A3 +9.3408 × E−4 P3 8.0 A4 −5.1099 × E−4 P4 10.0 A5 +1.5021 × E−4 P5 12.0 A6 −1.5815 × E−5 P6 14.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Standard wavelength 720 nm) B2 −4.8645 × E−3 B4 −7.2782 × E−4 B6 −1.8032 × E−4 B8 −4.9114 × E−6 B10 +1.3132 × E−5 2′nd surface (1.66681 mm < h: Outside optical surface area) Aspherical coefficient κ −7.9917 × E−1 A1 +1.2236 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 −5.6577 × E−3 P2 6.0 A3 +1.6609 × E−3 P3 8.0 A4 −2.9009 × E−4 P4 10.0 A5 +2.9096 × E−5 P5 12.0 A6 −1.5424 × E−6 P6 14.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Standard wavelength 655 nm) B2 −2.8166 × E−3 B4 −3.1771 × E−3 B6 +1.0641 × E−3 B8 −1.9508 × E−4 B10 +1.2278 × E−5 3rd surface Aspherical coefficient κ −5.47493 × E−1 A1 +2.95069 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 −1.46461 × E−2 P2 6.0 A3 +6.39635 × E−3 P3 8.0 A4 −1.71136 × E−3 P4 10.0 A5 +2.35330 × E−4 P5 12.0 A6 −1.31514 × E−5 P6 14.0
EXAMPLE 6
[0600] With regard to still another example of the objective lens which can be used for the Embodiment 6 mentioned above, data of the objective lens are shown in Table 2. FIG. 22 is a spherical aberration diagram for DVD and FIG. 23 is that for CD. Necessary numerical aperture NA of DVD is 0.60 and that of CD is 0.45.
TABLE 6 f 1 = 3.20 mm, f2 = 3.21 mm,m1 = −1/6.8, m2 = −1/6.8 NAH = 1.66681 mm Pout = 0.0135 mm, Pin = 0.0450 mm n = 1 δSA2/δT = 0.00097λrms/° C. δSA1/δU = 0.057λrms/mm ith di sur- (655 ni di ni face ri nm) (655 nm) (785 nm) (785 nm) 0 24.3320 24.7315 1 ∞ 0.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Aperture 4.3108 mm 2 2.32575 2.6 1.54094 2.6 1.53716 2′ 2.45552 2.5963 1.54094 2.5963 1.53716 3 −4.6504 1.9653 1.0 1.5749 1.0 4 ∞ 0.6 1.57752 1.2 1.57063 5 ∞ Aspherical data 2nd surface (0 < h < 1.66681 mm: Optical surface area including optical axis) Aspherical coefficient κ −1.1171 × E−0 A1 +3.1061 × E−3 P1 4.0 A2 +1.6363 × E−3 P2 6.0 A3 −1.1145 × E−3 P3 8.0 A4 +3.1702 × E−4 P4 10.0 A5 −4.9061 × E−5 P5 12.0 A6 +5.3895 × E−6 P6 14.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Standard wavelength 720 nm) B2 −6.3187 × E−3 B4 −1.7269 × E−3 B6 +8.2815 × E−4 B8 −4.0856 × E−4 B10 +6.8845 × E−5 2′nd surface (1.66681 mm < h: Outside optical surface area) Aspherical coefficient κ −8.2400 × E−1 A1 +1.1865 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 −5.4663 × E−3 P2 6.0 A3 +1.6917 × E−3 P3 8.0 A4 −2.9856 × E−4 P4 10.0 A5 −2.6842 × E−5 P5 12.0 A6 −1.1008 × E−6 P6 14.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Standard wavelength 655 nm) B2 −5.3662 × E−3 B4 −2.7368 × E−3 B6 +1.0893 × E−3 B8 −2.3018 × E−4 B10 +1.6566 × E−5 3rd surface Aspherical coefficient κ −1.22207 × E−0 A1 +3.03718 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 −1.45690 × E−2 P2 6.0 A3 +6.19508 × E−3 P3 8.0 A4 −1.71672 × E−3 P4 10.0 A5 +2.51638 × E−4 P5 12.0 A6 −1.50897 × E−5 P6 14.0
[0601] Table 7 shows refractive indexes of the objective lens and of the transparent base board of the optical information recording medium for each wavelength, and temperature characteristics data of the semiconductor laser (light source).
TABLE 7 Refractive index of Refractive index of transparent base objective lens board 644 nm 1.5412 1.5783 650 nm 1.5409 1.5779 656 nm 1.5407 1.5775 780 nm 1.5373 1.5708 δn/δT/(/° C.) −1.2 × 10 −5 −1.4 × 10 5 Temperature characteristics δλ/δT/ = +0.2 nm/° C.) of wavelength emitted from light source
[0602] In the examples stated above, Example 1 exemplifies the objective lens wherein outermost optical surface area A 1 is composed of a diffractive section, intermediate optical surface area A 2 is composed of a refraction section and near-optical-axis optical surface area A 3 is composed of a diffractive section, as shown in FIG. 6, and Example 2 exemplifies the objective lens wherein outermost optical surface area A 1 is composed of a diffractive section as shown in FIG. 8. However, it is also possible to employ the constitution wherein outermost optical surface area A 1 is composed of a diffractive section, intermediate optical surface area A 2 is composed of a mixture of a diffractive section and a refraction section and near-optical-axis optical surface area A 3 is composed of a diffractive section, as shown in FIG. 24. It is further possible to employ the constitution wherein outermost optical surface area A 1 is composed of a diffractive section, intermediate optical surface area A 2 is composed of a diffractive section and near-optical-axis optical surface area A 3 is composed of a refraction section, as shown in FIG. 9, the constitution wherein outermost optical surface area A 1 is composed of a diffractive section, intermediate optical surface area A 2 is composed of a refraction section and near-optical-axis optical surface area A 3 is composed of a refraction section, as shown in FIG. 25, or the constitution wherein outermost optical surface area A 1 is composed of a diffractive section, intermediate optical surface area A 2 is composed of a mixture of a diffractive section and a refraction section and near-optical-axis optical surface area A 3 is composed of a refraction section, as shown in FIG. 26.
[0603] Though there is exemplified an objective lens wherein outside optical surface area A 1 is composed of a diffractive section and inside optical surface area A 2 is composed of a diffractive section as shown in FIG. 15, in Examples 3-6, it is also possible to make the outside optical surface area A 1 to be composed of a diffractive section and to make the inside optical surface area A 2 to be composed of a refraction section as shown in FIG. 10. It is further possible to make the inside optical surface area A 2 to be composed of a mixed existence of the diffractive section and the refraction section.
[0604] Though an explanation of examples of these concrete structures will be omitted, they may easily be worked if the spirit of the invention is observed. It is further possible to modify variously without departing from the spirit of the invention. For example, four or more optical surface areas may be used for composition as stated above, without being limited to the structure wherein functions can be divided by two optical surface areas or three optical surface areas.
[0605] Incidentally, the diffractive section may naturally be provided on the surface of the corresponding area closer to a light source, or on the surface of the corresponding area closer to an image, or even on both surfaces.
[0606] In the foregoing, “mixed existence” is not limited to the occasion where a diffractive section and a refraction section are formed almost half-and-half as illustrated, and it can take various embodiments of mixed existence.
[0607] Further, an embodiment of the optical pickup device is not limited to the aforesaid embodiment, and for example, it can also be applied to a type of 2-light source and 2-optical detector.
[0608] The invention can naturally be applied not only to an optical pickup device capable of recording and/or reproducing of information for DVD and CD, but also to at least two optical information recording media each having a different transparent base board thickness. In particular, it is especially beneficial to apply to optical information recording media each having a different transparent base board thickness and having a different necessary numerical aperture. Further, for example, the invention can also be applied to an optical pickup device capable of recording and/or reproducing of information for only DVD, or it can be applied as an objective lens to which a divergent light flux enters, or as an optical information recording medium employing that objective lens.
[0609] Further, in the invention, with regard to a divergent light flux entering an objective lens, it is not limited to the occasion wherein a divergent light flux emitted from a light source enters directly an objective lens, and a coupling lens which changes an angle of divergence of a divergent light flux emitted from a light source may be interposed between the light source and the objective lens, and what is essential is that the divergent light flux can enter the objective lens.
[0610] The invention makes it possible to provide a practical objective lens and an optical pickup apparatus wherein a divergent light emitted from a light source enters the objective lens for a plurality of optical information recording media each having a different transparent base board thickness, and sufficient capacity for changes of ambient temperature used is satisfied while recording or reproducing of each information is being made possible.
[0611] (Embodiment of the Invention)
[0612] The invention will further be explained in detail, referring to the drawings as follows.
[0613] (Seventh Embodiment)
[0614] The seventh embodiment will be explained. FIG. 27 is a schematic structure diagram of an optical pickup device including an objective lens of the present embodiment. The optical pickup device is composed of first light source 101 with wavelength λ 1 for DVD (first optical information recording medium), second light source 102 with wavelength λ 2 for CD (second optical information recording medium), beam splitter 103 that makes a path for a light flux emitted from the light source 101 to agree with that for a light flux emitted from the light source 102 , objective lens 105 that converges each light flux, diaphragm 104 that determines a diameter of a light flux incident on the objective lens 105 , an actuator (not shown) that drives the objective lens 105 , and a sensor (not shown) that detects a reflected light from optical information recording medium ORM.
[0615] When recording or reproducing either one of DVD and CD, light-emitting light source 101 or 102 is selected appropriately. Since a divergent light flux enters the objective lens 105 and lateral magnification is finite, aberration deterioration caused by temperature changes is worsened compared with an occasion wherein infinite light flux enters as stated above.
[0616] [0616]FIG. 28 is a sectional view of primary portions of objective lens 105 . The objective lens 105 is composed of two-sided aspheric surfaces 105 A and 105 B, and three optically functional surfaces 105 a , 105 b and 105 c are formed on the surface 105 A closer to the light source. The innermost optically functional surface 105 a and outermost optically functional surface 105 c are represented by a refracting interface expressed by the same aspherical coefficient. Intermediate optically functional surface 105 b is a refracting interface expressed by aspherical coefficient which is different from that for adjoining optically functional surfaces 105 a and 105 c on both sides, and aspherical aberration correction for the intermediate optically functional surface is different from that for adjoining surfaces on both sides. Further, it is preferable that refractive index temperature dependency of a material (for example, glass) for the objective lens is lower, and the following expression is satisfactory.
| dn/dT|≦ 10.0×10 −6 (/° C .) (2)
[0617] In that case, temperature characteristics are satisfactory even when a diffractive structure for improving temperature characteristics is not used. In this case, it is preferable that each of optically functional surfaces 105 a , 105 b and 105 c is formed to have a step at a boundary section, and it is preferable that the step at the boundary section that is farther from an optical axis is greater than that at the boundary section that is closer to an optical axis, on the intermediate optically functional surface 105 b.
[0618] Now, a design for interchangeability for making it possible to record or reproduce for both DVD and CD will be explained. For light fluxes passing respectively through the inside and outside optically functional areas 105 a and 105 c , it is possible to carry out spherical aberration correction, assuming the use of DVD. However, with regard to light fluxes passing respectively these optically functional surfaces 105 a and 105 c , over spherical aberration is generated because of a difference of a base board thickness when CD is used, which usually makes them to be unsuitable for recording or reproducing of CD. Therefore, intermediate optically functional surface 105 b is constituted as follows.
[0619] [0619]FIG. 29 is a diagram showing an example of design (target characteristics) for spherical aberration related to the present embodiment. According to FIG. 29, a light flux passing through innermost optically functional area 105 a is not aplanatic. However, when a light flux diameter is stopped down at the position defocused from the paraxial image point by +10 μm, it is possible to secure the state where the residual aberration is smaller than Marechal criterion. However, since it is insufficient as a spot diameter formed on a recording surface of an optical information recording medium, there is formed intermediate optically functional area 105 b representing CD-exclusive area where a spot diameter for CD is stopped down. To be concrete, it is preferable to form intermediate optically functional area 105 b so that light-converging is made on the vicinity of the light spot formed on the optical information recording medium at the aforesaid defocused position, and spherical aberration may be designed with assumed transparent base board thickness t c (t c ÷(t 1 +t 2 )/2) which is between DVD transparent base board thickness t1 and CD transparent base board thickness t2.
[0620] When CD is used, a light flux passing through outside optically functional surface 105 c becomes a flare light to exist at the position which is away by a distance that is about 10 times a size of a main spot diameter. When DVD is used, a light flux passing through an intermediate optically functional surface becomes a flare light to exist on an outside zone which is away by a distance that is several times a size of a main spot diameter. Therefore, if this flare light does not enter an unillustrated sensor element, or if the flare light is on the level that is not problematic electrically for practical use, an aperture diameter can also be the same for both DVD and CD.
[0621] Further, for wavelength variation of light sources 101 and 102 , objective lens 105 composed of a refracting interface is more stable, compared with an objective lens that is provided with a diffractive structure which changes power depending on a wavelength. However, wavelength dependency of the refractive index is lowered as a dispersion value of glass material grows greater, which is preferable.
[0622] In this way, the objective lens 105 in the present embodiment can conduct recording or reproducing of information properly for both DVD and CD each having a different base board thickness, while correcting temperature characteristics and wavelength characteristics appropriately, even under the specifications which turn out to be more strict for temperature characteristics.
[0623] Incidentally, the invention is not limited to the present embodiment. Namely, it is possible either to make the objective lens to be composed of cemented lenses or to make the surface of glass lens 105 ′ to be composed of aspheric surface 105 S made of UV-setting resin, as shown in FIG. 30. When the objective lens is made of different glass materials as stated above, at least the following expression needs to be satisfied for the glass material having stronger power ( 105 ′ in this case).
| dn/dT|≦ 10.0×10 −6 (/° C .) (2)
[0624] When processing is taken into consideration, it is preferable to provide the aforesaid three optically functional surfaces 105 a , 105 b and 105 c on the side of the surface 105 made of UV-setting resin. In this case, the objective lens can be applied also to the occasion where the same light source wavelength is used for conducting recording and reproducing for both DVD and CD. Even when three or more optically functional surfaces are used, the same effect can be attained sufficiently. It can further be applied to those wherein lateral magnification makes temperature characteristics to be mild, namely, the lateral magnification is infinite. In some cases, there may be provided wavelength selecting diaphragm (restricting member) 104 ′ that restricts a light flux passing through outside optically functional surface 105 c in the case of using CD, as shown in FIG. 31.
[0625] (Eighth Embodiment)
[0626] Next, the eighth embodiment will be explained. FIG. 32 is a sectional view of primary portions related to the eighth embodiment. The present embodiment is different from the first embodiment on the point that the diffractive structure is given to the objective lens so that it may attain interchangeability, and explanation for the portions in the present embodiment overlapping with those in the first embodiment will be omitted.
[0627] With regard to objective lens 205 , diffractive structure 205 D is formed on aspheric surface 205 A closer to a light source to be solid with it as shown in FIG. 32( a ), among aspheric surfaces 205 A and 205 B on both sides. This diffractive structure 205 D is composed of two optically functional surfaces 205 a and 205 c which are different in terms of design concept with a certain height that is close to the ray of light stipulating numerical aperture NA in the case of using CD and serves as a boundary, as shown in FIG. 32( b ).
[0628] Namely, the inside optically functional surface 205 a has a diffractive structure for correcting aberration for each transparent base board thickness of DVD and CD, waile the outside optically functional surface 205 b has a diffractive structure that corrects aberration for a transparent base board thickness and creates a flare light for CD. FIG. 33 is a diagram showing a design example (target characteristics) of spherical aberration related to the present embodiment.
[0629] Even in the present embodiment, it is preferable that refractive index temperature dependency of the glass material of the objective lens 205 is low, and the following expression is preferable.
| dn/dT|≦ 10.0×10 −6 (/° C .) (2)
[0630] If the range mentioned above is exceeded, it is necessary to enhance effectiveness of diffraction for temperature correction in the diffractive structure 205 D, resulting in narrowed diffraction pitch and a decline of diffraction efficiency.
[0631] The invention is not limited to the present embodiment. Namely, it is possible either to make the objective lens to be composed of cemented lenses or to make the surface of the objective lens to be composed of aspheric surface 205 S made of UV-setting resin, as shown in FIG. 34. In this case, it is preferable to provide the aforesaid two optically functional surfaces 205 a and 205 b on the surface of the UW-setting resin. The reason for the foregoing is as follows. It is necessary to increase a depth of each diffraction for obtaining the same diffraction effect, because a relative refractive index of materials becomes smaller when the diffractive structure is tried to be provided on the cemented portion. It is possible either to provide diffractive structures on both sides of the objective lens 205 , or to provide diffraction surfaces on the plane where the diffractive section on the outside is different from that on the inside. Even when three or more optically functional surfaces are used for the structure, it is possible to form one having the same function. As shown in the example of the optical pickup device in FIG. 35, it is also possible to provide coupling lens 206 between the second light source 102 and objective lens 205 to use it for the optical information recording medium on the other side (CD in this case), taking divergence angle characteristics of the second light source 102 into consideration. The objective lens can be applied also to an optical system wherein lateral magnification of individual objective lens 205 for DVD is not the same as that of individual objective lens 205 for CD.
[0632] (Ninth Embodiment)
[0633] Next, the ninth embodiment will be explained. In the present embodiment, a diffractive structure is formed on an objective lens, and design of each functional surface is different from that in the eighth embodiment, and explanation for the portions in the present embodiment overlapping with those in the eighth embodiment will be omitted.
[0634] [0634]FIG. 36 is a sectional view of primary portions of the objective lens in the present embodiment, and a value of refractive index temperature characteristics dn/dT of the material for objective lens 305 is expressed as follows.
| dn/dT|≦ 10.0×10 −6 (/° C .) (2)
[0635] Both sides of the objective lens 305 are composed respectively of refracting interfaces 305 A and 305 B both representing an aspheric surface, and diffractive structure 305 D is formed partially on an area of surface 305 A of the objective lens 305 closer to a light source. In this case, the objective lens 305 is composed of three optically functional surfaces 305 a , 305 b and 305 c , and further, a part of the area in the vicinity of ray of light stipulating numerical aperture NA in the case of using CD is made to be of a diffractive structure, thus the objective lens 305 is of the diffractive structure that makes the objective lens 305 to be used for both of DVD and CD. Each of the optically functional surfaces 305 a and 305 c on both sides is composed of a refracting interface to be an aspheric surface which is corrected in terms of spherical aberration mainly for DVD. Though the inside optically functional surface 305 a is not designed for CD, it is possible to stop down a spot diameter on the surface of an optical disc even for CD, when the inside optically functional surface 305 a is connected together to spherical aberration on intermediate optically functional surface 305 b . FIG. 37 is a diagram showing an example of design (target characteristics) for spherical aberration related to the present embodiment.
[0636] Incidentally, the invention is not limited to the present embodiment. Namely, it is possible either to make the objective lens 305 to be composed of cemented lenses or to make the surface of a glass lens to be composed of an aspheric surface made of UV-setting resin. In this case, it is preferable that the aforesaid three optically functional surfaces are provided on the surface side of the UV-setting resin.
[0637] (Tenth Embodiment)
[0638] Next, the fourth embodiment will be explained. In the present embodiment, a diffractive structure is formed on an objective lens, and design of each functional surface is different from those in the eighth embodiment and the ninth embodiment, and explanation for the portions in the present embodiment overlapping with those in each embodiment will be omitted.
[0639] [0639]FIG. 38 is a sectional view of primary portions of the objective lens in the present embodiment, and a value of refractive index temperature characteristics dn/dT of the material for the objective lens is expressed as follows.
|dn/dT|≦ 10.0×10 −6 (/° C .) (2)
[0640] Both sides of the objective lens 405 are composed respectively of refracting interfaces 405 A and 405 B both representing an aspheric surface, and diffractive structure 405 D is formed partially on an area of surface 405 A of the objective lens 405 closer to a light source. In this case, the objective lens 405 is composed of three optically functional surfaces 405 a , 405 b and 405 c , and further, a part of the area in the vicinity of ray of light stipulating numerical aperture NA in the case of using CD is made to be of diffractive structure 405 D that makes the objective lens 405 to be used for both of DVD and CD. A diffraction surface is formed on outside optically functional surface 405 c , spherical aberration is corrected on DVD, and a diffractive structure which creates a flare is formed in CD. FIG. 39 is a diagram showing a design example (target characteristics) of spherical aberration related to the present embodiment.
[0641] Incidentally, the invention is not limited to the present embodiment. Namely, it is possible either to make the objective lens to be composed of cemented lenses or to make the surface of a glass lens to be composed of an aspheric surface made of UV-setting resin. In this case, it is preferable that the aforesaid three optically functional surfaces are provided on the surface side of the UV-setting resin.
[0642] Examples of the invention will be explained as follows.
EXAMPLE 7
[0643] The present example is one for the objective lens related to the Seventh Embodiment stated above. Table 8 shows lens data.
TABLE 8 Example 7 f 1 = 3.00 mm,m1 = −1/7.0 NA1 = 0.60, NA2 = 0.45 dn2/dT = +3.8 × E−6 (/° C.) at 632.8 nm, vd = 61.2 DVD ith di CD sur- (650 ni di ni face ri nm) (650 nm) (780 nm) (780 nm) 0 23.576 1.0 23.576 1.0 Emission point 1 ∞ 0.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Aperture φ4.06 mm 2 2.1759 2.2 1.58642 2.2 1.58252 2′ 2.1759 2.1962 1.58642 2.1962 1.58252 2″ 2.1759 2.2 1.58642 2.2 1.58252 3 −5.7537 1.928 1.0 1.566 1.0 4 ∞ 0.6 1.58 1.2 1.58252 5 ∞ Aspherical data 2nd surface (0 < h < 1.32 mm: Inside optically functional surface) Aspherical coefficient κ −0.92846 × E−0 A1 −0.11050 × E−2 P1 3.0 A2 +0.51090 × E−2 P2 4.0 A3 −0.16336 × E−2 P3 5.0 A4 +0.57112 × E−3 P4 6.0 A5 +0.17007 × E−4 P5 8.0 A6 −0.73062 × E−5 P6 10.0 2′nd surface (1.32 mm < h < 1.54 mm: Intermediate optically functional surface) Aspherical coefficient κ −0.92421 × E−0 A1 −0.99146 × E−3 P1 3.0 A2 +0.51636 × E−2 P2 4.0 A3 −0.16069 × E−2 P3 5.0 A4 +0.58391 × E−3 P4 6.0 A5 +0.19303 × E−4 P5 8.0 A6 −0.73840 × E−5 P6 10.0 2″nd surface (1.54 mm < h: Outside optical surface area) Aspherical coefficient κ −0.92846 × E−0 A1 −0.11050 × E−2 P1 3.0 A2 +0.51090 × E−2 P2 4.0 A3 −0.16336 × E−2 P3 5.0 A4 +0.57112 × E−3 P4 6.0 A5 +0.17007 × E−4 P5 8.0 A6 −0.73062 × E−5 P6 10.0 3rd surface Aspherical coefficient A1 +0.16009 × E−1 P1 4.0 A2 −0.26764 × E−2 P2 6.0 A3 +0.30016 × E−3 P3 8.0 A4 −0.17687 × E−4 P4 10.0
[0644] Each surface is composed of an aspheric surface, and each aspheric surface has an aspherical form expressed by “Numeral 4”.
[0645] Where, Z represents an axis along the optical axis direction, h represents a height perpendicular to the optical axis, r represents axial curvature of radius, k represents the constant of the cone, A represents the aspherical coefficient and P represents the number of power of the aspheric surface. Further, three optically functional surfaces exist on the aspheric surface of the objective lens closer to a light source, and each of them is an aspheric surface expressed by “Numeral 4”.
[0646] Those to which the present example can be applied are simple optical systems wherein a divergent light flux emitted from each light source of DVD and CD enters an objective lens directly. Glass materials for the objective lens whose refractive index temperature dependency dn/dT is −5.8×10 −6 (/° C.) were used. NA, temperature characteristics in the case of using wavelength DVD and others are shown in Table 14. It is possible to confirm that both temperature characteristics and wavelength characteristics are improved, compared with a conventional example.
[0647] [0647]FIG. 40 represents a spherical aberration diagram of the present example wherein three optically functional surfaces are formed. FIG. 41 shows simulation of PSF in the case of an occasion where a light flux with Gaussian distribution enters the aforesaid objective lens by using a fixed diaphragm that regulates a light flux corresponding to NA 0.60 on the DVD side, and it shows a form of a spot on the information recording surface of the optical information recording medium. The aperture diameter in the case of CD is a result of simulation for the occasion where a light flux with the same aperture diameter as in DVD is made to enter. As is understood from this, a spot diameter (0.831×λ/NA (μm)) requested on the recording surface is satisfied.
[0648] On the inside optically functional surface, residual spherical aberration of about 0.02 λ 1 rms is generated on purpose for DVD. The design of this kind makes it possible to reduce residual spherical aberration in CD. In the present example, a light flux passing through the intermediate optically functional surface is corrected in terms of spherical aberration for the optical information recording medium with assumed transparent base board thickness of t c =1.0 mm, to be used for forming a spot in CD at a defocus position that is located on the over side by about 10 μm from a paraxial image point for CD.
[0649] As shown in Table 14, it is possible to realize an objective lens having lateral magnification of m=−{fraction (1/7)}, NA of 0.60 and severe temperature characteristics, wherein error characteristics are improved so that the objective lens may by used for both DVD and CD.
EXAMPLE 8
[0650] The present example is one related to the objective lens concerning the seventh embodiment stated above. Table 9 shows lens data.
TABLE 9 Example 8 f 1 = 3.00 mm, m1 = −1/7.0 NA1 = 0.60, NA2 = 0.45 dn2/dT = −1.2 × E−4 (/° C.) at 632.8 nm, vd = 57.0 dn3/dT = +0.8 × E−6 (/° C.) at 632.8 nm, vd = 55.3 DVD ith di CD sur- (650 ni di ni face ri nm) (650 nm) (780 nm) (780 nm) 0 23.205 1.0 23.205 1.0 Emission point 1 ∞ 0.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Aperture φ4.01 mm 2 2.600 0.1 1.48953 0.1 1.48616 2′ 2.600 0.0958 1.48953 0.0958 1.48616 2″ 2.600 0.1 1.48953 0.1 1.48616 3 2.1270 2.8 1.67447 2.8 1.66959 4 −6.0270 1.638 1.0 1.276 1.0 5 ∞ 0.6 1.58 1.2 1.55 6 ∞ Aspherical data 2nd surface (0 < h < 1.32 mm: Inside optically functional surface) Aspherical coefficient κ −0.43271 × E+01 A1 −0.26060 × E−2 P1 3.0 A2 +0.34891 × E-1 P2 4.0 A3 −0.65070 × E−2 P3 5.0 A4 −0.25906 × E−2 P4 6.0 A5 +0.57180 × E−3 P5 8.0 A6 −0.54866 × E−4 P6 10.0 2′nd surface (1.32 mm < h < 1.51 mm: Intermediate optically functional surface) Aspherical coefficient κ −0.41771 × E+01 A1 −0.34857 × E−2 P1 3.0 A2 +0.35107 × E−1 P2 4.0 A3 −0.64174 × E−2 P3 5.0 A4 −0.25655 × E−2 P4 6.0 A5 +0.58143 × E−3 P5 8.0 A6 −0.57791 × E−4 P6 10.0 2″nd surface (1.51 mm < h: Outside optical surface area) Aspherical coefficient κ −0.43271 × E+01 A1 −0.26060 × E−2 P1 3.0 A2 +0.34891 × E−1 P2 4.0 A3 −0.65070 × E−2 P3 5.0 A4 −0.25906 × E−2 P4 6.0 A5 +0.57180 × E−3 P5 8.0 A6 −0.54866 × E−4 P6 10.0 3rd surface Aspherical coefficient κ −0.16931 × E+01 A1 +0.47202 × E−2 P1 4.0
[0651] The objective lens in the present example is one wherein three optically functional surfaces (see FIG. 32) are formed with UV-setting resin on the surface of one side of a glass lens. Refractive index temperature dependency of the resin itself is −1.2×10 −4 (/° C.) which is the same as that in conventional example 2. However, it is possible to correct temperature characteristics for the total objective lens, by reducing power of the resin portion and by using one whose refractive index temperature dependency of a glass lens on the other side is as small as +0.8×10 −6 (/° C.). Since the design of interchangeability for DVD and CD is the same as in Example 1, the explanation therefore will be omitted.
[0652] [0652]FIG. 42 shows a spherical aberration diagram of the present example. The spot form on the recording surface of each optical information recording medium is shown in FIG. 43.
[0653] As shown in Table 14, it is possible to realize an objective lens having lateral magnification of m=−{fraction (1/7)}, NA of 0.60 and severe temperature characteristics, wherein error characteristics are improved so that the objective lens may by used for both DVD and CD.
EXAMPLE 9
[0654] The present example is one related to the eighth embodiment stated above. Table 10 shows lens data.
TABLE 10 Example 9 f 1 = 3.O0 mm, m1 = 0 NA1 = 0.65, NA2 = 0.45 dn2/dT = −5.7 × E−6 (bc) at 632.8 nm, vd = 81.6 DVD ith di CD sur- (660 ni di ni face ri nm) (660 nm) (790 nm) (790 nm) 0 ∞ 1.0 ∞ 1.0 Emission point 1 ∞ 0.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Aperture φ3.90 mm 2 1.770 1.6 1.58642 1.6 1.58252 2′ 1.798 1.5999 1.58642 1.5999 1.58252 3 −6.422 1.725 1.0 1.353 1.0 4 ∞ 0.6 1.577 1.2 1.570 5 ∞ Aspherical data 2nd surface (0 < h < 1.37 mm: Inside optically functional surface) Aspherical coefficient κ −9.9350 × E−1 A1 +6.4273 × E−3 P1 4.0 A2 +6.2694 × E−4 P2 6.0 A3 −4.4974 × E−5 P3 8.0 A4 +2.8692 × E−5 P4 10.0 A5 2.5654 × E−5 P5 12.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Design basis wavelength 720 nm) B2 +2.4918 × E−4 B4 −2.0024 × E−3 B6 −3.7862 × E−4 B8 +2.0983 × E−4 B10 −5.8311 × E−5 2′nd surface (1.37 mm < h: Outside optical surface area) Aspherical coefficient κ −8.7077 × E−1 A1 −6.2127 × E−3 P1 4.0 A2 −6.3107 × E−4 P2 6.0 A3 +1.3601 × E−4 P3 8.0 A4 −2.5299 × E−5 P4 10.0 A5 −8.0092 × E−6 P5 12.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Design basis wavelength 660 nm) B2 −2.2736 × E−3 B4 −3.2476 × E−4 B6 −8.8656 × E−5 B8 −1.5GSl × E−5 B10 +5.2484 × E−6 3rd surface Aspherical coefficient A1 +0.20368 × E−1 P1 4.0 A2 −0.48550 × E−2 P2 6.0 A3 +0.72231 × E−3 P3 8.0 A4 −0.97114 × E−4 P4 10.0 A5 +0.78427 × E−5 P5 12.0 A6 −0.94305 × E−8 P6 14.0
[0655] Each of both sides of the objective lens of the present example is an aspheric surface, and a diffractive structure is provided solidly on the surface of the aspheric surface on one side. As shown in FIG. 32, this diffractive structure is designed to be two different connected portions on both sides of the boundary represented by distance h from an optical axis. Namely, two optically functional surfaces are formed on the diffractive structure. The objective lens is made of glass material whose refractive index temperature dependency is −5.7×10 −6 (/° C.).
[0656] For the light flux passing through the inside optically functional surface, there is provided a diffractive structure that corrects spherical aberration for a wavelength and a transparent base board thickness used for DVD and for those used for CD. Further, on the outside optically functional surface, there is provided a diffractive structure that corrects spherical aberration for DVD, and generates over flare on purpose for CD.
[0657] In general, with respect to the diffractive structure, phase difference function ΦB is expressed by Numeral 1 with a unit of radian. By making the secondary coefficient to be a nonzero value, it is possible to give paraxial power to the diffraction portion. In addition, by making the coefficient of a phase difference function other than the secondary coefficient such as, for example, fourth order coefficient or sixth order coefficient to be a nonzero value, it is possible to control spherical aberration. “Control” in this case means that the spherical aberration of the refraction portion is corrected as a whole by giving spherical aberration that is opposite in terms of characteristic to the aforesaid spherical aberration to the diffraction portion, or total spherical aberration is made to be a desired flare amount by manipulating the spherical aberration of the diffraction portion. It is therefore possible to consider spherical aberration in temperature changes to be total of changes of spherical aberration of the refraction portion caused by temperature changes and spherical aberration changes of the diffraction portion.
[0658] With respect to changes caused by temperature in the refraction portion, an amount of changes is small because temperature dependency for refractive index change of glass material is small. Therefore, it can be said that temperature characteristics of the total objective lens turn out to be better, though spherical aberration caused by change of spherical aberration of the diffraction portion. Small change of spherical aberration of the diffraction portion in this case means is to weaken wavelength dependency, which results in that effectiveness of diffraction is weakened and a pitch of ring-shaped diffractive zone (diffraction pitch of the diffractive structure) is broadened.
[0659] With respect to the diffractive structure formed on the inside optically functional surface, a homogeneous diffracted light is used for DVD and CD, which is preferable compared with an occasion where a non-homogeneous diffracted light is used. In the present example, first order diffracted light is used for both DVD and CD. For the outside optically functional surface, a number of the order may either be the one which is the same as that for the inside optically functional surface, or be the one whose absolute value increases. Since the outside optically functional surface is not used usually for CD, it is preferable that the standard wavelength (blazed wavelength) which makes the diffraction efficiency to be highest on this functional surface is made to be the wavelength that is close to DVD. If an absolute value of the number of the order for diffraction is made to be greater in this case, it is possible to lower the diffraction efficiency on the CD side and thereby to lower CD flare, when the blazed wavelength is set in the vicinity of DVD. Incidentally, in the present example, the first order was used as a number of the order for also the outside optically functional surface, and with respect to the blazed wavelength, 720 nm was used for the inside optically functional surface and 660 nm was used for the outside optically functional surface.
[0660] [0660]FIG. 44 is an aspheric surface diagram in the present example, and its spot profile is shown in FIG. 45. Error characteristics are shown in Table 14. As shown in this table, it is understood that an objective lens capable of being used for both DVD and CD which are improved in terms of error characteristics can be realized. It is also understood that the minimum value of a pitch of the ring-shaped diffractive zone is greater that that in Conventional example 3.
EXAMPLE 10
[0661] The present example is also an example related to the eighth embodiment stated above. Table 11 shows lens data.
TABLE 11 Example 10 f1 = 3.00 mm, m1 = 0 NA1 = 0.65, NA2 = 0.50 dn2/dT = −1.2 × E-4 (/° C.) at 632.8 nm, νd = 56.0 dn3/dT = +7.4 × E-6 (/° C.) at 632.8 nm, νd = 37.2 DVD CD di di ith (660 ni (790 ni surface ri nm) (660 nm) nm) (790 nm) 0 ∞ 1.0 ∞ 1.0 Emission point 1 ∞ 0.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Aperture φ3.90 mm 2 2.480 0.1 1.54076 0.1 1.53704 2′ 2.492 0.101 1.54076 0.101 1.53704 3 2.505 2.0 1.82708 2.0 1.81900 4 −302.939 1.491 1.0 1.136 1.0 5 ∞ 0.6 1.577 1.2 1.570 6 ∞ Aspherical data 2nd surface (0 < h < 1.53 mm: Inside optically functional surface) Aspherical coefficient κ −9.4998 × E−1 A1 −2.1815 × E−4 P1 4.0 A2 −3.7775 × E−4 P2 6.0 A3 −2.4169 × E−4 P3 8.0 A4 −7.3177 × E−6 P4 10.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Design basis wavelength 720 nm) B2 −4.2048 × E−4 B4 −3.8051 × E−4 B6 −4.0549 × E−4 B8 −3.1443 × E−5 B10 −1.1611 × E−5 2'nd surface (1.53 mm < h: Outside optical surface area) Aspherical coefficient κ −8.4719 × E−1 A1 +6.6073 × E−4 P1 4.0 A2 −2.2175 × E−4 P2 6.0 A3 −3.0955 × E−5 P3 8.0 A4 −4.4414 × E−7 P4 10.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Design basis wavelength 660 nm) B2 −5.0466 × E−4 B4 −1.3513 × E−5 B6 −2.3685 × E−5 B8 −4.8511 × E−6 B10 +2.0574 × E−6 3rd surface Aspherical coefficient κ −0.90540 × E−2 A1 +0.16292 × E−4 P1 4.0 A2 −0.10622 × E−3 P2 6.0 A3 −0.48106 × E−4 P3 8.0 A4 −0.90706 × E−5 P4 10.0 A5 −0.10113 × E−4 P5 12.0 A6 −0.41941 × E−5 P6 14.0 4th surface Aspherical coefficient κ +0.17083 × E+5 A1 +0.25872 × E−3 P1 4.0 A2 −0.44991 × E−4 P2 6.0 A3 −0.69101 × E−4 P3 8.0 A4 −0.22469 × E−3 P4 10.0 A5 −0.58317 × E−4 P5 12.0 A6 +0.29543 × E−4 P6 14.0
[0662] The objective lens is one wherein two optically functional surfaces each having a diffractive structure made of UV-setting resin are formed on the surface on one side of a glass lens. Refractive index temperature dependency of the resin itself is −1.2×10 −4 (/° C.) which is the same as that in conventional example 2. However, it is possible to correct temperature characteristics of the total objective lens by weakening power of the resin portion and by using one wherein refractive index temperature dependency of a glass lens on the other side is as small as +7.4×10 −6 (/° C.).
[0663] Since the design for interchangeability of DVD and CD is the same as that in Example 9, the explanation thereof will be omitted. FIG. 46 shows a spherical aberration diagram of the present example. A form of a spot on a recording surface of each optical information recording medium is shown in FIG. 47.
[0664] As shown in Table 14, it is understood that an objective lens capable of being used for both DVD and CD improved in terms of error characteristics can be realized in an objective lens wherein NA is 0.65 and temperature characteristics are severe. It is also understood that the minimum value of a pitch of the ring-shaped diffractive zone is greater than that in Conventional example 3.
EXAMPLE 11
[0665] The present example is an example related to the eighth embodiment stated above. Table 12 shows lens data.
TABLE 12 Example 11 f1 = 3.00 mm, m1 = −1/7.0 NA1 = 0.60, NA2 = 0.45 dn2/dT = −1.2 × E−4 (/° C.) at 632.8 nm, νd = 56.0 dn3/dT = +0.8 × E−6 (/° C.) at 632.8 nm, νd = 55.3 DVD CD di di ith (650 ni (780 ni surface ri nm) (650 nm) nm) (780 nm) 0 26.225 1.0 26.225 1.0 Emission point 1 ∞ 0.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Aperture φ4.0 mm 2 2.619 0.1 1.54112 0.1 1.53727 2′ 2.654 0.101 1.54112 0.101 1.53727 3 2.824 2.6 1.67424 2.0 1.66959 4 −4.928 1.788 1.0 1.429 1.0 5 ∞ 0.6 1.577 1.2 1.570 6 ∞ Aspherical data 2nd surface (0 < h < 1.584 mm: Inside optically functional surface) Aspherical coefficient κ −4.6299 × E−0 A1 +2.0834 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 −5.7851 × E−3 P2 6.0 A3 +9.6195 × E−4 P3 8.0 A4 −1.2123 × E−4 P4 10.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Design basis wavelength 720 nm) B2 +7.9637 × E−4 B4 −1.4993 × E−3 B6 −9.9900 × E−5 B8 +5.0721 × E−5 B10 −9.3677 × E−6 2'nd surface (1.584 mm < h: Outside optical surface area) Aspherical coefficient κ −4.8750 × E−0 A1 +2.2234 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 −5.7025 × E−3 P2 6.0 A3 +9.4382 × E−4 P3 8.0 A4 −1.2143 × E−4 P4 10.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Design basis wavelength 650 nm) B2 −9.4134 × E−4 B4 −2.4877 × E−4 B6 −8.0210 × E−5 B8 −1.3836 × E−5 B10 +2.0287 × E−6 3rd surface Aspherical coefficient κ −0.25997 × E−0 A1 −0.31934 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 −0.60892 × E−3 P2 6.0 A3 −0.10705 × E−3 P3 8.0 A4 −0.55001 × E−4 P4 10.0 4th surface Aspherical coefficient κ +0.15272 × E+0 A1 +0.84547 × E−2 P1 4.0 A2 −0.32078 × E−2 P2 6.0 A3 +0.16251 × E−3 P3 8.0 A4 +0.10235 × E−4 P4 10.0 A5 +0.30261 × E−5 P5 12.0 A6 −0.64029 × E−6 P6 14.0
[0666] This is an example wherein a divergent light flux enters an objective lens. The objective lens is one wherein two optically functional surfaces each having a diffractive structure made of UV-setting resin are formed on the surface on one side of a glass lens. Refractive index temperature dependency of the resin itself is −1.2×10 −4 (/° C.) which is the same as that in conventional example 2. However, it is possible to correct temperature characteristics of the total objective lens by weakening power of the resin portion and by using one wherein refractive index temperature dependency of a glass lens on the other side is as small as +0.8×10 −6 Since an idea for forming two optically functional surfaces by providing a diffractive structure and a concept of design for aberration are the same as those in Example 9, explanation therefore will be omitted. FIG. 48 is a spherical aberration diagram of the present example, and a form of a spot on a recording surface of each optical information recording medium is shown in FIG. 49.
[0667] Table 14 shows error characteristics. As shown in this table, it is understood that an objective lens capable of being used for both DVD and CD improved in terms of error characteristics can be realized in an objective lens with specifications wherein lateral magnification m1 is −{fraction (1/7)} and NA is 0.65 and temperature characteristics are severe. It is also understood that the minimum value of a pitch of the ring-shaped diffractive zone is greater than that in Conventional example 3.
EXAMPLE 12
[0668] The present example is an example related to the eighth embodiment stated above. Table 13 shows lens data.
TABLE 13 Example 12 f1 = 3.00 mm, m1 = −1/10.0 NA1 = 0.60, NA2 = 0.45 dn2/dT = −5.8 × E−6 (/° C.) at 632.8 nm, νd = 81.6 DVD di CD ith (650 ni di ni surface ri nm) (650 nm) (780 nm) (780 nm) 0 32.5 1.0 32.5 1.0 Emission point 1 ∞ 0.0 1.0 0.0 1.0 Aperture φ3.91 mm 2 2.001 2.2 1.49529 2.2 1.49282 2′ 1.959 2.205 1.49529 2.205 1.49282 3 −4.141 1.776 1.0 1.381 1.0 4 ∞ 0.6 1.577 1.2 1.570 5 ∞ Aspherical data 2nd surface (0 < h < 1.37 mm: Inside optically functional surface) Aspherical coefficient κ −1.1326 × E−0 A1 +3.273 × E−3 P1 4.0 A2 +6.2694 × E−4 P2 6.0 A3 −4.4974 × E−5 P3 8.0 A4 +2.8692 × E−5 P4 10.0 A5 −2.5654 × E−5 P5 12.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Design basis wavelength 720 nm) B2 +2.4918 × E−4 B4 −2.0024 × E−3 B6 −3.7862 × E−4 B8 +2.0983 × E−4 B10 −5.8311 × E−5 2'nd surface (1.37 mm < h: Outside optical surface area) Aspherical coefficient κ −8.7077 × E−1 A1 +6.2127 × E−3 P1 4.0 A2 +6.3107 × E−4 P2 6.0 A3 +1.3601 × E−4 P3 8.0 A4 −2.5299 × E−5 P4 10.0 A5 −8.0092 × E−6 P5 12.0 Optical path difference function (Coefficient of optical path difference function: Design basis wavelength 660 nm) B2 −2.2736 × E−3 B4 −3.2476 × E−4 B6 −8.8656 × E−5 B8 −1.5681 × E−5 B10 +5.2484 × E−6 3rd surface Aspherical coefficient A1 +0.20368 × E−1 P1 4.0 A2 −0.48550 × E−2 P2 6.0 A3 +0.72231 × E−3 P3 8.0 A4 −0.97114 × E−4 P4 10.0 A5 +0.78427 × E−5 P5 12.0 A6 −0.94305 × E−8 P6 14.0
[0669] This is an example wherein a divergent light flux enters an objective lens. The objective lens wherein refractive index temperature dependency is −5.8×10 −6 (/° C.) was used. Each of both sides of the objective lens is an aspheric surface, and a diffractive structure is provided solidly on the surface of the aspheric surface on one side as shown in FIG. 32, and two optically functional surfaces are arranged thereon. Since the design of aberration is the same as that in Example 3, it will be omitted. FIG. 50 is a spherical aberration diagram of the present example, and a form of a spot on a recording surface of each optical information recording medium is shown in FIG. 51.
[0670] Table 14 shows error characteristics. As shown in this table, it is understood that an objective lens capable of being used for both DVD and CD improved in terms of error characteristics can be realized in an objective lens wherein lateral magnification m1 is −{fraction (1/7)} and NA is 0.60. It is also understood that the minimum value of a pitch of the ring-shaped diffractive zone is greater than that in Conventional example 3.
[0671] In addition to the examples described above, it is also possible to constitute as follows. For example, an intermediate optically functional surface is made to be of a diffractive structure as illustrated in the ninth embodiment, and both sides of the intermediate optically functional surface are constituted with a refracting interface as shown in the seventh embodiment. In this case, the diffractive structure corrects spherical aberration of DVD, and it may be one which gives the same spherical aberration as in CD of the First embodiment, for CD. FIG. 36 shows a schematic sectional view of a lens, and FIG. 37 shows an example of spherical aberration.
[0672] It is further possible to provide a diffractive structure on the outside optically functional surface as mentioned in the tenth embodiment. In this case, correction of spherical aberration in DVD and control of flare amount in CD are possible. FIG. 38 shows a schematic sectional view of a lens, and FIG. 39 shows an example of spherical aberration.
[0673] Furthermore, it is naturally possible to improve focus characteristics on the CD side by providing a diaphragm with a structure that lowers a transmission factor or blocks for a light flux passing through the outside optically functional surface in the case of CD, or an antireflection coating.
[0674] The invention makes it possible to provide an objective lens and an optical pickup device wherein recording and reproducing for optical information recording media each having a different transparent base board thickness are made possible, by forming different optically functional surfaces on the objective lens while keeping temperature characteristics in the objective lens having specifications which make temperature characteristics to be strict.
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An objective lens of an optical pickup apparatus converges a divergent light flux onto an information recording surface. The following conditional formula is satisfied:
|δ SA 1 /δU|·|δU|+|δSA 2 /δT|·|δT |≦0.07 λ rms
where λ represents a wavelength of a light source, δSA 1 /δU represents a change of a spherical aberration for an object-to-image distance change δU (|δU|≦0.5 mm) and δSA 2 /δT represents a change of spherical aberration for a temperature change δT (|δT|≦30° C.), the object-to-image distance is a distance between the light source (a light emitting point) and the information recording surface.
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[0001] This application is a continuation-in-part of and claims the benefit of priority from PCT application PCT/EP20 11/064659 filed Aug. 25, 2011 and German Patent Application DE 10 2010 035 944.0 filed Aug. 31, 2010, the disclosure of each is hereby incorporated by reference in its entirety.
[0002] The present invention relates to a method for the dry forming of a fiber web as well as to an apparatus for carrying out the method.
BACKGROUND
[0003] It is known for the production of non-woven fabrics that the fibers are laid down to a fiber layer on a laydown belt by means of an air flow. This method, ordinarily described as air laid among experts, is based on the fact that the fibers or fiber mixtures are placed uniformly distributed on the surface of a laydown belt by means of a forming head. The zone covered by the forming head on the laydown belt is ordinarily referred to as a forming zone, in which the fibers meet on the laydown belt. Such a method and device are described in, for example, WO 2004/106604 A1. In the case of the known methods and the known device, a multiplicity of fibers or fiber mixtures is fed to a forming head by means of an air flow. Within the forming head means are provided for mixing and distributing the fibers. On the underside of the forming head a forming outlet is constructed which ordinarily is arranged at a short distance above the laydown belt. In this connection, a clearance is formed between the forming head and the laydown belt, the clearance serving to guide a fiber stream escaping from the forming outlet. The laying down of the fibers on the laydown belt is supported by a suction device which absorbs the air of the fiber stream and conducts it away. The fiber layer forming on the surface of the laydown belt is continuously conveyed via the laydown belt out of the forming zone, so that a fiber layer is formed which is subsequently fed to a further treatment, for example solidification.
[0004] Depending on the fiber type and fiber size used in such methods, irregularities can arise in the laying down of the fibers, with the irregularities being referred to as beaching. Such irregularities in the fiber distribution are generally attributed to the fact that the distribution and laying down of the fibers is influenced by secondary air flows from the surroundings which are absorbed from the surroundings into the forming zone via the suction device.
[0005] In order to eliminate such irregularities in the laying down of the fibers, it is known for example from WO 2006/131122 A1 to influence the suction flow of the suction device in sub-regions of the forming zone. In the case of the known methods and the known device, a guide plate is assigned on an inflow side of the forming zone of the suction device, with the guide plate influencing the suction flow underneath the laying down belt. It is noted that air turbulence arising through suctioned secondary air from the surroundings on the inflow side of the forming zone is supposed to be prevented. However, as a result of the use of such a guide plate, there are differing suction flows in the forming zone which leads to differing laydown behavior of the fibers within the forming zone.
[0006] The phenomenon of beaching also could not be ruled out from other systems, such as those known for example from WO 2003/016622 A1. In this connection, the forming head on the inflow side and the outflow side each have sealing rollers, which are in contact with the surface of the laydown belt or the surface of the fiber layer. As a result, it possible to prevent to a great extent an influx in the secondary air from the surroundings. However, in this connection it is disadvantageous that the fiber layer on the surface of the laydown belt is condensed directly on the outflow side by the sealing roller arranged there.
SUMMARY
[0007] Hence, the invention addresses the problem of creating a generic method as well as a generic device for the dry forming of a fiber web with which a high uniformity of fiber distribution can be achieved within the fiber layer.
[0008] The invention is based on the understanding that the laying down of the fibers is influenced by a fiber stream transverse to a laydown belt essentially through the reorientation of the fibers from an essentially vertical movement to a horizontal movement defined by the laydown belt. Thus it became apparent to the inventors that the residence time of the fibers until impinging on the laydown belt has an influence on the development of the fiber layer. In this respect the laying down of the fibers and the structure of the fiber layer could be advantageously improved by having the fibers of the fiber stream within the forming zone run through the clearance with free sections of different lengths. In this way zones could be realized in which the fibers had greater latitude for the reorientation through long free sections.
[0009] The method variant in which the fibers of a fiber stream produced on an inflow side of the forming zone run through a longer free section than the fibers of the fiber stream produced on an outflow side of the forming zone is particularly advantageous. In addition, the great distance between the forming head and the laydown belt on the inflow side can prevent the turbulence effects caused by the inflowing secondary air. On the other hand, the secondary air can be used in a supporting manner for reorientation and laying down of the fibers.
[0010] In order to obtain a uniform modification of the free sections within the forming zone, the method variant is preferably used in which case the fiber stream is produced by a forming head inclined vis-à-vis the laydown belt, wherein the free sections of the fibers within the clearance between the inflow side and the outflow side are continuously changing. With this arrangement it is possible to make advantageous use of a horizontally aligned laydown belt for receiving and development of the fiber layer, so that a redistribution of the fibers in the fiber layer cannot occur during transport on an inclined laydown belt.
[0011] In order to suppress counter-effects through other secondary air flows within the forming zone, the method variant is particular advantageous in which case the clearance of the forming zone on the outflow side for guiding the fibers is screened by at least one screening means vis-à-vis the surroundings.
[0012] In contrast, the clearance of the forming zone on the inflow side for guiding the fibers to the surroundings is kept open. With this, a secondary air flow can be deliberately produced which acts in the direction of the material flow of the laydown belt. Thus, advantageous pre-orientations can be produced on the fiber stream in the direction of the material flow.
[0013] In order to be able to generate a uniform fiber layer over the entire width of the laydown belt, in accordance with an advantageous improvement of the inventive method, provision is made that the clearance of the forming zone between the inflow side and the outflow side for guiding the fibers to the surroundings is kept closed. In this way secondary air flows occurring on the long side of the laydown belt can be prevented.
[0014] For carrying out of the inventive method in the case of the inventive device the forming head and the laydown belt are kept in a non-parallel arrangement, so that the clearance is formed by differing distances between the laydown belt and the forming outlet of the forming head.
[0015] In this connection, the arrangement of the forming head and of the laydown belt is preferably constructed in such a way that the distance between the laydown belt and the forming outlet of the forming head on an inflow side of the forming zone is greater than distance between the laydown belt and the forming outlet of the forming head on an outflow side of the forming zone. In addition, the larger free section for reorientation is realized in the inflow region of the forming zone.
[0016] The forming head is preferably held on a inclined plane vis-à-vis the laydown belt so that the distance between the laydown belt and the forming outlet of the forming head from the inflow side to the outflow side of the forming zone is continually changing. With this, a continuous reduction of the free section in the direction of the material flow of the laydown belt can be achieved. Thus, the reduced suction effect due to the already formed fiber layers toward the outflow side of the forming zone can be compensated. The fibers can be received with essentially the same kinetic energy on the surface of the laydown belt or of the fiber layer.
[0017] In order to obtain a setting of the free sections in the forming zone optimized for formation of the fiber layer dependent on the fibers and fiber mixtures, the forming head is advantageously held by an adjustable retainer, as a result of which the degree and/or the height of the inclined plane of the forming head can be set.
[0018] In order to suppress as much as possible the entry of secondary air on the outflow side, two alternative device variants of the inventive device can be employed. In the case of a first variant, at least one screening means is arranged on the outflow side of the forming head, through which the clearance can be screened vis-à-vis the surroundings. Such screening means are preferably formed by driven sealing rollers which are held in contact with a fiber layer on the laydown belt. This variant is however only suitable when a pre-compression of the fiber layer on the surface of the laydown belt is harmless for any further processing.
[0019] For sensitive fiber layers, the device variant is preferably implemented in which case an outflow opening is formed on the outflow side of the forming zone between the forming head and the laydown belt. Such outflow openings are preferably implemented with a small gap height which, depending on the thickness of the fiber layer, can range from 4 mm to 20 mm.
[0020] In order to be able to use the secondary flow of ambient air necessary for reorientation, the inventive device is preferably constructed in such a way that an inflow opening is formed on the inflow side of the forming zone between the forming head and the laydown belt.
[0021] In this connection, the inflow opening is preferably constructed with a gap height ranging between 40 mm to 400 mm. Thus, preferably laminar secondary flows of the ambient air can be introduced into the forming zone.
[0022] The peripheral regions of the forming zone are preferably sealed in accordance with the advantageous improvement of the invention, wherein the clearance to both long sides of the laydown belt vis-à-vis the surroundings is sealed by sealing means between the forming head and the laydown belt. Thus, a uniform fiber layer can be produced over the entire width of the laydown belt.
[0023] The fiber stream is preferably produced at the forming outlet of the forming head through a perforated plate or stressed screen cloth, which makes possible a homogenized distribution of the fibers over the entire forming zone.
[0024] The inventive method and the inventive device are suitable for the laying down of all fibers and fiber mixtures. For example, synthetic and natural fibers or mixtures of synthetic and natural fibers can be laid down to fiber layers. Due to the high uniformity of the produced fiber layer in the process, preferably even the finest parts such as for example a powder can be advantageously integrated into the mixture.
[0025] The inventive method will be explained in more detail with the help of some exemplary embodiments of the inventive device making reference to the attached figures.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0026] FIG. 1 shows schematically a cross-section view of a first exemplary embodiment of the inventive device for carrying out the inventive method.
[0027] FIG. 2 shows schematically a cross-section view of a further exemplary embodiment of the inventive device for carrying out the inventive method.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0028] FIG. 1 shows schematically a first exemplary embodiment of the inventive device for carrying out the inventive method. The exemplary embodiment shows a mixing chamber 1 that is connected via a fiber inlet 2 to a fiber feed not shown in the figure. The fiber inlet 2 can contain one or more connections in order to feed one or more fibers or fiber mixtures by means of an air flow of the mixing chamber 1 . The mixing chamber 1 is connected on an underside to a forming head 3 . The forming head 3 includes several means (not shown in detail here) to uniformly distribute the fibers or fiber mixtures and conduct them away as a fiber stream via a forming outlet 4 constructed on the underside. The forming outlet 4 preferably includes a perforated plate 5 . In the process, the distribution takes place within the forming head preferably via several driven wings, such as is known for example from WO 2004/106604. In this respect, WO 2004/106604 is incorporated herein by reference.
[0029] The forming head 3 is arranged above a laydown belt 8 at an inclined plane 21 . The laydown belt 8 is essentially horizontally aligned, so that on an inflow side 10 a greater distance between the forming head 3 and the laydown belt 8 is set than on the opposing outflow side 11 . The distance to the inflow side 10 is marked with the identification letters letter S E . In contrast the distance between the forming outlet 4 and the laydown belt 8 is marked with the identification letters S A .
[0030] The location of the forming head 3 or the location of the inclined plane 21 can be set via a retainer 19 of the forming head 3 . The retainer 19 is in this exemplary embodiment formed by two actuators 20 . 1 and 20 . 2 , each of which engages on support arm 22 . 1 and 22 . 2 , with the support arms being connected to the forming head 3 . Thus, through a parallel actuation of the actuators 20 . 1 and 20 . 2 the height of the forming head can be set relative to the laydown belt 8 and thus the height of the inclined plane 21 . By means of unilateral actuation of the actuators 20 . 1 or 20 . 2 it is possible to set the angular position of the forming head 3 and with it the degree of the inclined plane 21 relative to the laydown belt 8 . In each case, a modification of the distances between the forming outlet 4 and the laydown belt 8 occurs.
[0031] The laydown belt 8 is gas permeable and is continuously fed in a material conveying direction via several guide rollers 9 , with the material conveying direction being identified by a double arrow. In this respect, the laydown belt 8 continuously runs through the forming zone 6 from the inflow side 10 to the outflow side 11 . In the process, the fibers are laid down on the surface of the laydown belt 8 to a fiber layer 23 .
[0032] Below the laydown belt, a suction device 16 is arranged with the suction device being connected via a suction channel 17 to a vacuum source not shown in the figure.
[0033] The forming outlet 4 of the forming head 3 is in this case rectangularly constructed, so that an essentially rectangular forming zone 6 is constructed above the laydown belt 8 . The clearance 7 of the forming zone 6 is in this exemplary embodiment only connected to the surroundings via an inflow opening 14 on the inflow side 10 . On the opposing outflow side 11 , a screening means 12 in the form of a sealing roller 13 is arranged between the forming head 3 and the laydown belt 8 . The absorption of secondary air from the surroundings can be prevented in this way. In addition, in the region of the long sides of the forming head 3 , there are two opposing separating plates 15 provided, which seal the clearance 7 of the forming zone 6 to both long sides of the laydown belt 8 vis-à-vis the surroundings.
[0034] In the case of the exemplary embodiment of the inventive device shown in FIG. 1 , a synthetic fiber, for example, is fed with a powder jointly via an air flow of the mixing chamber 1 . Within the mixing chamber 1 , static or dynamic means can be constructed, which implement a premixing of the fibers. Subsequently, the mixture of fiber and powder is guided via the air flow to the forming head 3 . Within the forming head 3 , a distribution of the fiber and powder mixture takes place via the distribution means, with the mixture then being guided as a fiber stream into the clearance 7 via the forming outlet 4 . Within the forming zone 6 , a continuously active suction flow is generated via the suction device 16 , with the suction flow on the one hand collecting the fibers entering into the clearance 7 and on the other hand generating a secondary air flow from the surroundings on the inflow side 10 . In the guiding of the fibers within the clearance 7 , the fibers of the fiber stream in the region of the inflow side 10 run through a longer free section until being laid down on the laydown belt 8 . By way of contrast, the fibers on the opposing outflow side 11 are guided on a shorter free section. Thus the fibers guided in the region of the inflow side 10 receive a higher residence time in order to execute the transition from a vertically oriented movement to a horizontally oriented movement. Thus, the fibers can be laid down by the influence of a secondary air flow on the inflow side with a slight pre-orientation in material flow direction. This turns out to be particularly advantageous in particular in the formation of a uniform fiber layer 23 .
[0035] Depending on the fiber type and fiber mixtures, it turns out that the distance S E on the inflow side 10 for formation of the inflow opening 14 should be in a range from 40 mm to 400 mm. Too small a distance between the forming head 3 and the laydown belt 8 has the disadvantage that the absorbed secondary air leads to severe turbulence. Too great a distance between the forming head 3 and the laydown belt 8 on the inflow side 10 increasingly reduces the influence of the secondary air, so that this should likewise be avoided.
[0036] On the opposing outflow side 11 of the forming head 3 the absorption of a secondary air is prevented by the sealing roller 13 . In this respect, only the influence of the secondary air permitted via the inflow opening 14 remains, with the secondary air being able to be used purposefully for the improvement of the fiber layers.
[0037] The inventive method and the inventive device are thus particularly well suited for achieving a high uniformity in the production of fiber layers that are formed of a multiplicity of single finite fiber pieces. In this connection, synthetic or natural fibers or mixtures of synthetic and natural fibers can be laid.
[0038] FIG. 2 shows a further exemplary embodiment of the inventive device for carrying out the inventive method. The exemplary embodiment of the inventive device shown in FIG. 2 is essentially identical to the exemplary embodiment in accordance with FIG. 1 , so that only the differences will be explained here and otherwise reference is made to the aforementioned description.
[0039] In the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 2 , the forming head 3 is likewise held on an inclined plane vis-à-vis the laydown belt 8 , so that on the inflow side 10 a greater distance arises between the forming outlet 4 and the laydown belt 8 than vis-à-vis the outflow side 11 . The distance on the inflow side is marked with the identification letter S E and on the outflow side with the identification letter S A . In this connection, on the outflow side 11 between the forming head 3 and the laydown belt 8 an outflow opening 18 is formed, which connects the clearance 7 of the forming zone 6 to the surroundings. Likewise, on the opposing inflow side 10 , an open inflow opening 14 is shown that is likewise connected to the surroundings. However, through the inclined arrangement of the forming head 3 the outflow opening 18 a significantly lower gap height than the opposing inflow opening 14 is provided. Thus, depending on the fiber and fiber type, the outflow opening 18 is constructed in such a way that a distance in the magnitude of 4 mm to 20 mm ensues between the forming outlet 4 and the laydown belt 8 . The gap height of the outflow opening 18 is arranged or set in the process essentially to the thickness of the fiber layer which is produced on the surface of the laydown belt.
[0040] For the setting of the inflow opening 14 and the outflow opening 18 , the forming head 3 is likewise adjustable via an adjustable retainer 19 . The retainer 19 is in this connection identical to the aforementioned exemplary embodiment, so that no further explanation will be given here.
[0041] In the exemplary embodiment of the inventive device shown in FIG. 2 , the forming zone and thus the clearance 7 are only screened from the surroundings by the separating plates 15 arranged on the long sides. No additional screening means are provided on either the inflow side 10 or the outflow side 11 .
[0042] In the exemplary embodiment shown in FIG. 2 , the fibers within the fiber stream are likewise guided in free sections of differing length within the clearance, so that the residence times for running through the free sections in the inflow region of the forming zone are greater than in the outflow region. In this connection, in this respect the secondary air effects can be used jointly in order to obtain a favorable reorientation of the movement sequences in single fibers. Through the narrow gap on the outflow side it is possible to minimize the absorbed secondary air so that undesired disturbing effects can be avoided.
[0043] The above disclosed subject matter is to be considered illustrative, and not restrictive, and the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications, enhancements, and other embodiments, which fall within the true spirit and scope of the present invention. Thus, to the maximum extent allowed by law, the scope of the present invention is to be determined by the broadest permissible interpretation of the following claims and their equivalents, and shall not be restricted or limited by the foregoing detailed description. While various embodiments of the invention have been described, it will be apparent to those of ordinary skill in the art that many more embodiments and implementations are possible within the scope of the invention. Accordingly, the invention is not to be restricted except in light of the attached claims and their equivalents
REFERENCE LIST
[0000]
1 Mixing chamber
2 Fiber inlet
3 Forming head
4 Forming outlet
5 Perforated plate
6 Forming zone
7 Clearance
8 Laydown belt
9 Guide rollers
10 Inflow side
11 Outflow side
12 Screening means
13 Sealing roller
14 Inflow opening
15 Separating plate
16 Suction device
17 Suction channel
18 Outflow opening
19 Retainer
20 . 1 , 20 . 2 Actuator
21 Inclined plane
22 . 1 , 22 . 2 Support arm
23 Fiber layer
Distance S E , S A
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A method and a device for the dry forming of a fiber web, in which a multiplicity of fibers or fiber mixtures are fed to a forming head by means of an air flow is described. The forming head produces a fiber stream which is introduced into a clearance of a forming zone between the forming head and a laydown belt. To obtain as uniform a construction of the fiber layer as possible during the laying down of the fibers, the fibers of the fiber stream run through the clearance within the forming zone with free sections of different lengths. To this end, the forming head and the laydown belt are held in a non-parallel arrangement, with the result that the clearance is formed by different spacings between the laydown belt and the forming outlet of the forming head.
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CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a Continuation Application of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/655,163, filed Sep. 5, 2000, now U.S. Pat. No. 6,290,515.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0002] 1. Field of the Invention
[0003] The present invention relates to an electrical connector assembly, and particularly to an electrical connector assembly having a plurality of grounding buses for enhancing the signal quality of high frequency signals transmitted therethrough.
[0004] 2. Description of the Prior Art
[0005] U.S. Pat. No. 5,813,871 discloses an electrical connector assembly for interconnecting two circuit boards, which transmit relatively high frequency signals. The electrical connector assembly includes a receptacle connector and a mating plug connector. The plug connector includes a central elongated ground plate, which has a plurality of leads along its length for engaging with a circuit board. The leads extend from each side of the ground plate at equal intervals. The plug connector further includes an outer shield that substantially surrounds the plug connector and has a plurality of leads extending from a bottom edge thereof for contacting with corresponding leads of the ground plate.
[0006] The receptacle connector includes a base and a plurality of shield plates. The base has a cavity defined therein for receiving a mating portion of the plug connector and a central portion extending into the cavity with a slot defined therein running the entire length of the central portion. When the plug connector and the receptacle connector are fully mated, the elongated ground plate extends well into the slot and is in electrical engagement with each of the shield plates. This provides a relatively short ground path from a first circuit board positioning the receptacle connector to a second circuit board positioning the plug connector, thereby significantly reducing crosstalk between two adjacent signal contacts of the electrical connector assembly.
[0007] However, this design provides only one ground plate in the plug connector that only provides a grounding function. Further, once the planarity of the ground plate is lost, a reliable engagement between the ground plate of the plug connector and the shield plates of the receptacle connector cannot be achieved. Hence, an improved electrical connector assembly is required to overcome the disadvantages of the prior art.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0008] A first object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector assembly having a plurality of grounding buses each having two engaging ribs for achieving reliable grounding performance;
[0009] A second object of the present invention is to provide an electrical connector assembly having a plurality of ground buses that can be used for either grounding or power transmission.
[0010] To achieve the above objects, an electrical connector assembly in accordance with the present invention comprises a receptacle connector and a mating plug connector. The receptacle connector comprises an insulative housing and a plurality of signal terminals. The insulative housing further has two elongated sidewalls defining a plurality of channels for receiving corresponding signal terminals, and an internal wall between the two elongated sidewalls defining a plurality of grooves for receiving a plurality of first ground buses therein. The plug connector comprises a dielectric housing and a plurality of signal contacts. The dielectric housing defines a base and two rows of tongues extending upward from the base. Each tongue has an outer side surface and an inner side surface. The outer side surface of the tongue defines a plurality of passageways for receiving a plurality of signal contacts which engage with the signal terminals of the receptacle connector, and the inner side surface of the tongue defines a plurality of grooves for receiving a plurality of second ground buses which engage with the first ground buses of the receptacle connector. Each first ground bus includes a mating portion consisting of two engaging ribs each having a free end section and an arcuate section, and each second ground bus includes a mating portion having two ribs for contacting corresponding two engaging ribs of the first ground bus. In assembly, the free end section of the first ground bus is released from being preloaded by the insulative housing, and the arcuate section of each engaging rib engages with a corresponding rib of the mating portion of the second ground bus thereby ensuring a reliable engagement between the first and second ground buses.
[0011] Other objects, advantages and novel features of the invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of the present embodiment when taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0012] [0012]FIG. 1 is a perspective view of a mated electrical connector assembly in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention;
[0013] [0013]FIG. 2 is a perspective view of the electrical connector assembly of FIG. 1 including a plug connector and a receptacle connector in an unmated state;
[0014] [0014]FIG. 3 is a fragmental view of the plug connector of FIG. 2;
[0015] [0015]FIG. 4 is a view similar to FIG. 3 but viewed from a different angle;
[0016] [0016]FIG. 5 is a fragmental view of the receptacle connector of FIG. 2;
[0017] [0017]FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 5 but viewed from a different angle and with a portion cut out for illustrating the relationship between the signal terminals, the first ground buses and the housing;
[0018] [0018]FIG. 7 is a perspective view illustrating the engagement between the first ground buses and second ground buses in accordance with the present invention;
[0019] [0019]FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view of the electrical connector assembly of FIG. 1 mated together and mounted to two different circuit boards;
[0020] [0020]FIG. 9 is a cross-sectional view of an electrical connector assembly in accordance with a second embodiment of the present invention mounted to two circuit boards;
[0021] [0021]FIG. 10 is a cross-sectional view of an electrical connector assembly in accordance with a third embodiment of the present invention;
[0022] [0022]FIG. 11 is a cross-sectional view of an electrical connector assembly in accordance with a fourth embodiment of the present invention; and
[0023] [0023]FIG. 12 is a cross-sectional view of an electrical connector assembly in accordance with a fifth embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0024] For facilitating understanding, like components are designated by like reference numerals throughout various embodiments of the present invention as shown in the various drawing figures.
[0025] Referring to FIGS. 1 and 2, an electrical connector assembly 1 in accordance with a first embodiment of the present invention comprises a plug connector 2 and a mating receptacle connector 4 . The plug connector 2 includes a dielectric housing 6 and a plurality of signal contacts 8 received in the dielectric housing 6 . The dielectric housing 6 includes a base 10 , four sidewalls 12 , 14 , 16 , 18 extending upward from the base 10 to define a receiving cavity 20 therebetween, and four tongues 22 extending upward from the base 10 into the receiving cavity 20 to engage with the mating receptacle connector 4 . The receptacle connector 4 includes an insulative housing 24 and a plurality of signal terminals 26 received in the insulative housing 24 . A plurality of first ground buses 28 and second ground buses 30 is received in the receptacle connector 4 and in the plug connector 2 , respectively.
[0026] Referring to FIGS. 3 and 4, a plurality of passageways 44 is defined in an outer side surface 42 of each tongue 22 of the plug connector 2 to receive corresponding signal contacts 8 therein for signal transmission. Five grooves 34 having two different widths are defined in an inner side surface 46 of each tongue 22 for retaining five second ground buses 30 , also having two different widths, therein. A plurality of T-shaped ribs 32 is thus defined by the grooves 34 . Each second ground bus 30 can also be used to transmit power, and the width of each second ground bus 30 corresponds to several signal contacts 8 . In this embodiment, the two widths of second ground buses 30 are arranged in an alternating manner. Each broader second ground bus 30 can protect five signal contacts 8 , while each narrower second ground bus 30 can protect three signal contacts 8 . Each signal contact 8 includes an engaging section 38 positioned in the passageway 44 , a soldering section 36 for being soldered to a printed circuit board (PCB) 90 (FIG. 8), and a curved middle section 40 for connecting the soldering section 36 with the engaging section 38 .
[0027] Referring to FIG. 7, each second ground bus 30 includes a mating portion 48 for engaging with a corresponding first ground bus 28 , a soldering portion 50 retained in the PCB 90 (FIG. 8), and a joint portion 52 between the mating portion 48 and the soldering portion 50 . The joint portion 52 further includes two teeth 54 respectively formed on both side edges thereof. The teeth 54 engage with the T-shaped ribs 32 for retaining the second ground buses 30 in the grooves 34 . Each mating portion 48 has two ribs 78 .
[0028] Referring to FIGS. 5 and 6, the insulative housing 24 of the receptacle connector 4 comprises two elongate sidewalls 56 (only one shown) and two lateral end walls (not labeled), together defining a cavity (not labeled) therebetween, and an internal wall 58 upwardly extending into the cavity. A plurality of channels 60 is respectively defined in the two elongate sidewalls 56 with corresponding signal terminals 26 being received therein. An opening 70 is defined at one end of each channel 60 . Each signal terminal 26 includes a mating portion 62 and a soldering section 64 . The mating portion 62 defines a free end section 66 and an arcuate section 68 . The free end section 66 engages with an inner surface of the opening 70 of the channel 60 for preloading before the arcuate section 68 mates with the signal contact 8 of the plug connector 2 . The free end section 66 disengages from the inner surface of the opening 70 when the arcuate section 68 is mated with the signal contact 8 . By this design, breakage of the signal terminals 26 is prevented.
[0029] The internal wall 58 comprises two rows of grooves 72 (only one row is shown in FIGS. 5 and 6) each defining a recess 74 at one end thereof. As is clearly shown in FIG. 7, each first ground bus 28 includes a mating portion 76 including two engaging ribs 80 each having a free end section 82 and an arcuate section 84 , a soldering portion 86 for mating with a PCB 92 (FIG. 8), and a retention portion 85 between the mating portion 76 and the soldering portion 86 . Two teeth 88 are formed on both side edges of the retention portion 85 . The two teeth 88 interferentially engage with the groove 72 to retain the first ground bus 28 therein. In assembly, the free end section 82 is preloaded by the recess 74 , and the two arcuate sections 84 of the engaging ribs 80 of the mating portion 76 engage with the two ribs 78 of the corresponding second ground bus 30 of the plug connector 2 .
[0030] The signal contacts 8 of the plug connector 2 , the signal terminals 26 of the receptacle connector 4 , and the first ground buses 28 and second ground buses 30 are formed, so the reliability thereof is better than if they were stamped. The first ground buses 28 and second ground buses 30 can serve as a grounding plane and an electrical connector ground, or for electrical power transmission. First ground buses 28 and second ground buses 30 are arranged back-to-back in pairs, pairs of their soldering portions 86 and 50 engaging with signal holes 96 , 94 in the PCBs 92 , 90 . Therefore, the footprint of the electrical connector assembly on the PCBs is compatible with the prior art assembly.
[0031] Referring to FIG. 8, in use, the plug connector 2 soldered to the PCB 90 mates with the receptacle connector 4 soldered to the PCB 92 , whereby the signal contacts 8 engage with the signal terminals 26 . Thus, an electrical circuit is established between the PCBs 90 and 92 via the contacts 8 and the terminals 26 . In addition, the first ground buses 28 and second ground buses 30 contact each other. The two rows of soldering portions 86 and 50 of the respective ground buses 28 and 30 together extend through corresponding holes 96 and 94 defined in the respective PCBs 92 and 90 .
[0032] [0032]FIG. 9 is a second embodiment of the present invention, which is similar to the first embodiment. When the plug connector 2 ′ mates with the receptacle connector 4 ′, the first ground buses 28 ′ and second ground buses 30 ′ engage with each other. However, the two rows of the soldering portions 86 ′ and 50 ′ are respectively separated from each other and extend through the corresponding holes 96 ′ and 94 ′ defined in the PCBs 92 ′ and 90 ′. The first and second embodiments are for use in situations where the PCBs 90 and 92 are parallel to each other.
[0033] [0033]FIG. 10 is a third embodiment of the present invention, wherein the PCB 92 ″ engaging with the receptacle connector 4 ″ is perpendicular to two PCBs 90 ″ which each form part of a cable assembly (not labeled) terminated to the plug connector 2 ″. In this embodiment, each row of the signal contacts 8 ″ and the soldering portions 50 ″ of the second ground buses 30 ″ are soldered to one PCB 90 ″, and the two rows of the soldering portions 86 ″ of the first ground buses 28 ″ together extend through one row of corresponding holes 96 ″ in the PCB 92 ″.
[0034] [0034]FIG. 11 is a fourth embodiment of the present invention, wherein the plug connector 2 ′″ is configured as a right angle connector. When the plug connector 2 ′″ mates with the receptacle connector 4 ′″, the two rows of signal contacts 8 ′″ and the soldering portions 50 ′″ of the second ground buses 30 ′″ are soldered to both sides of the PCB 90 ′″ which connects perpendicular to the PCB 92 ′″.
[0035] [0035]FIG. 12 is a fifth embodiment of the present invention. When the plug connector 2 ″″ mates with the receptacle connector 4 ″″, the two rows of signal contacts 8 ″″ and signal terminals 26 ″″ engage with each other, and the soldering portions 50 ″″ and 86 ″″ of the second and first ground buses 30 ″″ and 28 ″″ are soldered to both sides of the respective PCBs 90 ″″ and 92 ″″.
[0036] It is to be understood, however, that even though numerous characteristics and advantages of the present invention have been set forth in the foregoing description, together with details of the structure and function of the invention, the disclosure is illustrative only, and changes may be made in detail, especially in matters of shape, size, and arrangement of parts within the principles of the invention to the full extent indicated by the broad general meaning of the terms in which the appended claims are expressed.
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An electrical connector assembly includes a receptacle connector and a mating plug connector. The receptacle connector has two rows of terminals, and a center internal wall with first ground buses disposed on opposite sides thereof. The plug connector has two rows of tongues with contacts and second ground buses respectively disposed on opposite outer and inner side surfaces thereof for engaging with the terminals and first ground buses. Each ground bus has two ribs for ensuring a reliable electrical connection. Adjacent tails of the first and second ground buses in a same row are spaced a distance larger than that between adjacent tails of the terminals and contacts in a same row, respectively.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a keyboard on which a number of switches are placed side by side. An object of the invention is to provide switches which can visibly display letters or symbols, printed on cards or the like disposed below the keyboard, whereby a push-button on a desired symbol is pushed so as to feed a signal into a computer which corresponds to the desired letter or symbol.
Recently, a keyboard for a system for viewing letters or symbols so as to operate a switch corresponding thereto has appeared for use as an input device for an office computer, the computer being usable by a person who is not a professional operator. A conventional example of a keyboard for the above use is to form electrodes made from NESA film on transparent glass, the electrodes being touched directly by operator's fingers so as to feed a signal; such a keyboard is deficient with respect to control touch because the operator taps the glass surface with his or her fingers at every operation. Another method is to place a flexible sheet bearing letters or symbols on a panel on which a number of opaque switches are arranged, the switches being pushed from above the sheet. This method, which always deforms the flexible sheet, creates a problem with respect to the lifetime of the flexible sheet or the defacement of the written letters. A further method is to provide the switch itself with a transparent window molded of a transparent acrylic resin, so that an operator views a card placed underneath the switch through the window and urges the window corresponding to the letters or symbols printed on the card, thereby generating the required signal. Since windows may have their transparency deteriorate due to a "sink mark" when the acrylic resin is molded, flaws produced in the window, etc.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention has been designed to provide a keyboard which is free from a deterioration in the operator's control touch, the cards bearing letters or symbols, or the transparency of the keyboard, thereby resulting in a keyboard which is superior in quality.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Next, an embodiment of the invention will be detailed in accordance with the drawings in which:
FIG. 1 is a perspective view in part of an embodiment of a keyboard of the invention;
FIG. 2 is an exploded view of a switch portion with element 5 omitted for simplicity;
FIGS. 3 and 4 are sectional views of a switch portion with element 5 omitted for simplicity;
FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a switch portion when urged, (element 5 being omitted for simplicity).
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
FIG. 1 is a perspective view in part of a keyboard having a number of switches and transparent windows.
On a transparent acrylic plate are printed window frames 1 in a latticework and in an opaque black color and a number of transparent windows 2 are formed thereon, a switch case 3 being fitted into a portion of the window frame 1 and comprising a key top 4. A contact member (not shown in FIG. 1) is housed within switch case 3 and a switch unit is turned on or off by urging the key top 4. A display member 5 bears the desired letters or symbols thereon; the letters or symbols are visible through the transparent windows 2. For example, when a signal corresponding to the letter C which is printed on the display member 5 is to be generated, a switch unit B' corresponding to a transparent window A' is urged so as to generate a signal corresponding to C.
Next, a construction of the keyboard will be described in accordance with FIG. 2. A bore 6 is provided at the center of plastic switch case 3 and houses contact member 7 and key top 4. The switch case 3 of the switch member is fitted into a bore 8 provided in the printed frame 1 of transparent acrylic latticework, so that a number of switch units corresponding to a number of transparent windows 2 are formed. Two legs 9 are formed below switch case 3, and fitted into two small bores 11 provided in a printed circuit substrate 10, and heat-sealed at the lower surface of printed substrate 10, so that the printed substrate 10 is integral with the transparent acrylic body and switch unit. The printed substrate 10 is provided with a bore 12 at a position corresponding to a transparent window 2, and printed circuit electrodes 13 are provided at a position corresponding to bore 8 of opaque latticework 1. In order to individually detect each signal at a number of switch units, the lead wires from electrodes 13 form matrix circuits (not shown) by the use of both surfaces of the latticework of the printed substrate 10.
The switch will be detailed in accordance with FIGS. 3, 4 and 5. Display member 5 has been omitted from these drawings for simplicity. FIG. 3 is a detail view of one switch in section taken on the line E-E' in FIG. 1. FIG. 4 is a side view of the FIG. 3 switch, and FIG. 5 is a view showing the FIG. 3 switch when urged for operation.
At the surface of a transparent acrylic plate 14 is printed the opaque latticework frame 1, and switch case 3 is fitted in the plate 14. The switch case 3 is cylindrical, and has at the upper edge a flange-shaped stepped portion 15, and is provided at the lower portion with legs 9, which are fitted into bores in the printed substrate 10 and heat-sealed so as to be deformed from a condition shown by the broken lines to that shown by the solid lines, the switch case 3 and printed substrate 10 fixedly sandwiching the transparent acrylic plate 14 therebetween.
A stepped portion 16 is formed at a portion of the inner periphery of switch case 3, and abuts against the lower end 17 of the key top 4 when urged, thereby restricting the movement of key top 4 when urged. Elastically deformable pawls 18, as shown in FIG. 4, are provided at portions on the side of the key top 4. The pawls 18, when the key top 4 is inserted into switch case 3, contact the inner wall of the switch case 3 so as to be inwardly deformed, and after the key top 4 is urged into a predetermined position, the pawls 18 enter into bores 19 at the side walls of switch 3 and are restored, thereby preventing the key top 4 from escaping from switch case 3. A conductive rubber block 20 is integral with an elastic member 21 so as to constitute a contact part. When no key top 4 is urged, the conductive rubber block 20, as shown in FIG. 3, is not in contact with the printed substrate 10, but, upon the urging of the key top 4, the elastic member 21, as shown in FIG. 5, is displaced so as to allow the conductive rubber block 20 to contact the electrode 13 on the printed substrate 10 so as to turn the switch unit on or off.
As seen from the aforesaid embodiment, this invention is characterized in that one transparent panel is printed in latticework to form a number of transparent windows, switch units are incorporated in the latticework, and wiring media having electrodes are disposed below the transparent panel, the transparent panel and switch units being integral with each other. Instead of the aforesaid method of heat-sealing the legs of the switch cases to the printed substrate, for example, a method of affixing the printed substrate to the transparent panel, or affixing the substrate to the panel by the use of fastening parts, such as screws, are proposed.
Next, the effect of the invention will be described.
While the conventional keyboard provides electrodes of NESA plates at transparent windows so that the electrodes are touched by an operator's finger so as to provide an input, this invention, which uses conductive rubber switch elements, displaces the key top during operation to facilitate the creation of the clicking feeling, thereby allowing the operator to actually feel his or her finger's urging touch. Furthermore, while the conventional windows are touched directly by the operator's finger, those of the present invention need not be touched during operation, thereby solving the problem of dirty windows or the creation of flaws during extended usage.
While the conventional keyboard has transparent windows molded from acrylic resin, this invention has the transparent acrylic panel printed in latticework of an opaque color to form a number of transparent windows, thereby eliminating the defects of a "sink mark" or weld produced during the resin molding, thus overcoming the problem of the distortion of the letters or symbols when viewed or the deterioration of the transparency of the windows.
Although the keyboard of the present invention is larger in area than conventional keyboards due to arrangement of a number of windows and switches on the panel, this invention assembles switch parts in the transparent panel and the switch units are secured thereto, so that even when the switch panel body is deformed by heat or being urged, the printed substrate is disposed always along the switch panel body, thereby eliminating the defect due to different clearances between the conductive rubber blocks and the electrodes on the printed substrate.
The legs of the switch cases molded from plastic are inserted into bores provided at the printed substrate and heat-sealed thereto, thereby facilitating an integral assembly of the switch panel body, the switch unit and the printed substrate. Such a construction insures that the key top never escapes from the switch case due to the entry of the elastically displaceable pawls at the key top into the bores at the side walls of switch case and such a construction is adopted to easily integrate the switch panel, the switch unit and the printed substrate, and to facilitate the assembly of a key top merely by pushing same into its bore at the switch case.
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A keyboard for inputting plural letters or symbols includes a number of switches, each of which has its associated letter or symbol displayed in a transparent window adjacent thereto. The keyboard is arranged such that a display card located beneath the transparent windows may be replaced so as to easily change the letters or symbols which are visible through the transparent windows.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to apparatus for terminating a plurality of subterranean cables at the entrance to a cable manhole formed of concrete and buried beneath the surface. Such manholes, though designed to be water resistant, eventually do develop leaks, typically in the wall through which the cables enter. In the replacement of such manhole walls, it is highly desireable to maintain the cables entering the manhole in position and in service. In manhole reconstruction the old wall is destroyed and the cable is temporarily supported by a combination of frameworks and wires between the manhole appearances and the splice box. Thereafter a new wall is constructed in place of the old wall. The sections of cable between manholes are protected by sections of split duct positioned about the cables. The split duct must be terminated at the new wall. According to the present invention, the split duct terminator modules are assembled about the cables in modular units and are thereafter joined together by a solvent cement. A coagulated mass is then formed within the framework constructed from the modules to permeate the entire structure of the interfacing split duct terminator modules. The structure formed receives the split duct sleeves positioned about the cables as they enter the manhole. This allows a new wall to be constructed about the cables without disconnecting the cables or otherwise interrupting service in them.
A very substantial part of the electrical communication network operated and owned by telephone and telegraph companies exists in the form of subterranean electrical signal cables lying beneath the ground. These subterranean cables each contain a great number of message conductors and are interconnected at central offices spaced at periodic intervals. Between the central offices, manholes are provided at intervals determined by the length of cable which can be conveniently and economically wound onto a reel. Access to the manholes is provided for purposes of maintenance, servicing and inspection. Between the manholes, sections of split duct are laid end to end in trenches and cables are drawn through the duct sections. The subterranean manholes are typically formed of concrete and are designed for permanent installation. However, over the years, shifting of the earth about the manholes, soil subsidence, temperature changes, and the formation of ice in crevices in the structure of the manholes all operate to cause damage to the manhole structure. The most frequent form of damage caused by these effects is degradation of service resulting from water leakage in the manholes. For these and other reasons, it is desirable to replace cracked, damaged, and otherwise substandard manholes by building upon the old structure to provide new water resistant manholes.
Because of the requirement for making manholes as water resistant as possible it has been necessary to develop a means of recasting a manhole wall without disconnecting from service or moving the cables that enter the manhole. The split duct terminator of this invention provides such a means.
As an incident of replacement, it is also frequently desireable to expand the area of the manhole both to allow sufficient room for ease of movement by individuals replacing the manhole so as to minimize the risk of damage to the cables appearing therein as well as to accommodate additional conduits or amplifier or repeater equipment which may be desired.
Extreme caution is required in order to replace a manhole without interrupting the service in the communications lines passing through it. Since the number of communications circuits accommodated by a single pair of wires has multiplied over the years, the disruption of communications which would result from the severance of a single cable containing a number of electrical connector pairs is very substantial.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a principal object of the invention to provide a duct terminator without requiring the removal or relocation of the cables which are maintained in service during the duct terminator construction. This is achieved with no interruption in service in the lines within the cables.
It is another object of the present invention to provide apparatus which may readily be maneuvered into position to immobilize subterranean conduits or ducts in a manhole and which, after positioning, may be united to form a cohesive structure which confines the ducts and cables carried therein in position relative to each other.
It is a further object of the invention to provide means useful in the replacement of subterranean manholes which may be employed to expand the perimeter of a manhole yet which at the same time will facilitate protection of the lengths of cable which are thereby exposed between the boundaries of the expanded vault and those of the original vault. A related object of the invention is the provision of apparatus for quickly securing split duct sections in place about the exposed cables to provide such protection and to prevent interruptions in service due to damage incurred in manhole reconstruction.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is an exploded perspective view of modular members of the terminator apparatus;
FIG. 2 is a front elevational view of the elements of FIG. 1 positioned adjacent to each other;
FIG. 3 is a side elevational sectional view of the cable entrance to a cable vault reconstructed using the apparatus of the present invention;
FIG. 4 is a side elevational view depicting the entrance of subterranean conduits into the composite split duct terminator structure; and
FIG. 5 is a sectional view taken along the lines 5--5 of FIG. 4.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
In one broad aspect, this invention is split duct terminator apparatus for terminating a plurality of subterranean cables comprising a plurality of modular members 15, 16 and 17 each including a pair of longitudinally extending opposing wall elements 30 and 35 and having at least one pair of mutually coextensive module interface edges 50 which lie in a common modular element interface plane that intersects the wall elements. The surfaces 33 lie in such a common interface plane between modules. A plurality of symmetrical, longitudinally spaced, parallel channel elements 51 extend between opposing wall elements 30 and 34. The edges 52 of the channel elements lie in the modular element interface plane to define a plurality of longitudinally spaced apart open channels 24 concave with respect to the modular element interface plane. The longitudinal spacing between channel elements defines symmetrical openings 31 therebetween. The disposition of modular members in face to face relationship positions the modular interface edges 50 of the wall elements of each member in mutual contact and the modular interface edges 52 of channel elements of each member in mutual contact. This composite framework created by the assembled modules 15, 16 and 17 has passageways 25 formed by adjacent channels 24 in the members which extend between the wall elements, and is employed in a manner hereinafter to be described.
In the reconstruction of a concrete manhole to remedy leaks therein, earth is first removed from atop a conventional plastic or ceramic cable guide adjacent to the old wall of the manhole. The cable guide normally defines an array of passageways of square or circular cross section which abut the old wall of the cable vault and extend laterally outward therefrom. Each of the passageways in the cable guide accommodates a single conduit. Once the earth is removed from atop one or more of the adjacent sections of the cable guide the cable is exposed by breaking the cable guide with care so as to avoid damage to the cables contained within the cable guide. At this point, in the reconstruction the cables are most vulnerable as they are unsheathed and unprotected. The bare cables are then supported and immobilized by means of frameworks and wires in order to hold the cables in position without disconnecting them or otherwise interrupting telephone service within them. The old wall through which the cables pass is then broken away with care. It is highly advantageous to erect protection for the cables rapidly and with as little manipulation as possible so that they may be continuously maintained in service. This is achieved with the apparatus of the present invention.
Once the cables have been exposed and the rubble of the old wall and broken cable guide have been removed, along with any earth that may have fallen in on the cables the reconstruction may proceed. Each of the modular split duct terminator members 15, 16 and 17 is separately maneuvered into place so that the cables 14 are encircled by passageways 25 formed by the channels 24 in the mating surfaces 33 of adjacent modular elements. Solvent cement is applied to the surfaces 33 and the modules are banded together with metal or plastic banding material 49. The banded structure 35 is then slid along the cables 14 into the position where the new wall is to be erected, as at the edge of concrete slab 12 in FIGS. 3 and 4. Split duct halves 20 and 21 can then be positioned about the cables 14 and slid toward the split duct terminator structure until they are seated in the cylindrical wall portions 6 of the passageways 25, preferably abutting gaskets 37 which have previously been inserted. The gaskets 37 may be in the form of a split rubber ring or a coating of sealer inserted into the annular space defined between the larger diameter portion of the passageway 25 and the conduits 14. This sealing means or gasket is compressed against the shoulder 27 by insertion into the cylinder 6 of the split duct halves 20 and 21. The split duct halves 20 and 21 are then secured to each other with metal or plastic banding material. Concrete in an uncured state is poured into the framework formed by the banded modules 15, 16 and 17. A concrete roof 11 is thereafter laid in position and tar or pitch 8 or other waterproofing material is calked into the cracks between the split duct terminator modules and the walls, floor and roof of the manhole.
The essence of the present invention is the provision of a split duct terminator which does not require the removal, relocation, disconnection or interruption of service to circuits in the cables 14 during manhole reconstruction. As was previously explained, one or more lengths of cable guide must be removed adjacent to the original wall of the manhole while the rest of the cable guide sections remain in place buried in the soil 19. The split duct sections 20 and 21 must be interfaced with the adjacent unbroken cable guide section.
Each of the members 15, 16 and 17 includes a pair of longitudinally extending opposing wall elements 30 and 34 having at least one pair of mutually coextensive module interface edges 50 which lie in a common modular element interface plane that intersects the wall elements. Each of the members 15, 16 and 17 also includes at least one lateral mating surface 33 positioned in face-to-face relationship with a lateral mating surface of an adjacent module at a modular element interface plane. Formed in the mating surfaces 33 are a plurality of symmetrical, longitudinally spaced parallel channel elements 51 defining a plurality of grooves or channels 24. These grooves or channels 24 are open and spaced apart longitudinally and are concave with respect to the modular element interface plane where adjacent mating surfaces 33 of adjacent modular members are positioned in face-to-face contact. The channel elements 51 defining the channels 24 extend between opposing wall elements 30 and 34 of each modular member.
As can be seen with reference to FIG. 1, the upper modular member 16 and and the lower modular member 17 include only a single mating surface 33. However the interior modular member 15 is constructed with two mating surfaces 33, one on the top and one on the bottom. Into each such surface a plurality of channel elements forms an array of grooves 24 as previously described. Preferably, as can be seen from FIG. 2, the distance D between the planar module interfaces 47 and 48 of the mating surfaces is equal to the spacing S of the grooves 24 in each of the arrays of grooves. Opposing wall elements 30 and 35 are perpendicular to the alignment of the grooves 24 and intersect the mating surface or surfaces 33 of the modular member with which they are associated at edges 50. The wall members 30 and 35 thereby extend at least from their juncture with the grooves 24 and terminate at either or both of the planar module interfaces 47 and 48 where the mating surfaces 33 of adjacent ones of the modular elements lie together in face-to-face relationship. The end surfaces 30 and 34 together form vertical walls 45 and 46, as indicated in FIG. 3, when a series of elements 15, 16 and 17 are positioned adjacent to each other as in FIG. 2. The longitudinal spacing between channel elements defines symmetrical openings therebetween. When in this position, with modular interface edges, such as the edges 50 of opposing wall elements 30 and 34, in mutual contact with modular interface edges 50 of the wall elements 30 and 34 of another modular member positioned together in mutual contact, a composite structure 35 is formed having passageways 25 formed by adjacent channel elements extending between the wall elements 30 and 34.
To position the modules of the split duct terminator apparatus about cables 14, the lower modular member 17 is maneuvered into place so that the cables 14 lying adjacent thereto pass through the grooves 24 in module 17. Thereafter, an interior module 15 is maneuvered into position so that the cables 14 in the lowest level of conduits are completely encircled in the passageways 25 and so that the grooves 24 on the upper surface of the modular member 15 are in position to receive the next row of laterally extending cables 14 at the next higher level. The composite structure 35 is thereby built up in this manner until all of the cables 14 in each vertical row of cables pass through passageways 25. The last modular member positioned in place is the upper member 16.
One further feature of the various modules 15, 16 and 17, which should be noted is the existence of apertures 31 which are defined in the portions of the mating surfaces 33 which are in mutual contact with adjacent portions 33 on adjacent modules. These apertures provide access to the interior of the modules. The channel elements, defining the channels 24, are uniformly spaced so that apertures 31 are defined therebetween. The apertures 31 of adjacent surfaces 33 provide a vertical path of communication within the structure 35. In addition to being aligned, the apertures or openings 31 in the mating surfaces 33 are divided into two classes. A first class of apertures 31 are those apertures located on the undersides of the various modular members 15 and 16. These apertures have in association therewith uniformly spaced alignment projections 32 which extend downwardly normal to the mating surface 33 from the underside of the modular elements 15 and 16. These projections 32 are in the form of lips or flanges which extend around the perimeters of the uniformly spaced openings 31. The projections 32 are received in the symmetrical openings 31 in other mating surfaces. The openings 31 which receive the projections 32 form the other class of apertures which are those apertures located on the upper surfaces of the modular members 15 and 17 at the mating surfaces 33. The projections 32 thereby facilitate the positioning of the various modular elements in alignment, as depicted in FIG. 5. While in this position with the cables 14 passing through the passageways 25, it can be seen that uncured concrete mix poured into the top of the composite structure 35, will pass down through the apertures 31 from the upper element 16 through the interior element 15 and down into the lower element 17. Thus, such concrete can permeate the entire structure 35 and when coagulated, bind the individual modular elements 15, 16 and 17 of the structure 35 together in a cohesive mass. As the concrete cures, it coagulates into a mass 18 that extends through the apertures 31 to the interior of all of the modules 15, 16 and 17. The concrete extends between the opposing vertical walls 45 and 46 formed by the wall elements 30 and 34 of the several modules to join the modules together and surround the passageways 25 formed by the structure.
Once the wall structure 35 has been built a concrete slab 11 covering up the manhole is laid in place as depicted in FIG. 3. This concrete slab 11 would typically have an opening for a manhole for access to the interior of the vault 9. A water tight seal of the new wall 35 is formed by calking the split duct terminator structure 35 with pitch or tar 8 where joints are formed with the slab 11, the floor 12 and the concrete walls of the manhole.
The foregoing detailed description of the manner of construction of the preferred form of the invention depicted has been described for purposes of illustration only, and no unnecessary limitations should be construed therefrom, since other modifications and embodiments will become readily apparent to those familiar with the field of the invention. For example, while but a single interior module 15 has been depicted, it is apparent that an additional interior module 15 will be required for each additional vertical row of conduits 14 that exist beyond those illustrated.
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Split duct terminator apparatus is provided at the cable entrance of a subterranean manhole for receiving a plurality of cables extending between subterranean manholes along a cable path carrying electrical signal conductors for the transmission of telecommunication messages. A plurality of modules are provided at the cable entrance to the manhole to encircle and immobilize a plurality of conduits or ducts carrying the cables which laterally enter the vault while the cables are maintained in position and in service. The modules are positioned about the plurality of cables at a working distance from a splice case. Split duct sections encircle the cables where the cables appear at the manhole, but the duct sections are terminated at the manhole walls. Once positioned about the duct sections containing the cables, the modules are joined together in a composite structure. A coagulated mass which permeates the structure binds the modules together.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] The present invention relates to a method, product and kit for accessorizing open sandals, and more particularly, to method of tying a scarf to a sandal, for example, a flip-flop, and a specialized scarf kit having directions for accessorizing the flip-flop or other suitably configured sandal.
[0002] Flip-flops are a well known and popular type of casual open-toed sandal comprising a generally flat sole and a generally Y-shaped strap, the base of which is fastened to the sole and passes between the first and second toes, and the upper part of the Y is positioned around either side of the foot and is attached to a rearward part of the sole. Use of flip-flops of this type dates back literally centuries.
[0003] Modern day flip-flops of conventional design are often relegated to casual settings and for use as beach wear. Worn alone they can be rather plain looking, and not make much of a fashion statement.
[0004] It would therefore be desirable to provide a method of accessorizing flip-flops or other open-toe sandals of similar structure, so as to improve and enhance an appearance of the sandal.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0005] It is an object of the invention to provide a method, product and kit which allows a user to easily and attractively accessorize a sandal, particularly, a flip-flop, which overcomes the drawbacks of the prior art.
[0006] Broadly stated, the invention utilizes a scarf of specialized dimension which is wrapped about the Y-shaped structural portion in a manner according to the invention, and then tied around the ankle or calf of a wearer and knotted, for example, in a tied bow. The invention is particularly well suited for use when traveling to warm climate vacation destinations, since luggage space is at a premium, and practice of the various embodiments of the invention permits a limited number of sandals, even only a single packed sandal or one acquired at the destination, to be accessorized with one or more scarf pairs to achieve a variety of different fashion looks and color coordination, while concomitantly conserving space in packed travel cases.
[0007] The above, and other objects, features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the following description read in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] FIG. 1 is schematic diagram illustrating a starting point in a method according to the invention;
[0009] FIG. 2 is a schematic diagram illustrating a subsequent progression in the method according to the invention;
[0010] FIG. 3 is a schematic diagram illustrating a completion of the method according to the invention;
[0011] FIG. 4A is a scarf having a shape of a parallelogram;
[0012] FIG. 4B is a scarf having a shape of a trapazoid;
[0013] FIG. 4C is a scarf having a shape tapering from lateral sides to respective ends;
[0014] FIG. 4D is a scarf having a shape of a diamond;
[0015] FIG. 4E is a scarf having a shape of a bow-tie; and
[0016] FIG. 4F is a scarf having a shape of a parallelogram with rounded sides;
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
[0017] Referring now to the figures, and in particular FIG. 1 , a flip-flop of conventional design is depicted, identified generally at numeral 10 . Flip-flop 10 includes a sole 1 and a generally Y-shaped strap, the base of which defines a toe separating portion 2 which is fastened to the sole at a forward position of the sole 1 and which passes between the first (big toe) and second toes, and an upper part of the Y-shaped strap which diverges from toe separating portion 2 which defines a right instep support 3 a and a left instep support 3 b is positioned around either side of the foot when worn and is attached to a rearward part of the sole 1 .
[0018] A scarf 4 , as exemplified in FIG. 1 as being of preferred dimension, as discussed more fully below, is used in the accessorizing process according to the invention. As shown in FIG. 1 , to begin an accessorizing process in accordance with an embodiment of the invention, scarf 4 is pulled through a space behind a rearward facing side of toe separating portion 2 , as shown, and then advantageously cris-crossed in front of the toe separating portion 2 , or otherwise looped or wound one or more times around separating portion, or anchored or demarcated by other suitable method or means, to thereby create a right scarf segment 4 a and a left scarf segment 4 b on either side thereof. Right scarf segment 4 a and left scarf segment 4 b are advantageously adjusted to be of approximately even lengths.
[0019] Right and left scarf segments 4 a, 4 b are then helically wound respectively around right instep support 1 a and a left instep support 1 b. It is deemed advantageous to practice of the invention, to wind the right scarf segment 4 a with a winding opposite to that of the left scarf segment 4 b, for example for purposes of achieving more esthetic symmetry and structural balance, and allow facilitated tying around the leg of a user, as explained below. In accordance with a particularly advantageous embodiment, the winding of the right instep support 3 a is carried out with a clockwise spiraling, while the winding of the left instep support 3 b is carried out with a counter-clockwise spiraling of the respective scarf segments 4 a, 4 b.
[0020] The accessorized flip-flop 10 is worn by a user by wrapping the ends of the end portions of the scarf segments 4 a, 4 b extending from the wrapped instep supports 3 a, 3 b around the ankle or calf of the wearer, and tying a suitable bow or knot 5 , or fastening together in any other desired manner, for example, with a clasp, engagement member or other attachment mechanism, etc.
[0021] Different style choices are achieved by the selected manner of wrapping of the ends of the end portions prior to fastening of the ends. For example, a “traditional” style is achieved by wrapping the ends around the back of the leg, crossing the ends in front of the leg and then bringing the ends again to the back and tying a knot or bow. For a “gladiator” style, the ends, for example, are initially crossed in front of the lower leg of the user, brought to the back, crossed again, brought to the front, again crossed, and tied in the back.
[0022] The scarfs used in carrying out embodiments of the method according to the invention are advantageously in an optional range of about 6″ wide to about 8″ wide and in another optional range of about 54″ long to about 60″ long. For example, for adult use, a suitable size scarf could measure about 8″×54″. Smaller sizes can be used for children or the same size scarf used for adults can simply be wrapped an extra time around the lower leg when used for children.
[0023] The scarf 4 is advantageously finished on all sides (for example by stitching) to prevent fraying. The fabric advantageously used to produce the scarf pairs for carrying out the method according to the invention is 30 D (denier) 100% velvet polyester chiffon.
[0024] While a shape of scarf 4 can simply be rectangular, the shape of the scarf according to the invention advantageously includes ends thereof which taper to a pointed angle. For example, as shown in FIG. 4A , a scarf 4 ′ is provided in a shape of a parallelogram. Alternatively, as shown in FIG. 4B , a scarf 4 ″ takes a trapezoidal shape. Also, a scarf 4 ′| can taper from both lateral sides as shown in FIG. 4C . Scarf 4 ′″″ includes diamond shaped configuration .
[0025] A bow-tie shaped scarf 4 ′″ is also contemplated, as depicted in FIG. 4E (i.e., tapering to a central region in addition to, or instead of, tapering to the ends). Curved, rather than angular tapering to the respective ends is also contemplated, as shown employed in scarf 4 ′″″ of FIG. 4F .
[0026] Having described preferred embodiments of the invention with reference to the accompanying drawings, it is to be understood that the invention is not limited to those precise embodiments, and that various changes and modifications may be effected therein by one skilled in the art without departing from the scope or spirit of the invention.
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A scarf of specialized dimension is helically wrapped about a Y-shaped structural portion of a sandal, and then tied around the ankle or calf of a wearer and knotted. The scarf is provided as part of at least one scarf pair for accessorizing a pair of sandals.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0001] 1. Field of the Invention
[0002] The present invention relates to plate heat exchanger and, more particularly, is concerned with a plate thereof having attachment holes and a seal thereof having nipples with cross sections different from the penetration cross section of the holes such that the nipples when inserted into the holes are not pressed about their entire circumference but only at spaced sites thereon at which the nipples project beyond the margin of the holes.
[0003] 2. Description of the Prior Art
[0004] Before the plates of a plate heat exchanger are suspended in a frame and pressed together to form a packet, seals are fixed in grooves which facilitates handling the plates during the assembly. A known manner of fastening the seals is adhering the seals in grooves by use of an adhesive means which for the sealing effect itself is irrelevant but rather the adhesive means serves for the correct fixing of the position of the seals on the plates. This adhesion technique has some disadvantages. For example, before the application of the adhesive means, the grooves must be cleaned of, for example, oil and fat residues in order for the adhesive effect not to be impaired. Subsequently the adhesive means itself must be applied. All of this is rather time-consuming. Problems are also encountered in the maintenance of plate heat exchangers when a seal needs to be replaced. For this purpose the old seal must be removed and subsequently the groove must be cleaned of the adhesive means. An inspection of the groove bottom and the seal is also only possible, for example after the cleaning work on the dismounted heat exchanger, if the adhesion connection is previously destroyed.
[0005] Due to these disadvantages and the fact that in some technical fields, such as for example in medicine and food, adhesive means are to be avoided as much as possible, plate heat exchangers have been developed in which the seals are fastened mechanically, thus without adhesive means, on the plates. One feasibility known in the relevant technology for adhesive means-free seal fastening is that elastic nipples or projections, integrally developed with the seals, are brought into press fit with associated holes or openings in the plates.
[0006] According to patent document Nos. GB 2 071 303 A, GB 2 075 656 A and EP 0 134 155 A1, the nipples should have over-dimensions relative to the holes such that they can readily be pressed into the holes and can be pulled out again. It is therein to ensure that the seal is fixed securely at the intended site. This solution entails problems since the nipples as well as the seal as cast parts are subject to tolerance fluctuations. If the radial over-dimension of the nipples is too large, they can only be pressed into the holes with difficulty or not at all. If this is, nevertheless, successful, the nipples tear off when the seal is removed, for example during inspection or cleaning work, such that the seal must be replaced by a new seal.
[0007] The problem of tolerances in the radial nipple dimensions is solved through a plate heat exchanger disclosed in patent document No. EP 0 039 229 A2. Here, the nipples are provided on webs disposed laterally to the seal and developed integrally with it, from which the nipples project downwardly. Through the webs extends a pocket hole into the nipples. To fasten the seal, the nipples are positioned above the holes on the plates which are associated with the nipples. Subsequently a pin or like tool is introduced into the pocket hole and the nipples are then stretched by pressure onto the pin such that they become significantly thinner and can be placed into the holes without any problems. After the removal of the pin the nipples contract again to their original dimension whereby the ends of the nipples inserted through the holes expand to form a head covering the hole from below. The seals are consequently fastened securely on the plates. Of disadvantage in this technique is that tools are necessary to press the nipples in the holes. Furthermore, during inspection or maintenance work requiring the removal of the seals, the above-described consequences occur, the tearing off of the nipples.
[0008] Lastly, patent document No. EP 0 123 379 B1 discloses a plate heat exchanger in which the seal is fastened on the plate by means of elastic projections integrally developed with it, which extend into associated openings in the groove bottom. The openings are developed such that they comprise an insertion and pull-out region into which the projections can freely be moved, and from which they can be moved out again, along the margin of the openings without force. From this region the projections can be moved into a blocking region of the openings, in which the motion of the projections into the openings, respectively out of them again, is counteracted by strong resistance by compression between the projections and the margins of the openings, wherein moving the projections from the insertion and pull-out position into the blocked position, and conversely, is possible due to the elasticity (resiliency) of the seal.
[0009] Consequently, a need exists for an innovation in a plate heat exchanger of the type described above which will overcome the aforementioned problems without introducing new problems in place thereof.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0010] The present invention overcomes the aforementioned problems in a plate heat exchanger by providing a simple solution for the mechanical fastening of the seals on the plates, which solution nevertheless permits a secure hold of the seals on the plates and also a problem-free removal of the seals from the plates. Specifically, each plate has attachment holes and each seal on a given plate has nipples projecting therefrom with cross-sections different from the penetration cross section of the holes such that the nipples when inserted into the holes are not pressed about their entire circumference but only at spaced sites thereon at which the nipples project beyond the margin of the holes. Since the cross-sections of the nipples are smaller than the penetration area of the holes, at other sites there is still clearance between the circumference of the nipples and the margin of the holes. Due to the elasticity of the nipples, their compressed material can expand into these free volumes, which leads to a decrease of the compression and consequently facilitates pressing the nipples into the holes. Through this displacement mechanism overtolerance in the radial dimensions of the nipples is extremely well compensated or, expressed differently, it is possible to work with relatively greater radial overdimensions than is possible with the prior art.
[0011] Accordingly, the present invention is directed to a plate heat exchanger which comprises: (a) a plurality of adjoining plates disposed adjacent one another so as to form a packet, the plates having peripheral grooves and a plurality of channels alternately for media giving off heat and absorbing heat, and inlet and outlet openings for passage of the media through the channels between the adjoining plates; (b) a plurality of seals made of elastic material, each of the seals being emplaced between the adjoining plates in the groove of one of the adjoining plates; and (c) means for mechanically fastening each of the seals on one of the plates. The fastening means includes a plurality of attachment holes defined in each of the plates and a plurality of nipples made of elastic material and being insertable in the holes, the nipples being integrally formed on each of the seals at intervals spaced longitudinally along the seal, the nipples having cross sections different from penetration cross sections of the holes such that the nipples when inserted into the holes are not compressed about the entire circumference of the nipples but only at spaced sites thereon at which the nipples project beyond margins of the holes such that due to the elastic material the nipples can compress radially and axially so as to permit the pressing-in and pulling-out of the nipples into or out of the holes.
[0012] More particularly, the nipples have one of a polygonal and circular cross section and the holes have the other of the polygonal and circular cross section. The margins of the holes are provided as annular downturned edges pointing in the direction of insertion of the nipples into the holes. This forming of the holes has various advantages. Thus, for one, the contact area between nipple and hole is increased. Thereby, the radial overdimension of the nipples required according to the prior art can be decreased while maintaining a secure hold of the seal. This permits the nipples to be pressed into and pulled out of the holes more readily. For another, the immersion of the nipples into the holes is facilitated since the ends of the nipples when they are inserted into the holes run against an encompassing radius on the margin of the holes. This radius also permits providing a radius at the transition from nipple to seal. This, for one, has advantages with respect to fabrication engineering during the production of the seal and, for another, it reduces the danger of the nipples being sheared off at this site during movements of the plates.
[0013] The tips of the nipples have truncated conical shapes which facilitates inserting the nipples into the holes. Preferably, each of the nipples has a trigonal cross-sectional configuration and each of the holes has a circular configuration. Further, each of the nipples has three edges circumferentially spaced apart and rounded off.
[0014] These and other features and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon a reading of the following detailed description when taken in conjunction with the drawings wherein there is shown and described an illustrative embodiment of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0015] In the following detailed description, reference will be made to the attached drawings in which:
[0016] [0016]FIG. 1 is a schematic top plan view of a plate heat exchanger showing a plate according to the invention.
[0017] [0017]FIG. 2 is an enlarged fragmentary perspective view of a margin region of the plate with an emplaced seal.
[0018] [0018]FIG. 3 is an enlarged sectional view taken along line A-A of FIG. 2 showing a second plate with the first plate and the inserted seals thereon.
[0019] [0019]FIG. 4 is another enlarged sectional view taken along line B-B of FIG. 2 showing the first and second plate and inserted seals.
[0020] [0020]FIG. 5 is still another enlarged sectional view taken along line C-C of FIG. 2, extending substantially perpendicular to the sectional views of FIGS. 3 and 4, showing the first and second plates and inserted seals.
[0021] [0021]FIG. 6 is an enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line D-D of FIG. 5.
[0022] [0022]FIG. 7 is another enlarged cross-sectional view taken along line E-E of FIG. 5.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0023] Referring to the drawings and particularly to FIG. 1, there is schematically illustrated a plate heat exchanger of the present invention having a plate 1 with a heat exchange area 2 which is framed by a seal 4 placed into a peripheral groove 3 and comprised of a synthetic rubber or another elastic sealing material. The plate 1 can be in the form of a sheet metal slab. At the corners of the plate 1 are provided inlet and outlet openings 5 , 6 , 7 , 8 for the heat exchange media. While in the depicted plate 1 the inlet and outlet openings 5 , 6 are encompassed by the seal 4 , the seals and plates disposed in front and behind plate 1 which encompass the inlet and outlet openings 7 , 8 are now shown in FIG. 1. In such manner, the plates and seals are bundled into a packet such that alternately flow channels are formed for a medium giving off heat and a medium absorbing heat. The plate heat exchanger described thus far corresponds to the structure known from the prior art and therefore does not require further explanations.
[0024] Referring to the margin section of the plate 1 shown in FIG. 2, the seal 4 is shown fixed in the groove 3 without using any adhesive means. A second plate 1 ′, depicted in FIGS. 3 - 5 , has been omitted in FIG. 2 for reasons of clarity. For this purpose, on the side of the plate 1 facing away from the heat exchange area 2 , there is provided a plurality of retaining parts 9 (only one shown) associated with the groove 3 and integrally formed with the seal 4 . The retaining parts 9 are disposed at suitable intervals from one another on the circumference of the seal 4 and project laterally therefrom.
[0025] As is evident in FIGS. 2 - 4 , the groove 3 is formed by an inner side wall 10 extending downwardly from the level of the heat exchange area 2 , an outer side wall 12 extending upwardly again to the level of the heat exchange area 2 and a groove bottom 11 extending between and interconnecting the inner and outer side walls 10 , 12 . The outer side wall 12 is adjoined by a plate margin 13 . This plate margin 13 is not at one level but rather is formed by channels 14 and 15 alternately opening upwardly and downwardly as well as outwardly and having the form of a trapezoid in cross section. Channels 14 have bottoms 16 at the level of the groove bottom 11 and channels 15 have bottoms 17 at the level of the heat exchange area 2 so as to form the plate margin 13 with a “corrugation” configuration. The channels 14 define troughs which are closed by front walls 18 adjacent to the groove 3 . Bridges 19 are provided between the front walls 18 of channels 14 and the outer side wall 12 of the groove 3 . The spaces 20 formed underneath these bridges 19 connect the channels 15 which extend up to the outer side wall 12 of groove 3 on the underside of plate 1 .
[0026] Each retaining part 9 takes the form of a generally U-shaped web 21 which extends into two adjacent channels 14 and a channel 15 disposed inbetween. The web 21 is integrally connected with seal 4 along the entire width of the web 21 extending along the groove 3 . As seen in FIGS. 3 and 4, the thickness of the web 21 is less in an intermediate portion 24 of the web 21 which overlies a region of bottom 17 of channel 15 adjacent to the channel 3 than in a bight portion 23 of the web 21 which overlies the bridges 19 between the two channels 14 and the outer side wall 12 of the groove 3 such that the web 21 is thereby reinforced at the end portion 23 . In order to receive this reinforced bight portion 23 of the web 21 , bridge 19 . 1 of channels 14 into which each retaining part 9 extends is provided, in comparison to the remaining bridges 19 , are indented downwardly by the magnitude of the reinforcement provided by bight portion 23 such that the bridges 19 . 1 formed thereby have a lesser height above bottoms 16 of channels 14 than do the bridges 19 .
[0027] Also, adjoining opposite ends of and extending transversely to the bight portion 23 of web 21 of each retaining part 9 is a pair of end extension portions 22 which extending away from the seal 4 and groove 3 with the channels 14 of the plate margin 13 . The intermediate portion 24 , adjacent to and connected with the bight portion 23 , also extends between and interconnects the extension portions 22 .
[0028] As seen in FIGS. 3 - 5 , when installed the end extension portions 22 lie within the associated channels 14 , while the intermediate portion 24 rests on the bottom 17 of the channel 15 disposed inbetween. As is evident in particular in FIG. 5, the cross sections of the extension portions 22 are selected such that they fill completely the hexagonal cross section formed by the channels 14 of plate 1 and the channels 15 of plate 1 ′ being superimposed on the plate 1 . In other words, the extension portions 22 are in contact form fittingly in the associated channels 14 and 15 of respective plates 1 , 1 ′ facing one another. Since the channels 14 , 15 are open toward the outside, and thus toward the environment, the retaining parts 9 can expand in this direction, whereby thermal and mechanical stresses are reduced and thus deformations of the plate margin 18 are avoided.
[0029] [0029]FIGS. 3 and 5 together show that the bottom 16 of channel 14 of plate 1 ′ which is disposed above the intermediate portion 24 of web 21 , is raised in its rear region by the thickness of the intermediate portion 24 such that it conforms from above to the presence of the intermediate portion 24 of the web 21 . It can also be seen in FIG. 3 that the transverse bight portion 23 , after assembly, substantially fills the space 20 under bridge 19 of overlying plate 1 ′.
[0030] The above-described form-fit development of the retaining parts 9 with the plates 1 , 1 ′ covering the parts 9 , stabilizes the orientation of the plates 1 , 1 ′ in the plate packet of the plate heat exchanger and prevents, or reduces, in cooperation with conventional metal guidance elements developed on the plates, movements of the plates 1 , 1 ′ in the plate plane, during operation of the plate heat exchanger, due to the internal pressure of the heat exchange media.
[0031] Since the retaining parts 9 and thus also seal 4 in the embodiment described so far rest only loosely on plate 1 , measures for fastening must be taken in order for the seal 4 to be reliably fixed in the groove 3 to enable handling the plates during the assembly of the plate heat exchanger. For this purpose, a nipple 24 , integrally formed with each retaining part 9 , is provided, which projects downwardly and, with the seal 4 mounted in the groove 3 , projects through a circular attachment hole 26 formed in plate 1 . The margin of the hole 26 is developed as a draw-through feature having an annular downturned edge 27 pointing in the direction of insertion of the nipple 25 . The radius of the annular downturned edge 27 facilitates inserting the nipple 25 into the hole 26 . The transition of the nipple 25 to the intermediate portion 24 of the web 21 can simultaneously also be implemented with this radius. This provision of a radius on the downturned edge 27 about the margin of the hole 26 prevents, for one, the shearing forces acting on the nipple 25 by the margin of the hole 26 and facilitates, for another, the production of the nipple 25 since radii can be realized more readily in a casting mold. To further facilitate the insertion into the hole 26 , the tip of the nipple 25 is provided in the configuration of a truncated cone.
[0032] Referring to FIGS. 6 and 7, furthermore in contrast to the circular cross-sectional configuration of the hole 26 , the nipple 25 has a trigonal cross-sectional configuration. The three edges 29 of the trigonal cross-sectional configuration of the nipple 25 are rounded off, as most clearly seen in FIG. 6. In FIG. 6, a circle 28 enveloping the cross-section of the nipple 25 is drawn in. Diameter D 1 of the circle 28 shown in FIG. 6 is greater than the inner diameter D 1 of the hole 26 shown in FIG. 7. But simultaneously the cross-sectional area of nipple 25 is smaller than the penetration cross section of the hole 26 .
[0033] If, during the mounting of seal 4 , the nipple 25 is pressed into hole 26 , the nipple 25 becomes centered due to its conical tip and the radius of the downturned edge 27 of the hole margin itself. Simultaneously, the penetration of the nipple 25 into hole 26 is facilitated. When the nipple 25 is pressed in further, its material is compressed at the positions projecting over the inner diameter of the hole 26 , which, in this case, are the rounded-off edges 29 of the nipple 25 . But, due to its elasticity it can expand into the free volumes between the cross-section of nipple 25 and the downturned edge 27 of the hole 26 . In FIG. 7, these free volumes are identified with the reference numeral 30 . Since the material of nipple 25 thus has radial and axial freedom of flow, the pressing-in and pulling-out of nipple 25 into or out of the hole 26 is facilitated. Simultaneously the required clamp-fit of nipple 25 in hole 26 is ensured, which is even further improved due to the greater inner wall area of hole 26 provided by the downturned edge 27 .
[0034] In implementing the invention, either the holes 26 can have a circular or polygonal penetration cross-sectional shape and the nipples 25 vice versa.
[0035] It is thought that the present invention and its advantages will be understood from the foregoing description and it will be apparent that various changes may be made thereto without departing from the spirit and scope of the invention or sacrificing all of its material advantages, the form(s) hereinbefore described being merely preferred or exemplary embodiment(s) thereof.
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A plate heat exchanger including adjoining plates disposed adjacent one another and having peripheral grooves and channels alternately for media giving off heat and absorbing heat, seals made of an elastic material each being emplaced between the adjoining plates in the groove of one of the plates, attachment holes in each plate, and nipples on each seal insertable in the holes and with cross-sections different from the penetration cross-sections of the holes such that the nipples when inserted into the holes are not compressed about their entire circumference but only at spaced sites thereon at which the nipples project beyond the margin of the holes. The holes are defined by downturned edges which have radii and point in the insertion direction of the nipples into the holes.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to an altitude compensation apparatus for a carburetor to be connected to the main body of a bleed air compensation apparatus which includes passages having set throttles and communicated with a primary main air bleed port and a slow air bleed port disposed in the fuel passage of the carburetor of a car engine, and bellows containing air so that additional bleed air is supplied to cope with the lean air at high altitudes. More particularly, the present invention relates to an altitude compensation apparatus for a carburetor having a construction in which operation rods are fitted to the bellows of the main body of said compensation apparatus; a plurality of flow rate control valves are opened and closed by a vacuum corresponding to the altitude; the passage is opened and closed by the flow rate control valves; and thermosensitive operation valves for sensing when the engine is cold and after it has warmed up are interposed in auxiliary passages branched from the passage so as to ensure an increased air bleed quantity in driving with the engine being yet cold.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As is well known, a car is very mobile and can move from low altitudes such as along coastal regions to high altitudes such as in the mountains. Hence, the air density in the air-fuel mixture supplied by a carburetor to the engine is likely to become rich due to the pressure change when the car moves from low to high altitudes. In other words, the air-fuel ratio becomes lower in the highlands than in the lowlands.
Accordingly, an altitude compensation apparatus is generally disposed in order to provide a constant air-fuel ratio and ensure stable engine operation irrespective of the altitude difference (pressure difference).
The conventional altitude compensation apparatus 1 will be briefly described with reference to FIG. 1. The bellows 2, into which the set reference atmospheric pressure is sealed, are disposed inside the casing 4 of the main body of the compensation apparatus and detect the pressure change due to the altitude difference. The bellows 2 contract at low altitudes and a fixed valve 6 which is integral with the bellows closes a bleed port 5, thereby cutting off the air from an air filter 7. Accordingly, the bleed air is not delivered to passages 16 and 17 that have fixed throttles 14 and 15 and are communicated with a primary main air bleed 10 of the fuel passage 9 of the carburetor 8, a primary main air bleed port 12 of a slow air bleed port 11, and a slow air bleed port 13 so that the air-fuel mixture is distributed at a set air-fuel ratio to each cylinder via an intake manifold 18. In high altitudes, on the other hand, the bellows 2 expands and the fixed valve 6 opens the bleed port 5 so that air from the air filter 7 is delivered to the primary main air bleed port 10 and the slow air bleed port 11 through the passages 16 and 17. Thus, the quantity of bleed air is increased from that in low altitudes while the quantity of fuel is decreased, thereby preventing the air-fuel ratio from becoming over-rich in at high altitudes.
In the conventional altitude compensation apparatus 1 described above, however, the throttles 14 and 15 are disposed in such a manner that the quantity of bleed air is controlled in accordance with the pressure difference resulting from the altitude difference, irrespective of the engine temperature. Accordingly, if the engine operates suitably after it is warmed-up, the quantity of bleed air is likely to be insufficient when the engine is cold because the choke is cold, the air-fuel ratio is too rich and the like. Especially when the engine is cold at higher altitudes, the air-fuel ratio is most likely to be too rich so that driving performance deteriorates, and the exhaust gas is insufficiently processed and purified.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
It is a first object of the present invention to provide an altitude compensation apparatus to be mounted on the carburetor which eliminates the problem with the prior art in that the bleed air is likely to be insufficient when the engine is cold at high altitudes.
It is a second object of the present invention to provide an altitude compensation apparatus in which auxiliary passages equipped with thermosensitive operation valves are disposed in passages with fixed throttles for setting the quantity of bleed air after the engine is warmed up to be communicated with the air bleed ports of the intake system of the carburetor; flow rate control valves are disposed in the auxiliary passages so that the altitude can be compensate for by bellows charged with atmospheric pressure; and flow rate control valves or vacuum control change-over valves are communicated with the auxiliary passages in order to promote the air bleed step-wise or without steps in cold operation at high altitudes.
In short, the present invention is directed to provide an excellent altitude compensation apparatus for carburetors, that can be advantageously utilized in carburetors in the automobile industry.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a sectional view of the conventional altitude compensation apparatus;
FIG. 2 is a sectional view of a first embodiment of the present invention;
FIG. 3 is a sectional view of the thermosensitive operation valve of the first embodiment after engine warm-up;
FIG. 4 is a diagram showing the air bleed characteristics of the first embodiment;
FIG. 5 is a sectional view of a second embodiment and corresponds to FIG. 2;
FIG. 6 is a diagram of the air bleed characteristics of the second embodiment;
FIG. 7 is a sectional view of a third embodiment;
FIG. 8 is a diagram of the air bleed characteristics of the third embodiment;
FIG. 9 is a sectional view of a fourth embodiment; and
FIG. 10 is a sectional view of a fifth embodiment.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Hereinafter, the preferred embodiments of the present invention will be described with reference to FIGS. 2 through 10, in which the same reference numerals are used to identify the same elements shown in FIG. 1.
In the first embodiment shown in FIGS. 2, 3 and 4, reference numeral 1' represents the altitude compensation apparatus in accordance with the first embodiment of the present invention. Air filters 7, 7 are disposed on a casing 4' of the main frame 3' of the altitude compensation apparatus mounted on the carburetor 8 and are communicated with the atmosphere. Bellows 2, into which the reference atmospheric pressure is charged, are disposed inside the casing 4'. The base portion of the bellows is fixed while the tip is equipped with operation rods 81, 82, 83, 84 that are integrally formed with and fixed to the tip so as to confront bleed ports 51, 52, 53, 54 of valve chambers 71, 72, 73, 74 defined by partition walls 19, 19 . . . , respectively, and have the same length.
Lead valves 61, 62, 63, 64 are fixed by screws to the bleed ports 51, 52, 53, 54, respectively, and function as flow control valves of an elastic sheet opening and closing on the side opposite to the bellows 2. These valves are continuously opened by the corresponding operation rods 81, 82, 83, 84 and are closed by spring-back.
Fixed throttles 14 and 15 for limiting the maximum flow rate are inserted in passages 16 and 17 communicating between the primary main air bleed port 12 of the primary main air bleed 10 of the fuel passage 9 of the known carburetor 8 and the valve chamber 71, and between the slow air bleed port 13 of the slow air bleed 11 of the fuel passage 9 and the valve chamber 72, respectively. Auxiliary passages 22 and 23 are branched from trident branch joints 20 and 21 of passages 16 and 17 and are connected to valve chambers 73, 74, respectively. The auxiliary passages 22 and 23 have throttles 24 and 25 for restricting the maximum flow rate and bimetal-type thermosensitive operation valves 26 and 27 are inserted into these passages.
Incidentally, the abovementioned fixed throttles 14, 15 and throttles 24, 25 need not be necessary, depending upon the design of the apparatus.
The thermosensitive operation valves 26 and 27 are constructed in such a manner as to automatically open the auxiliary passages 22 and 23 in response to the temperature when the engine cooling water temperature is below a set temperature (when the engine is cold), as shown in FIGS. 2 and 3, for example.
When the temperature is higher than the set temperature or when the engine is warmed up, the valves cut off the auxiliary passages 22 and 23.
In the above-mentioned construction, the bellows 2 is contracted at low altitude so that all the operation rods 81 through 84 are kept drawn back and all the lead valves 61 through 64 close the bleed ports 51 through 54 of the main body 3' of the compensation apparatus by spring-back. Accordingly, the altitude compensation apparatus 1' does not send the bleed air to the main air bleed port 12 and slow air bleed port 13 of the carburetor 8 whether the engine is warm or cold. Hence, the engine is operated at the set air-fuel ratio for low altitude and drivability as well as processing of the exhaust gas becomes stable.
On the other hand, when the car moves to higher altitudes, the bellows 2 expands in response to the altitude, or in response to the low pressure at the high place, and its operation rods 81 through 84 continuously push and open the lead valves 61 through 64 and determine the open area of the passages 16 and 17 by means of the lead valves 61 through 64 and the bleed ports 51 through 54, though the engine is hot.
Since the thermosensitive valves 26 and 27 close the passages 22 and 23 after the engine is warmed up, the air is bled in a flow rate corresponding substantially to the open area of the bleed ports 51 and 52.
The thermosensitive valves 26 and 27 open the auxiliary passages 22 and 23 as shown in FIG. 3 when the engine is cold, at a temperature below the set temperature, and the air is increased in an amount corresponding to the increment of the bleed air fed from the main body 3' of the compensation apparatus via the bleed ports 53 and 54, thereby compensating for the closing of the choke due to the cold and setting the air-fuel ratio to the set cold air-fuel ratio. Hence, the air-fuel ratio does not become over-rich and the engine can be stably driven cold and the exhaust gas can be stably treated.
FIG. 4 shows the characteristics of the quantity of bleed air. The altitude L is plotted on the abscissa and the bleed air quantity Q is plotted, on the ordinate. After the engine is warmed up, the characteristics become such as represented by P1, and when the engine is cold the characteristics are such as represented by P2. In other words, air bleed characteristics having an increment ΔQ can be obtained.
In this manner, the engine can be driven cold, and the engine warm-up proceeds. When the set temperature is reached, or driving shifts to driving with the hot engine, the thermosensitive operation valves 26 and 27 assume the state shown in FIG. 2 and cut off the auxiliary passages 22 and 23. Accordingly, even when the lead valves 63 and 64 are open, no bleed air is applied to these passages and the air bleed characteristics shift to P1 of FIG. 4 so that the air bleed for high altitudes after the engine is warmed up is in effect, and both drivability and treatment of the exhaust gas are stable.
In the altitude compensation apparatus 1" in the second embodiment of the invention shown in FIGS. 5 and 6, the operation rods 83' and 84', which have the same length, for lead valves 63 and 64 opposing the auxiliary passages 22 and 23 are shorter by Δh than the operation rods 81 and 82, which have the same length, for the lead valves 61 and 62 for the passages 16 and 17 so that the degree of altitude compensation in driving with the engine cold becomes higher by L' than the ordinary degree of altitude compensation, as shown in FIG. 6. The design may be modified by lowering the corresponding valves 63 and 64 together with their valve seats.
In the third embodiment of the invention shown in FIGS. 7 and 8, the altitude compensation apparatus 1'" has operation rods 81 and 82 for the lead valves 61 and 62 of the valve chambers 71 and 72 connected to the passages 16 and 17 for the primary main air bleed port 12 and to the slow air bleed port 13 of the carburetor 8, respectively. The apparatus 1'" also has the operation rod 80 anchored from below to the upper lead valve 60 for opening and closing the communication port 50 interposed between an atmospheric chamber 70 and a vacuum chamber 70'.
The vacuum chamber 70' is communicated with intake manifold 18 downstream of the carburetor 8 by a vacuum passage 29 having a check valve 28, via the trident branch joint 20'. It is also communicated with a vacuum chamber 33, which is defined by a diaphragm 32 and a spring 31 of a vacuum control change-over valve 30, via vacuum passage 29'. The thermosensitive operation valve 26 is interposed at an intermediate portion of passage 29'.
The auxiliary passages 22 and 23 are communicated with passages 16 and 17 via the throttles 24 and 25, respectively, and are communicated with the air filter 7 via the above-mentioned vacuum control change-over valve 30.
The vacuum control change-over valve 30 includes control chambers 34 and 35, and their ports 36 and 37 are opened and closed by switch valves 38 and 39 that are integral with the diaphragm 32.
Reference numeral 40 represents the throttle of the vacuum passage 29.
In this embodiment, the bellows 2 contracts when the engine is started cold at a low altitude The lead valves 61 and 62 close the bleed ports 51 and 52, and the operation rod 80 pulls up the lead valve 60 to open the communication port 50. Thus, the vacuum passage 29 is communicated with the atmospheric chamber 70 via the communication port 50, and the vacuum of the intake manifold 18 does not act upon the vacuum chamber 33 of the vacuum control chamber-over valve 30. Consequently, the diaphragm 32 is pushed by the spring 31 and pushes in turn the valves 38 and 39, thereby closing the ports 36 and 37.
After the engine has warmed up, the auxiliary passage 22 is closed by the thermosensitive operation valve 26, and the spring 31 keeps pushing the switch valves 38 and 39, while keeping the ports 36 and 37 closed.
Whether the engine is cold or warmed up, therefore, bleed air is not delivered to the primary main air bleed port 12 and to the slow air bleed passage 13 and the drivability as well as the treatment of exhaust gas are both stable with the air-fuel ratio set for low altitudes.
When the car moves to a higher altitude, the bellows 2 expands and the operation rods 80, 81 and 82 lower in proportion to the altitude. Consequently, the lead valve 60 of the vacuum chamber 70' is closed and the lead valves 61 and 62 open the bleed ports 51 and 52. As a result, bleed air is delivered to the primary main air bleed port 12 and to the slow air bleed port 13 with the characteristics P1 of FIG. 8.
On the other hand, the vacuum from the intake manifold also acts upon the vacuum chamber 70' of the main body 3" of the compensation apparatus via the check valve 28, but since the vacuum chamber 70' is cut off from the atmospheric chamber by the lead valve 60, the vacuum reaches the thermosensitive operation valve 26 via the vacuum passage 29'.
While the engine is cold, the passage of the thermosensitive operation valve 26 is kept open. Hence, the vacuum acts upon the vacuum chamber 33 of the vacuum control change-over valve 30 and the diaphragm valve 32 is drawn and lowered against the force of the spring 31 so that the switch valves 38 and 39, that are integral with the diaphragm 32, are opened.
As a result, the auxiliary passages 22 and 23 are fully open and bleed air is supplied from the filter 7 and joins the bleed air to be fed to the passages 16 and 17 from the main body 3" of the compensation apparatus, thereby increasing the quantity of air as represented by P2" in FIG. 8. Hence, the air-fuel ratio does not become rich even when the engine is driven cold, and drivability and treatment of exhaust gas can be stabilized.
When the engine warms up, the thermosensitive operation valve 26 closes in the above-mentioned manner and cuts off the introduction of the vacuum to the vacuum control change-over valve 30. The ports 36 and 37 are closed to cut off the communication between the auxiliary passages 22, 23 and the air filter 7, cutting off the feed of bleed air to the auxiliary passages and ensuring stability of drivability when the engine is warm, and stable treatment of exhaust gas.
The throttle 41 of the vacuum chamber 33 is set to be sufficiently smaller than the throttle 40. The throttle 41 operates in such a manner that when the vacuum is fed to the vacuum chamber when the engine is cold, it minimizes the influences that would reduce the vacuum, and after the engine warms up, it plays the role of bleeding the vacuum to the atmosphere lest the thermosensitive operation valve should close the vacuum chamber with the vacuum remaining inside.
In the fourth embodiment of the present invention, a diaphragm valve 612 having a return spring 311 is disposed inside the casing 4'" of the main body 3'" of the compensation apparatus and is normally seated on and sealing the inlet of a connection passage 167 of the passages 16 and 17 having the fixed throttles 14 and 15 for determining the set air bleed quantity at the ports 12 and 13 of the main air bleed port 10 and slow air bleed port 11 as the intake system of the fuel passage 9 of the carburetor 8.
The vacuum chamber 712 of the diaphragm valve 612 is communicated with the intake manifold 18 of the carburetor 8 by the control passage 29 having the throttle 40 and the check valve 28 interposed in the passage.
The bellows 2, which is disposed in the air filter 7 of the casing 4'" and charged with the set atmospheric pressure, is set in such a fashion as to close the intake port 512 of the diaphragm valve 612 below the set pressure.
In addition to the abovementioned construction, this embodiment also includes the thermosensitive operation valves 26 and 27 of the bimetal sensor-type. These valves are exposed to engine cooling water and are disposed in the auxiliary passages 22 and 23 that are branched downstream and upstream of the fixed throttles 14 and 15, which operate after the engine warms up. The apparatus also includes the throttles 24 and 25 for when the engine is driven cold.
In the abovementioned construction, when the engine is warmed up, the thermosensitive operation valves 26 and 27 sense the temperature rise of the water and cut off the auxiliary passages 22 and 23 so that only the passages 16 and 17 function as the air bleed passages. At low altitudes, the bellows 2 is contracted, the diaphragm valve 612 is pushed by the return spring 311 to close the inlet of the passage 167, and the intake port 512 is open. The intake manifold vacuum is sucked through the control passage 29 into the atmosphere via the air filter 7. Accordingly, no compensation air bleed is applied to the intake system and the engine can be driven at the set air-fuel ratio.
On the other hand, when the car moves toward higher altitudes and the atmospheric pressure drops below the set pressure, the bellows 2 expands to close the intake port 512 and the intake manifold vacuum acts upon the vacuum chamber 712. The diaphragm valve 612 is then pulled against the return spring 311 and the inlet of the passage 167 is opened and atmospheric air from the air filter 7 is supplied to the main air bleed port 12 and to the slow air bleed port 13 through the throttles 14 and 15, thereby bleeding air corresponding to the pressure difference with respect to the atmospheric pressure at low altitude and preventing the air-fuel ratio from becoming over-rich. Accordingly, both drivability and the treatment of exhaust gas can be stabilized.
When the car is driven while the engine is cold at a high altitude, the thermosensitive operation valves 26 and 27 sense the cooling state of the engine and open the auxiliary passages 22 and 23. Because the pressure is low in driving while the engine is cold, the bellows 2 close the intake port 512 and the diaphragm valve 612 opens the inlet of the passage 167 by means of the intake manifold vacuum simultaneously with cranking. The air from the air filter 7 is fed from the passage 167 to the passages 16 and 17 and also to the branch auxiliary passages 22 and 23 and passes through the fixed throttles 14, 15 and 24, 25. Accordingly, the bleed air is supplied in a set quantity which is greater by the quantity determined by the latter valves 24, 25 than in the case of driving with the engine warm. For this reason, the air-fuel ratio in driving with the engine cold is prevented from becoming rich and the engine is driven at the set air-fuel ratio. Hence, both drivability and treatment of exhaust gas can be stabilized as originally designed.
As the engine is gradually warmed up, the thermosensitive operation valves 26 and 27 sense the temperature rise and close the auxiliary passages 22 and 23, thereby cutting off the air bled through throttles 24 and 25. Hence, the air bleed shifts to the set air bleed quantity by the throttles 14, 15 after the engine warm-up, and smooth air bleed is maintained from when the engine is started cold until it is warmed up, ensuring smooth drivability and treatment of the exhaust gas.
In still another embodiment of the invention shown in FIG. 10, the main body 3"" of the altitude compensation apparatus 1"", the passages 16, 17 having the fixed throttles 14, 15, the auxiliary passages 22, 23, and the carburetor 8 are substantially the same as those of the embodiment shown in FIG. 9, but additional electromagnetic variable throttles 83 and 83' are interposed in the auxiliary passages 22 and 23. The electromagnetic coils of these valves 83, 83' are connected to a known engine water temperature sensor 85 via a microcomputer 84. The throttles function as the switch valves and also as the throttles. When the temperature is below the set water temperature, that is, when driving while the engine is cold, the electromagnetic variable throttles 83 and 83' open a set amount to bleed air and are closed after the engine warms up, thereby cutting off the auxiliary air bleed.
Incidentally, the embodiments of the invention are not limited to those described in the foregoing, in particular. For example, wax type thermosensitive operation valves that operate linearly may be used to continuously change the bleed quantity without any steps, and various other embodiments may be used.
As described in the foregoing, in an altitude compensation apparatus to be fitted to a carburetor, the present invention feeds additional bleed air to auxiliary passages branching from and connected to the passages between the air bleed ports of the carburetor and the main body of the compensation apparatus by means of thermosensitive operation valves when the engine is cold. Fundamentally, the present invention supplies supplementary bleed air until the engine warms up so as to keep a suitable air-fuel ratio when the engine is cold, when it would otherwise become over-rich depending upon conditions such as the choke operation. Thus, the apparatus of the invention provides the excellent effects that drivability can be stabilized and treatment of the exhaust gas can be smoothly carried out.
Moreover, the auxiliary air bleed when the engine is cold is effected completely automatically only when driving with the engine cold at high altitudes but does not at all affect driving with the engine cold at low altitudes.
In accordance with the present invention, the flow rate control valves are disposed between the passage of the compensation apparatus and the auxiliary passages so as to come into and out of contact with the operation rods integrated with the bellows charged with the atmospheric pressure in the main body of the compensation apparatus. Accordingly, the air bleed for compensating for the altitude is effected in proportion to the altitude, i.e. with the decreasing concentration of the atmospheric air, and the quantity of auxiliary bleed air while the engine is cold is also proportional to the altitude. Moreover, if continuous operation type thermosensitive operation valves are used, the auxiliary air bleed can be continuously controlled without any steps while driving with a cold engine from when the engine starts to warm up until the engine is warmed up substantially.
If the configuration of the operation rods is designed so that their operation timing with respect to the flow rate control valves on the side of the auxiliary air bleed is effected at the set altitude, the altitude range of the auxiliary air bleed operation for a cold engine can be set in advance independently of the general altitude for the altitude compensation.
If the configuration of the operation rods for the main compensation air bleed flow rate control valves and the configuration of the operation rods for the compensation air bleed flow rate control valves are set so that they operate in synchronism with each other, the additional compensation air bleed when the engine is cold can be always effected during the altitude compensation operation.
Furthermore, in the apparatus of the present invention, the auxiliary passages branching from the passages are communicated with the atmosphere via the air filter, the negative pressure control change-over valves are disposed at intermediate portions of the auxiliary passages and, the vacuum chambers of the vacuum control change-over valves are communicated with the vacuum chamber of the main body of the compensation apparatus having the flow rate control valves. According to this arrangement, the auxiliary air bleed operation is fundamentally controlled by the vacuum control change-over valves that operate in accordance with the altitude so that the pressure change with the changes in altitude can be introduced step-wise, and the auxiliary air bleed can be controlled step-wise. Hence, this arrangement is suitable for a design in which a change of the air-fuel ratio in driving with the engine cold at high altitude is not desired.
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An altitude compensation device for a carburetor including a chamber in communication with the atmosphere, an air bleed port conducting atmosphere from the chamber, a primary conduit providing fluid communication between the chamber and the fuel system of the carburetor, a first valve responsive to changes in atmospheric pressure for opening and closing the air bleed port, a first flow restrictor in the primary conduit downstream of the air bleed port, an auxiliary conduit providing fluid communication between an atmospheric pressure source and the primary conduit at a junction downstream of the flow restrictor and upstream of the carburetor fuel system, a second valve responsive to changes in atmospheric pressure controlling communication between the auxiliary conduit and the atmospheric pressure source, a second flow restrictor in the auxiliary conduit downstream of the atmospheric pressure source and upstream of the junction with the primary conduit, and a thermosensitive valve responsive to engine temperature permitting communication with the atmosphere through the auxiliary conduit when engine temperature is below a predetermined level and preventing communication with the atmosphere through the auxiliary conduit when engine temperature is above the predetermined level.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a method of forming unilamellar vesicles without the use of homogenization, filtration, sonication, or extrusion techniques, or other techniques that require energy input to the system, or exposure of lipids to harsh environments. Such environments include for example detergent or extreme pH environments.
Liposomes (vesicles) are completely closed lipid bilayer membranes containing an entrapped aqueous volume. Liposomes may be unilamellar vesicles (possessing a single membrane bilayer) or multilameller vesicles (onion-like structures characterized by multiple membrane bilayers, each separated from the next by an aqueous layer). The bilayer is composed of two lipid monolayers having a hydrophobic "tail" region and a hydrophilic "head" region. The structure of the membrane bilayer is such that the hydrophobic (nonpolar) "tails" of the lipid monolayers orient towards the center of the bilayer while the hydrophilic "heads" orient towards the aqueous phase.
The original liposome preparation of Bangham et al. (J. Mol. Biol., 1965, 12:238-252 involves suspending phospholipids in an organic solvent which is then evaporated to dryness leaving a phospholipid film on the reaction vessel. Next, an appropriate amount of aqueous phase is added, the mixture is allowed to "swell," and the resulting liposomes which consist of multilamellar vesicles (MLVs) are dispersed by mechanical means. MLVs so formed may be used in the practice of the present invention.
Another class of multilamellar liposomes that may be used as the starting liposomes of this invention are those characterized as having substantially equal lamellar solute distribution. This class of liposomes is denominated as stable plurilamellar vesicles (SPLV) as defined in U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,803 to Lenk, et al., reverse phase evaporation vesicles (REV) as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,871 to Papahadjopoulos et al., monophasic vesicles as described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,558,579 to Fountain, et al., and frozen and thawed multilamellar vesicles (FATMLV) wherein the vesicles are exposed to at least one freeze and thaw cycle; this procedure is described in Bally et al., PCT Publication No. 87/00043, Jan. 15, 1987, entitled "Multilamellar Liposomes Having Improved Trapping Efficiencies"; these references are incorporated herein by reference.
Liposomes are comprised of lipids; the term lipid as used herein shall mean any suitable material resulting in a bilayer such that a hydrophobic portion of the lipid material orients toward the interior of the bilayer while a hydrophilic portion orients toward the aqueous phase. The lipids which can be used in the liposome formulations of the present invention are the phospholipids such as phosphatidylcholine (PC) and phosphatidylglycerol (PG), more particularly dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC) and dimyristoylphosphatidylglycerol (DMPG). Liposomes may be formed and vesiculated using DMPG, or DMPG mixed with DMPC in, for example, a 3:7 mole ratio, respectively.
During preparation of the liposomes, organic solvents may be used to suspend the lipids. Suitable organic solvents are those with intermediate polarities and dielectric properties, which solubilize the lipids, and include but are not limited to halogenated, aliphatic, cycloaliphatic, or aromatic-aliphatic hydrocarbons, such as benzene, chloroform, methylene chloride, or alcohols, such as methanol, ethanol, and solvent mixtures such as benzene:methanol (70:30). As a result, solutions (mixtures in which the lipids and other components are uniformly distributed throughout) containing the lipids are formed. Solvents are generally chosen on the basis of their biocompatability, low toxicity, and solubilization abilities.
The starting multilamellar liposomes and resulting unilamellar liposomes of the present invention may contain lipid soluble bioactive agents. Such agents are typically associated with the lipid bilayers of the liposomes. As used in the present invention, the term bioactive agent is understood to include any compound having biological activity; e.g., lipid soluble drugs such as non steroidal antinflammatory drugs such as ibuprofen, indomethacin, sulindac, piroxicam, and naproxen, antinoeplastic drugs such as doxorubicin, vincristine, vinblastine, methotrexate and the like, and other therapeutic agents such as anesthetics such as dibucaine, cholinergic agents such as pilocarpine, antihistimines such as benedryl, analgesics such as codeine, anticholinergic agents such as atropine, antidepressants such as imiprimine, antiarrythmic agents such as propranolol, and other lipophilic agents such as dyes, therapeutic proteins and peptides such as immunomodulators, radio-opaque agents, fluorescent agents, and the like. Additionally, the vesicles made by the process of this invention may contain bilayer-associated markers or molecules such as proteins or peptides.
The liposomes of the invention may be used in a liposome-drug delivery system. In a liposome-drug delivery system, a bioactive agent such as a drug is associated with the liposomes and then administered to the patient to be treated. For example, see Rahman et al., U.S. Pat. No. 3,993,754; Sears, U.S. Pat. No. 4,145,410; Papahadjopoulos et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,235,871; Schnieder, U.S. Pat. No. 4,224,179; Lenk et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,522,803; and Fountain et al., U.S. Pat. No. 4,588,578.
The ability of liposomes to buffer the toxicity of entrapped drugs with little or no decrease in efficacy is becoming increasingly well established. Therefore, there is an increasing need to be able to form liposomes of all types which have these qualities. Unilamellar vesicles are clearly preferred for certain types of in vivo drug delivery over multilamellar vesicles, as well as for studies of membrane-mediated processes. As used as in vivo delivery vehicles, for example, unilamellar vesicles are cleared more slowly from the blood than are MLVs, and exhibit an enhanced distribution to the lungs and possibly bone marrow. Up to the time of the present invention, the methods known for producing these type vesicles relied upon harsh treatment of multilamellar vesicles, such as extrusion through filters, or other physically damaging processes requiring energy input such as sonication, homogenization or milling. Chemical treatment techniques employing harsh detergents or solutions at high or low pH to form unilamellar vesicles have also been employed. The present invention advances the art in that it allows formation of unilamellar vesicles from multilamellar vesicles without the heretofore harsh treatments required, but through the incubation of the liposomes in low ionic strength media at selected temperatures.
Additionally, the unexpected simplicity of preparation of these systems is complemented by the highly defined conditions under which they may be formed. The fact that vesiculation of these lipids occurs only around about the lipid phase transition temperature (T c ) and under low ionic strength incubations gives one a high degree of control over vesicle formation. In addition, the characteristic bilayer instability of these systems would be expected to favor interaction of the bilayer with hydrophobic compounds such as drugs, or enhance insertion of membrane proteins or peptides.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention discloses a method for spontaneously forming unilamellar vesicles from multilamellar vesicles (MLVs). Such MLVs comprise lipids, and unilamellar vesicles are formed by incubating the multilamellar vesicles in low ionic strength medium at neutral pH, around about the transition temperature of the lipids. Preferably the lipids comprise phospholipids, specifically phosphatidylglycerol alone or in combination with phosphatidylcholine, more specifically dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine and dimyristoylphosphatidylglycerol, in a 7:3 mole ratio.
To form the unilamellar vesicles of the invention, the liposomes are incubated at about 22°-26° C., preferably about 24° C. in a medium of between about 0 mM and 25 mM salt. More preferably, the medium comprises about 0-10 mM salt at pH of about 7.0 to about 8.0, preferably pH 7.6 and incubation time is about 15 minutes to about 24 hours.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 demonstrates vesiculation of DMPC:DMPG (7:3) MLVs as a function of ionic strength of the incubation medium. DMPC:DMPG (10 mM) was hydrated at 4° C. in the media shown below and incubated at 24° C. (see Examples 1 and 2). Sample media were H 2 O (open circles); 2 mM HEPES (closed squares); 10 mM NaCl, 2 mM HEPES, pH 7.6, (open triangles); or 25 mM NaCl, 2 mM HEPES, pH 7.6 (closed triangles).
FIG. 2 are 31 P--NMR spectra of DMPC:DMPG. Lipid (10 mM) was hydrated in H 2 O at 4° C. and its spectrum was recorded at 30° C. (A). The same lipid mixture was then incubated at 24° C. for 1 hour (B) and 12 hours (C). DMPC:DMPG (7:3 mole ratio) hydrated in 150 mM NaCl, 10 mM HEPES, pH 7.6 and incubated at 24° C. for 12 hours is shown in (D).
FIG. 3 are 31 P--NMR spectra for mixtures of phosphatidylcholine with phosphatidylglycerol. Lipid (10 mM) was hydrated in 150 mM NaCl, 10 mM HEPES, pH 7.6 (A,B,C,) or 2 mM HEPES, pH 7.6 (D,E,F,G,H,J) and incubated at 24° C. (A,B,C,G,H,J) or 10° C. (D,E,F) for 16 hours.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The unilamellar liposomes of this invention are formed by the exposure of multilamellar liposomes to conditions of low ionic strength media at neutral pH, and incubation temperatures around about the gel-to-liquid crystalline transition temperature (T c ). Under such incubation conditions, MLVs vesiculate to form unilamellar vesicles. Prior art techniques requiring acidic and alkaline pH variations are not needed in the present method, as vesiculation takes place in a narrow range around neutral pH. The liposomes of the present invention are preferably comprised of phospholipids, specifically dimyristoylphosphatidylglycerol (DMPG) or with dimyristoylphosphatidylcholine (DMPC). Various mole ratios of DMPC and DMPG are suitable for liposome vesiculation, however, the rate of vesiculation decreases with decreasing DMPG concentration.
Upon hydration most naturally occurring phospholipids generally adopt either the bilayer organization or the hexagonal H II phase (Cullis and de Kruijff, 1979, Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 559:339; Cullis et al., 1985, in Phospholipids and Cellular Regulation, J. F. Kuo, Ed., CRC Press, Boca Raton, Florida). In both instances the macromolecular structures formed are large (several microns) and are stable, such that even transitions between these two polymorphic phases do not generate small vesicles. One exception is the case of cardiolipin which in the presence of calcium adopts the hexagonal H II phase. If this mixture is dialyzed against EDTA, small vesicles are generated (Vail et al., 1979, Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 551:74). However, this is presumably due to the removal of calcium from cardiolipin at the exterior of the cylindrical H II arrays and the consequent "blebbing-off" of bilayer vesicles. While large multilamellar vesicles are useful membrane models for investigating the structural and motional properties of lipids, many areas of membrane research and drug delivery require or favor, respectively, the use of unilamellar vesicle systems. Two categories of unilamellar vesicles can be defined. These are small unilamellar vesicles (SUVs) of diameter less than about 50 nm, and large unilamellar vesicles (LUVs) which generally encompass vesicles 50 nm to 1 micron in diameter (Hope et al., 1986, Chem. Phys. Lip., 40:89).
The absence of multiple internal aqueous compartments and the relatively high trapped volumes obtained with LUVs make them useful in a variety of research areas including membrane fusion (Wilschut et al., 1980, Biochemistry, 19:6011) and the in vivo delivery of biologically active compounds (Poznansky et al., 1984, Pharmacol. Rev., 36:227). While MLVs formed by the simple hydration of dry lipid are under osmotic stress due to non-equilibrium solute distribution (Gruner et al., 1985, Biochemistry, 24:2833; Mayer et al., 1986, Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 858:161), they are nevertheless stable structures. The formation of LUVs or SUVs from MLVs usually requires aggressive disruption, for example, by sonication (Huang, 1969, Biochemistry, 8:344) or extrusion through polycarbonate filters (Hope et al., 1985, Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 812, 55), as mentioned above.
While the formation of LUVs from mixtures of phosphatidylcholine with either charged single chain detergents (Hauser et al., 1986, Biochemistry, 25:2126) or short chain phospholipids (Gabriel et al., 1984, Biochemistry, 23:4011) has been described, the only reported instance of MLVs composed solely of bilayer-forming phospholipids spontaneously vesiculating concerns mixtures of acidic phospholipids and phosphatidylcholine transiently exposed to an alkaline pH (Hauser et al., 1982, Proc. Natl. Acad. Sci U.S.A., 79:1683; Hauser, U.S. Pat. No. 4,619,794, issued Oct. 28, 1986, Hauser et al., 1986, Biochemistry, 25:2126; Gains et al., 1983, Biochim. Biophys. Acta, 731:31; Li et al., 1986, Biochemistry, 25:7477).
Since the exposure of membrane lipids to alkaline pH may result in degradation of the lipids and/or any bioactive agent present, and leakage of the vesicle contents, this technique has severe shortcomings in the field of drug delivery employing liposomes. We disclose here that formation of unilamellar vesicles can surprisingly occur at around neutral pH for saturated phosphatidylglycerol and mixtures of saturated phosphatidylcholine and phosphatidylglycerol. Unexpectedly, vesiculation is rapid only at temperatures around the gel to liquid-crystalline phase transition (the transition temperature or T c , about 22° C. to about 26° C., most preferably about 24° C.), and when hydration or incubation media of low ionic strength are used. When incubation media of high ionic strength (higher than about 50 mM salt) are used, vesiculation occurs at a decreased rate, or not at all. Vesiculation occurs as a function of lowering the ionic strength of the incubation medium. MLVs vesiculate spontaneously when exposed to low ionic strength incubation media (about 10 mM ionic strength and less) when incubated around about the T c of the lipid. Any ionic species solutions may be used as incubation media, such as the salts sodium chloride, potassium chloride, and others. While a range, therefore, of about 0-25 mM salt in the incubation medium will promote vesiculation, the optimum conditions are around about 0-10 mM salt.
Vesiculation of MLV systems may be determined by incubating the liposomes in low ionic strength medium for 15 minutes to several hours, at around the gel-to-liquid crystalline transition temperature of the lipids used. Whether vesiculation has occurred may be measured by the size of the resulting liposomes using quasi-elastic light scattering, (unilamellar versus multilamellar), visualization of the resulting vesicles using freeze-fracture electron microscopy, and 31 P--NMR analysis of lineshape and spectrum width. For example, narrow spectrum width and isotropic signal is indicative of unilamellar vesicle structure, while a low field shoulder and high field peaks are indicative of larger vesicles.
The lipids of the present invention may be hydrated to form liposomes using any available aqueous solutions, for example, distilled water, saline, or aqueous buffers. Such buffers include but are not limited to buffered salines such as phosphate buffered saline ("PBS"), tris-(hydroxymethyl)-aminomethane hydrochloride ("tris") buffers, and preferably N-2-hydroxyethyl piperazine-N-2-ethane sulfonic acid ("HEPES") buffer. Such buffers are preferably used at pH of about 7.0 to about 8.0, preferably about pH 7.6. If required, the ionic strength of the medium may be adjusted to physiological values following the vesiculation procedure.
The liposomes of the present invention may be dehydrated either prior to or following vesiculation, thereby enabling storage for extended periods of time until use. Standard freeze-drying equipment or equivalent apparatus may be used to lyophilize the liposomes. Liposomes may also be dehydrated simply by placing them under reduced pressure and allowing the suspending solution to evaporate. Alternatively, the liposomes and their surrounding medium may be frozen prior to dehydration. Such dehydration may be performed in the presence of one or more protectants such as protective sugars, according to the process of Janoff et al., PCT 86/01103, published Feb. 27, 1986, and incorporated herein by reference.
The liposomes resulting from the processes of the present invention can be used therapeutically in mammals, including man, in the treatment of infections or conditions which benefit from the employment of liposomes which give for example, sustained release, reduced toxicity, and other qualities which deliver the drug in its bioactive form.
The mode of administration of the preparation may determine the sites and cells in the organism to which the compound will be delivered. The liposomes of the present invention can be administered alone but will generally be administered in admixture with a pharmaceutical carrier selected with regard to the intended route of administration and standard pharmaceutical practice. The preparations may be injected parenterally, for example, intra-arterially or intravenously. The preparations may also be administered via oral, subcutaneous, or intramuscular routes. For parenteral administration, they can be used, for example, in the form of a sterile aqueous solution which may contain other solutes, for example, enough salts or glucose to make the solution isotonic. Other uses, depending upon the particular properties of the preparation, may be envisioned by those skilled in the art.
For the topical mode of administration, the liposomes of the present invention may be incorporated into dosage forms such as gels, oils, emulsions, and the like. Such preparations may be administered by direct application as a cream, paste, ointment, gel, lotion or the like.
For the oral mode of administration, the liposomes of this invention encapsulating a bioactive agent can be used in the form of tablets, capsules, losenges, troches, powders, syrups, elixirs, aqueous solutions and suspensions, and the like. In the case of tablets, carriers which can be used include lactose, sodium citrate and salts of phosphoric acid. Various disintegrants such as starch, and lubricating agents, such as magnesium stearate, sodium lauryl sulfate and talc, are commonly used in tablets. For oral administration in capsule form, useful diluents are lactose and high molecular weight polyethylene glycols. When aqueous suspensions are required for oral use, the active ingredient is combined with emulsifying and suspending agents. If desired, certain sweetening and/or flavoring agents can be added.
The following examples are given for purposes of illustration only and not by way of limitation on the scope of the invention.
EXAMPLE 1
DMPC:DMPG (7:3M ratio) was lyophilized from benzene:methanol (70:30 v/v). The lipid was hydrated to 10 mM with distilled water pH 7.6, at 4° C., forming MLVs. The suspension was then incubated at 24° C. for 15 minutes. QELS studies showed the resulting liposomes to be about 200 nm in diameter, corresponding to LUVs.
The above procedure was followed using 2 mM HEPES buffer as the hydrating solution. QELS measurements revealed LUVs.
This Example demonstrates the formation of unilamellar liposomes by the incubation of a 7:3M ratio of DMPC:DMPG in low ionic strength medium (distilled water, 0 mM salt), at neutral pH. Unilamellar liposomes formed spontaneously when the preparation was incubated at 24° C.
EXAMPLE 2
The procedures and materials of Example 1 were employed using 150 mM NaCl, 2 mM HEPES buffer as the hydrating solution. QELS measurements revealed no change in liposome size (no vesiculation) after incubation.
FIG. 1 demonstrates vesiculation by plotting the vesicle diameter (obtained by quasi elastic light scattering, QELS) as an indication of MLV or LUV against time of incubation, and shows that the rate of vesiculation at 24° C. is directly related to the ionic strength of the hydration medium. FIG. 2 demonstrates the vesiculation by 31 P--NMR spectra of the suspensions; the vesiculated samples (B and C, at low ionic strength incubation) demonstrate the characteristic narrow spectrum and isotropic lipid motion peak which would be expected for vesicles smaller than 400 nm. FIG. 2A and D demonstrate the characteristic bilayer lineshape with low field shoulder and two high field peaks. Plots A and D were recorded from samples incubated under conditions where vesiculation does not occur; at temperatures above the T c , and hydration media of high ionic strength, respectively.
Freeze fracture electron microscopy confirmed the QELS and 31 P--NMR data by allowing visualization of the multilamellar or unilamellar vesicles.
EXAMPLE 3
DMPG (10 mM) was hydrated with 10 mM NaCl, 2 mM HEPES at 4° C., pH 7.6, forming MLVs. These MLVs were incubated at 24° C. for 15 minutes, and the sample analyzed by QELS. The resulting liposomes were unilamellar (LUVs).
This Example may be compared with Example 13, where liposomes made of a 3:7M ratio of DMPC:DMPG incubated in 10 mM NaCl (Example 13) only approach the 200 nm diameter vesicles of Example 3 after 5 hours incubation.
EXAMPLE 4
A 7:3M ratio of dry DMPC:DMPG was equilibrated at 32° C. in a water-saturated atmosphere for 60 minutes, and then the procedures and materials of Example 1 were followed to make MLVs (10 mM lipid), using 2 mM HEPES as hydration medium and an incubation temperature of 32° C. After 6 hours incubation, no vesiculation had occurred as QELS measurements revealed the liposomes had a mean diameter of greater than 2 microns.
The above preparation was then incubated at 24° C. and QELS measurements revealed that the liposomes had vesiculated, resulting in unilamellar vesicles.
This Example is a control for the incubation of the liposome systems around about the T c of the lipid; it shows this incubation parameter is an important requirement of the invention.
EXAMPLE 5
The procedures and materials of Example 4 were employed using 2 mM HEPES as the hydration medium and an incubation temperature of 15° C. After 6 hours incubation, no vesiculation had occurred as QELS measurements revealed the liposomes had a mean diameter greater than 2 microns.
The above preparation was then incubated at 24° C. and QELS measurements revealed that the liposomes had vesiculated, resulting in unilamellar vesicles.
This Example serves as a further control for T c being an important incubation parameter. No vesiculation occurred at this incubation temperature. However, when this system was incubated at 24° C., the liposomes rapidly vesiculated.
EXAMPLE 6
A 7:3M ratio of DOPC:DOPG was hydrated with 2 mM HEPES buffer and incubated for 24 hours at 24° C. Samples were analyzed using 31 P--NMR spectroscopy which had a spectrum consistent with bilayer phase lipid organization (FIG. 6K), and the vesicles had a diameter greater than about 400 nm.
EXAMPLE 7
The procedures and materials of Example 1 were employed, using a 7:3M ratio of DOPC:DMPG. The lipid was hydrated with 2 mM HEPES and incubated at 24° C. for 16 hours.
31 P--NMR spectroscopy revealed little or no vesiculation.
EXAMPLE 8
The procedures and materials of Example 7 were employed, using a 7:3M ratio of DMPC:DOPG. The lipid was hydrated with 2 mM HEPES and incubated at 24° C. for 16 hours.
31 P--NMR spectroscopy revealed little or no vesiculation.
EXAMPLE 9
The procedures and materials of Example 7 were employed, using a 7:7:3:3M ratio of DOPC:DMPC:DOPG:DMPG. The lipid was hydrated with 2 mM HEPES and incubated at 24° C. for 16 hours.
31 P--NMR spectroscopy revealed little or no vesiculation.
In this Example, when the gel and liquid-crystalline domains contain both phospholipid species, e.g., DMPC:DOPC:DMPG:DOPG (7:7:3:3), only very limited breakdown of MLV structure is apparent. In these systems the presence of dioleoyl phospholipids stabilizes MLV structure. This Example demonstrates the stability of oleoyl-containing systems. Even when phosphatidylglycerol is present, the dioleoyl species stabilizes mixtures of 7:3M ratio DOPC:DOPG so that incubation at 24° C. in low ionic strength buffer does not induce vesiculation; the systems remain multilamellar.
Further, the stabilizing nature of dioleoyl chains is observed in Examples 7-12 where no vesiculation is observed even when domains of both gel phase lipid (i.e.: dimyristoyl chains) and liquid crystalline phase lipid (i.e.: dioleoyl groups) are present. FIG. 3 (A-J) demonstrates the 31 P--NMR spectra for such samples incubated at either 10° C. or 24° C. All spectra are characteristic of large vesicles in the bilayer phase (MLVs); the samples did not vesiculate.
EXAMPLE 10
The procedures and materials of Example 7 were employed, using a 7:3M ratio of DOPC:DMPG. The lipid was hydrated with 150 mM NaCl, 2 mM HEPES and incubated for 16 hours at 24° C.
31 P--NMR spectroscopy revealed little or no vesiculation.
EXAMPLE 11
The procedures and materials of Example 7 were employed, using a 7:3M ratio of DMPC:DOPG. The lipid was hydrated with 150 mM NaCl, 2 mM HEPES and incubated for 16 hours at 24° C.
31 P--NMR spectroscopy revealed little or no vesiculation.
EXAMPLE 12
The procedures and materials of Example 7 were employed, using a 7:7:3:3M ratio of DOPC:DMPC:DOPG:DMPG. The lipid was hydrated with 150 mM NaCl, 2 mM HEPES and incubated for 16 hours at 24° C.
31 P--NMR spectroscopy revealed little or no vesiculation.
EXAMPLE 13
The procedures and materials of Example 3 were employed, using a 3:7M ratio of DMPC:DMPG. The lipid was hydrated in 10 mM NaCl, 2 mM HEPES at pH 7.6 at 4° C., forming MLVs. The suspension was then incubated for 1 hour at 24° C. QELS measurements revealed that vesiculation of the MLVs had formed LUVs.
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A new method is disclosed for making unilamellar vesicles from multilamellar vesicles. Such vesicles are formed without the use of physical of chemical disruption processes known in the art for forming unilamellar vesicles. The liposomes are incubated at neutral pH at or near the transition temperature of the lipids used, in low ionic strength media such as distilled water. The liposomes may comprise bioactive agents and may be used in vivo or in vitro.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a process for steering a vehicle, particularly in a narrow space, such as a delivery vehicle, a garbage truck, or a street sweeper, and to a steering apparatus for carrying out the process.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Inner districts of large cities normally have very narrow streets and, therefore, there is little or no possibility of vehicles, particularly large vehicles maneuvering in those small areas. Thus, the maneuverability of utility vehicles, particularly ones of large loading capacity and dimensions is of increasingly great importance, especially particularly in inner districts of cities.
The reasons for this are that (a) for historical reasons, the inner districts are generally densely built, with narrow, winding streets and sharp-angled turns; (b) due to the increasing traffic density and parked vehicles traffic frequently ties up intersections; and (c) the slowing down of traffic such as by traffic islands, speed bumps, and narrowed roadways to limit the speed of vehicles, all greatly limit traffic movement, in view of the increasing extent of landscaping of traffic-free areas, less and less space remains available for vehicular traffic.
Since the inner regions of larger cities represent a concentration of industrial and business, as well as residential districts, considerable disadvantages for deliveries service and garbage removal services are burdens on such city districts due to their restricted traffic conditions. This can have a disadvantageous effect on the economic structure of such city districts. Since the handling of the deliveries and of garbage removal requirements of business and residential districts calls for an increasingly greater transportation capacity, larger transport vehicles are required for these activities. These larger vehicles have particularly larger problems in navigating within the decreasing space, because due to their large dimensions, vehicles are less maneuverable and require more room for maneuvering.
A number of vehicle manufacturers, particularly of utility vehicles used in the municipal field such as garbage trucks and street sweepers, have attempted to meet the requirements for the elimination of these problems. Thus various means are employed from a reduction in the loading capacity of the vehicles, all the way to technical improvements in maneuverability. The reduction in loading capacity, i.e. the reduction in transporting capacity, requires the use of additional vehicles, particularly for municipal use, which must then transfer their load to larger vehicles for further transportation thereof. This results in higher reloading costs, increased cost of personnel, increased interference with traffic in congested central areas to the larger number of vehicles, increased energy consumption, and increased air pollution.
One known improvement in the provision of greater maneuverability of large capacity vehicles, has been by providing a street sweeping machine with an all wheel steering capability. Such a street sweeping machine, is sold by RAMO Kommunal Fahrzeuge GmbH of Germany. It has a small turning radius and can maneuver in small spaces. All wheel steering offers considerable advantages in all driving and maneuvering situations, and enables a faster and more accurate control of the complicated traffic patterns in the inner city, but it has one decisive disadvantage. Due to the narrow parking spaces, vehicles of this kind approach the curbs of the sidewalk laterally. If the driver, with his all wheel steering, now steers strongly to the side away from the curb to move out of a parking space, the steered rear wheel of the all wheel steering hits the curb and rides over it. When the vehicle is heavily loaded it can damage the sidewalk, strike a sign or lamp post with the rear of the vehicle, and even hit pedestrians. It has been suggested to increase the field of view of the driver, but that cannot remedy this problem. The driver is too busy and cannot continuously note whether and when the steering of the rear wheels should be active or be deactivated, especially since in these situations the region to the rear with its moving traffic must also be observed.
It is also known to install means for detecting and optically displaying the steering angle of a steered wheel of a motor vehicle. German published patent application No. 4,035,794 discloses a device for optically displaying the steering angle of a steered wheel and the direction of travel of the vehicle. One disadvantage of this device is that the display does not automatically intervene in the steering or driving process but merely passively informs the driver of the detected steering angle. If the preprogrammed value of the steering angle is exceeded, the driver is advised of this by a sound alarm.
German published patent application No. 4,233,624 discloses a distance warning having an optical sensor system which detects an object or a vehicle that is within a preselected minimum distance, and gives the driver a suitable warning signal when the distance is less than the preprogrammed minimum. This device is also merely a passive parking aid and does not intervene in the steering of the vehicle.
German published patent application No. 3,438,021 discloses a control system for vehicles in which, electronic data processing and control systems are used to control the relationship of the steering angle of a rear wheel to the position of the front wheel, in accordance with the speed of the vehicle. The control system has a detector for forward travel which the steering angle is recorded in accordance with the speed of the vehicle, but this action can take place only if forward travel of the vehicle is maintained for a predetermined period of time. This apparatus, while having advantages of an automatic control device, has the disadvantage that upon the vehicle approaching obstacles, no assistance and adjustment signal is provided to the control mechanisms.
Similar information is provided by German published patent application No. 3,903,834 which is used on a automobile with four-wheel steering, and signals are obtained from various sensors about the steering of the front and rear wheels, and are transmitted to a computer. The computer acts on sensor abnormalities and thereby actuates power steering to improve the side steering of the front wheels and also controls the speed of the vehicle during the steering to achieve an accident free operation.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,955,443 discloses a similar system of computer controlled four wheel steering of motor vehicles.
The devices of the prior art have the feature in common that they do not provide any indication for controlling the steering of the rear wheels of an all wheel steering, and the rear wheels are controlled and moved separately from the front wheels. No prevention is provided against hitting existing obstacles and against driving over them. Such endangering of the surrounding area can result from the fact that upon steering the vehicle in a steady direction, and particularly when going around a curve, the steering of the wheels of the rear axle, actuated by the sensors, responds upon approach to an obstacle and the vehicle is steered out of the continuous direction of movement with the rear of the vehicle swinging out in the direction away from the obstacle and thus exposing other traffic the vehicle and itself to the danger of a collision. Another disadvantage is that, in the case of proportionally adapted steering motion of the two axles of the all wheel steering, upon movement of the front axle out of the continuous direction of movement, such as when steering around a curve from a forward travel of the vehicle, the wheels of the rear axle would follow the steering movement of the front axle. Since this is an interruption of a continuous movement, the wheels of the rear axle would no longer follow the previous direction of travel upon a change in the direction of movement, as a result of the all wheel steering the rear wheels follow the position of the wheels of the front axle, and can collide with an obstacle, such as a street corner curb.
In vehicles with engaged all wheel steering, there are considerable difficulties in getting out of narrow parking places spaces without extensive steering maneuvers. Vehicles without all wheel steering can free themselves more easily from such constricted spaces. There are no devices known which permit adaptation of the steering positions of vehicles with all wheel steering from narrow spaces, which move the rear wheels of the all wheel steering past an obstacle.
DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
It is an object of the present invention is to provide a process for the steering of a motor vehicle, and apparatus for carrying out of this process, which enables the use of larger vehicles capable of moving large payloads such as utility vehicles in small, constricted travel areas, and on blind and dangerous travel paths. In accordance with the present invention, it is possible to travel around obstacles which are in the path of the large vehicle, avoiding uncontrolled movements as a result of avoidance measures by the vehicle and without colliding with the obstacles, safely and without danger under existing traffic conditions.
As used throughout the specification and the claims, the term "reference plane" denotes the surface of an obstacle, such as a curb or other object, that should not be collided with by the vehicle. As used herein, terminology such as "driving", or "steering" along a reference plane means driving by, towards or away from a reference plane such as a curb or other obstacle. Furthermore, as used throughout the specification and the claims, reference to "parking space" encompasses any narrow space into and out of which a vehicle is intended to maneuver.
In accordance with the present invention, this object is achieved in the manner that the rear wheel steering of a vehicle, particularly a utility vehicle for delivery and waste-disposal service can be blocked or restricted and the degree of the restriction in steering for the position of the vehicle with respect to the reference planes along which the vehicle can be moved along, steered into or brought out of is determined by the position of the vehicle with respect to the reference planes, such as a curb, roadside tree, or the like, or a parked vehicle, is measured and evaluated by a sensor of mechanical, electrical, or optical nature. The measurement sensor arranged on it, into touch with the reference plane or the contour of the street and the distance away as well as the relationship of the longitudinal axis of the vehicle to the reference plane is detected and evaluated and, after reaching an angular position of the longitudinal axis relative to the plane, and a therefore a changed distance of the vehicle from the reference plane, the all wheel steering is set so that the inward swung rear wheel, upon the movement of the vehicle, is directed and held to move directly along the reference plane.
One advantageous feature of the invention is that the detection of the distance of the vehicle from the reference plane is effected by mechanical means which are guided resiliently against the reference plane. Advantageously the distance of the vehicle from the reference is determined by contactless measurement sensors arranged on the vehicle.
One most suitable feature of the invention is that the setting of the rear wheels of the vehicle for the inward swinging is effected at a distance from the reference plane when the longitudinal axis of the vehicle is parallel to the reference plane whereby the rear wheel of the vehicle travels at a steering radius extending past the reference plane.
Another suitable development of the invention is that the setting of the rear wheels of the vehicle for the inward swinging is effected upon the longitudinal axis of the vehicle, enclosing an acute angle with respect to the reference plane at which point the rear wheel of the vehicle is at a minimum distance from the reference plane or rests against it. The measurement is made in accordance with the present invention by of a measurement sensor arranged in front of and close to the rear wheel of the vehicle, and the signal pulse given off by a sensor being evaluated under computer control and converted into the form of control signals which are imparted to a pulse generator of the all wheel steering.
In accordance with another advantageous feature of the invention, when there is a minimum distance of the rear wheel of the vehicle from the reference plane, the rear wheel axle of the all wheel steering is blocked from steering towards the reference plane.
One advantageous feature of the invention is that a steering of the rear wheels of the all wheel steering via the rear wheels in the direction towards the curb is interrupted and blocked when, as a result of sensing by a sensor or sensors, less than a predetermined minimum distance of the rear axle from the curb with the steering of the rear wheels of the all wheel steering being resumed as soon as the distance of the rear wheels from the curb has grown beyond that a minimum distance.
Another advantageous feature of the invention is that the steering process of the rear wheel of the all wheel steering is maintained so that the travel of the rear wheel is parallel to the reference plane until a given distance from the plane has been reached.
A further advantageous feature of the solution in accordance with the invention provides that the sensor signal pulses are evaluated by a computer in the vehicle and a control pulse is provided to the all wheel steering of the rear wheels. Two sensors can be arranged on the vehicle, however in that case only one sensor need be continuously connected to the computer. It can also be provided in practice that both sensors send out pulses which are simultaneously processed by the computer for the determination of the position of the vehicle with respect to the reference plane.
One advantageously pragmatic solution of the invention is that suitably a sensor is arranged on each side of the vehicle, both sensors being arranged on the side which faces the reference plane.
If the sensors are deactivated, the rear wheels of the vehicle are steered into and blocked in the straight, middle position.
Another feature of the present invention is that upon recognition of an obstacle during the movement of the vehicle in a continuous direction of movement, the proportionally adapted steering movement of the front and rear axles of the all wheel steering is terminated and the steering movement of the front and rear axles is decoupled, until the obstacle has been passed by independent steering. The wheels of the rear axle are held in the position in which they were set at the time of the detection of the obstacle and then, the rear wheel steering is again coupled with the front axle and the two axles are brought into a proportionally adapted steering relationship of the wheels.
An advantageous feature of the present invention is that the wheels of the rear axle of the vehicle, upon the detection of an obstacle and a change in the deflection of the wheels of the front axle, are held in the position which they had before the detection of the obstacle, and the rear wheels are then again brought into a proportionally adapted steering relationship with the steering position of the wheels of the front axle when the obstacle has been passed.
Advantageously, obstacles present or that suddenly appear in the course of the path of the vehicle or which are moving towards it, can be detected by sensors operating both on the right and left sides of the vehicle.
The detection of an obstacle can be suitably made on both sides of the vehicle and the output of the detection sensors is communicated to a computer for the stopping or starting of a steering motion of the all wheel steering for movement past the obstacle.
When the vehicle travels around a curve while wheels of both axles of the all wheel steering are turned, if the angle of turn of the front wheels is greater than that of both rear wheels, the measurement sensor which is operating outside of the radius of the turn is deactivated and then activated again after completion of the travel around the curve.
Another valuable feature of the present invention is that when an obstacle is detected early by the driver, he can intervene and disconnect the proportionally adapted steering movement of the all wheel steering. Upon that occurrence the wheels of the rear axle can, due to a safety circuit, remain in the position in which they were set at the time disconnection, and after the obstacle has been passed the driver can reconnect the proportional adapted steering made of the all wheel steering.
The device of the present invention suitably has sensors on the vehicle which have been brought into a functional relationship with a reference plane, such as a curb. Thus the longitudinal axis of the vehicle and its distance from the curb is determined, and is fed for evaluation to a computer which is connected to a setting mechanism for the rear wheels of an all wheel steering. The steering of the rear wheels toward the edge of the curb is blocked when a measured distance by the sensor or sensors is less than a predetermined value.
A front sensor and a rear sensor are directed toward the curb from one side of the vehicle to determine the angular position of the longitudinal axis of the vehicle with regard to the curb.
When the sides of the rear wheels is within a predetermined distance from the curb, the steering of the rear wheels of the all wheel steering is blocked so that only straight forward travel can be effected.
The contact members of the sensors are suitably a movable functional part of the vehicle, such as in the case of a street sweeper or a swingable disk brush, or a suction tube.
When the measurement sensors, are separate from other functional parts, and are freely operating sensors, arranged on the frame of the vehicle in the immediate vicinity toward the front, of the rear wheels, it is especially suitably that the sensors are directed at a right angle to the longitudinal axis of the vehicles and sensing towards both sides of the vehicle.
The sensor control for of the rear wheels can suitably be a simple bifunctional yes/no control, or a proportionally registering capacitative control so that suitably the rear of the vehicle, or the outer edge of the reference plane will, with the front wheels maximally turned, follow parallel to the reference plane until the vehicle has moved sufficiently far away therefrom along circular paths A, B, as shown in the drawing. One or two sensors in number could release a complete steering lock due to the increased distance between the reference plane and vehicle can cause, whereupon the vehicle can move away from the reference plane without dropping below the minimum distance "b".
Advantageously the sensor contact parts in a street sweeper, such as sensor brush and suction shaft, can be retracted or disconnected from sensing. In that case, the wheels of the rear axle are automatically adjusted to the central position and further turning is blocked.
The sensors, in agreement with the computer-controlled contacts, direct their control pulse signals exclusively towards the turning of the rear axle in the direction towards the side facing the curb.
Advantageously the vehicle is equipped on both of its sides with a sensor control for steering of the rear axle, but it is pragmatic and cost-favorable when the sensor control is arranged only one side of the vehicle, in the case of a right hand drive on the right side of the vehicle, and in the case of a left-hand drive on the left side of the vehicle.
The invention is based fundamentally on the idea that the continuous functioning of the all wheel steering during the operation of the vehicle is carried out as part of a normal program. Upon the occurrence of unforeseen events, which can include damage and approach to an obstacle, a safety program can be activated that is contained in the electronic system. This safety program can prevent an uncontrollable, intermittent steering relationship of the rear axle of the all wheel steering in the event of a defect in the proportionality relationship of the front and rear axles to each other. The normal program is so developed that (i) a direct, proportional steering relationship is established, under computer control by coupling the steering of the front and rear wheels; (ii) the steering angles of the proportional steering relationship of the axles, correspond fundamentally to the stipulated proportionality, with front and rear axles, being coupled via a computer; (iii) upon all steering movements, the wheels of the front and rear axles turn in a proportionally adapted ratio to each other; the sensors are in operation; and (v) no obstacle is present.
The safety program has features, whereby an obstacle is recognized by the sensor of sensors or by the driver of the vehicle, the normal program is disconnected, the rear axle does not follow the steering angle of the front axle but remains in the position which it had at the time of the recognition of the obstacle, until the sensor no longer detects an obstacle, whereupon the normal program is resumed, and the rear axle moves again into the proportionally adapted steering relationship with the front axle.
The safety program is engaged upon the detection of an obstacle, by the computer or by the driver, with the result that the rear axle remains in its position and assures travel past the obstacle. In this connection, it is immaterial on which side the obstacle is located.
As the vehicle moves in a circle, its side facing the small radius will, upon change in the steering angle of the wheels of the front axle, most likely abut predominantly against an obstacle, since the front edge of the outer side of the vehicle which faces the larger radius has already passed the obstacle and the vehicle moves away from the obstacle upon its continued motion. However, upon a change in the continuity of the direction of movement, the inner side of the vehicle approaches the obstacle to such an extent that a collision can result. To avoid striking the obstacle, the wheels of the rear axle then remain in the steering position set upon recognition of the obstacle and thereby move the vehicle around the obstacle. The sequence of the normal program, coordinated with the actuation of the safety program upon recognition of obstacles, either by the sensor which signals a computer which starts the running of the program, or by manual actuation of the driver, who notices the presence of an obstacle, creates absolute assurance that the rear part of the vehicle will not, in uncontrolled manner, suddenly move out of its direction of travel and endanger traffic. The holding of the wheels of the rear axle in the steering position which was present upon the recognition of the obstacle enables traveling around the obstacle, and then again assuming the adapted steering proportionality of the axles when the safety risk has been eliminated.
DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING
The invention is described further in detail with reference being had to the accompanying drawing, wherein
FIG. 1 is a top view of a vehicle along a curb;
FIG. 2 is a top view of the vehicle of FIG. 1 at a distance from the curb with all wheels fully turned upon moving out of a parking space;
FIG. 3 is a top view of the vehicle of the prior art with indication of the path of travel of the vehicle with wheels fully turned from a minimum distance from the curb;
FIG. 4 shows the arrangement of the sensors in the case of maximum distance of the rear wheel from the curb;
FIG. 5 is a showing similar to FIG. 4, with minimum distance of the rear wheel from the curb;
FIG. 6 is a showing similar to FIGS. 4 and 5, with different distances from the curb;
FIG. 7 shows the sensor arrangement for contactless scanning of a measurement distance with a minimum distance of the rear wheel from the reference plane in the case of utility vehicles;
FIG. 8 shows the movement of a street sweeper upon sweeping in a small parking space area with sensor-controlled all wheel drive;
FIG. 9 shows a vehicle at a reference plane with sensors arranged on both sides;
FIG. 10 shows the movements of the vehicle upon execution of the normal driving program;
FIG. 11 shows the movement of the vehicle upon interruption of a direction of movement;
FIG. 12 shows the movement of the vehicle upon recognition of an obstacle using the safety program.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
A vehicle 1, for instance a street sweeper, is shown in FIG. 1 having two disk brushes 5, a suction shaft 8, and a roller brush 6 which are arranged below the vehicle 1 and are attached to its frame. The rear wheel 3 of the vehicle at a minimum distance "a" from the reference plane of a curb 13, the rear wheel 3 being directed for straight-ahead travel and front wheels 2 being in a position turned away from the reference plane. The disk brush 5 and the roller brush 6, as well as the suction shaft 8, are connected to the vehicle frame 4 by means of rods 7, 7' through mounts 23, 23' in the region of pivot points 14. 15. As can be noted from FIG. 1, the rear wheel 3 of the vehicle 1 which faces the reference plane is at a minimum distance "a" from the curb 13.
In this position, the all wheel steering arrangement on the vehicle 1 can be actuated only to a limited extent since otherwise, upon a turning of the rear wheels 3 towards the curb 13, the rear wheel 3 which is positioned against or near the curb 13 would move over the curb 13. When in this position a strong steering angle of the rear wheels 3 is set towards the curb, such as to avoid a parked vehicle, the turned rear wheel abuts against or run over the curb and may even damage the sidewalk, as well as the rear of the vehicle can strike against posts, signs and street lights located on the edge of the street and even endanger pedestrians. Such a situation is shown in the illustration in FIG. 3 of the prior art to demonstrate its disadvantages. That figure shows the vehicle 1 in a position in a minimal distance "a" of the rear wheel 3 of the vehicle 1 from the curb 3 is provided and the disk brushes 5 and the suction shaft 8 are swung below the vehicle 1. In this position of the vehicle 1, its rear wheels 3 abut against the curb as explained above. It can be seen from this showing, not only the rear wheel 3 which faces the curb 13 passes over it but, also the edge 22 of the body of the vehicle swings out far over the curb 13.
For this reason, as shown in FIG. 2, in accordance with the present invention the steering of the rear wheels 3 is blocked in the direction of the curb 13. The block is released when the distance "a" increases due to the movement of the vehicle 1 away from the curb 13 by a turning of the front wheels 2. The longitudinal axis 20 of the vehicle at that time leaves its position parallel to the curb 13 and the distance "a" between the front wheels 2 and the curb 13 increases. This situation is also shown in greater detail in FIGS. 6 and 7.
Due to the fact that the rear wheel 3 rests against the curb 13 and the longitudinal axis 20 of the vehicle is parallel to the curb 13, the sides of the vehicle 1 coincide with the curb 13, and the disk brush 5 together with its rod 7 moves below the vehicle 1 to lie against the curb 13. An actuating cylinder 11 having a sensor 16 is arranged on it, is connected to the rod 7.
In a position, moved also below the vehicle 1 there is the suction shaft 8 which, positioned on a rod 7', is in its normal position in front of the roller brush 6, and its rod 7' is moved by the actuating cylinder 12 with the sensor 16' fastened on it. FIG. 2 shows this position, in which the suction shaft 8 as well as the disk brush 5 are swung out from under the circumference of the sweeper against the curb 13 and, as a result, the distance "a" of the rear wheel 3 has reached its greatest value without the disk brush having lost contact with the curb 13. The suction shaft 8 is also shown in an outward swung position which permits a pure suction operation. The suction shaft 8 is positioned on the side of the curb 13, outside the circumference of the vehicle 1. In this position, the side brush can be swung in and raised as shown in, and further explained in connection with FIG. 7. FIG. 4 shows the arrangement of the functional parts below the vehicle 1 in the position shown in FIG. 2.
The distance "a" of the rear wheel 3 of the vehicle 1 from the curb 13 is sufficiently large to permit a dependable swinging out of the fully turned rear wheels when the blocking of the all wheel steering for the rear wheel 3 is released, without it moving over the curb 13. In this position, the disk brush 5 and the suction shaft 8 are in a position beyond the edge of the vehicle 1, the disk brush 5 being still in contact in its swung-out position, with the side surface of the curb 13. The longitudinal axis 20 of the vehicle parallel to the curb 13. The rods 7, 7' of the disk brush 5 and the suction shaft 8 are pivotally connected by mounts 23, 23' with the frame 4 of the vehicle through the pivot points 14, 15.
The rod 7 of the disk brush 5 is movably connected to an actuating cylinder 11, and the rod 7' of the suction shaft 8 is movably connected to the actuating cylinder 12. Sensors 16, 16' are arranged on the actuating cylinders 11, 12, and these are functionally connected with sensor points 17, 17' provided on the pivot heads of the piston rods of the actuating cylinders 11, 12. A path "s" is located between the sensors 16, 16' and the sensor points 17, 17'. The path "s" is variable and is formed by the position of the extended piston rod, which, in combination with the actuating cylinders 11, 12, holds the rods 7, 7' of the disk brush 5, and the suction shaft 8 in contact with the inner surface of the curb 13.
It is possible to bring the disk brush 5, together with the suction shaft 8, into contact with the curb 13, but the disk brush 5 and suction shaft 8 operate independently of each other. Therefore, their actuating cylinders 11, 12 are also provided with separate sensors 16, 16' and sensor point sensor arrangements points 17, 17'. It is possible to actuate the two sensors 16, 16' simultaneously, but the two arrangements 16, 16' and points 17, 17' generally operate with separate settings and control circuits of the computer.
As it has been emphasized, the suction shaft 8 can also be brought into an operating position independently of the disk brush 5, and in that case it assumes the contact function required for the operation of its sensor 16'. The sensor 16' is separately connected to the computer and controls the steering function of the rear wheels 3 independently of the disk brush 5. In the pure suction function of the pneumatic operation of the suction shaft 8, the disk brush 5 is retracted and swung upward. The sensor 16 is deactivated and the sensing function of the sensor 16' is assumed by the edge of the suction orifice which is arranged on the suction shaft 8.
As shown in FIG. 4, the longitudinal axis 20 of the vehicle 1 is parallel to the curb 13 and the distance "a" between it and the rear edge 22 of the vehicle 1 becomes so great that the rear wheels can be conveniently turned by the inward turning of the all wheel steering without running over the curb 13. The distance "a" is such here that the disk brush is fully swung outward but does not lose contact with the inner edge of the curb 13. The drawing shows that the paths "s" of the sensors 16, 16' on the actuating cylinders 11, 12 are at a substantial distance from the sensor points 17, 17'. This means that the actuating cylinders 11, 12 are outwardly extended. The two paths "s", and therefore the distance of the sensors 16, 16' from the sensor points 17, 17', are approximately at a maximum, but of the same magnitude.
FIG. 5 shows the position of the vehicle 1 relative to the curb 13, in the same position as in FIG. 1. In this case, the disk brush 5, and the suction shaft 8 are swung inward under the body of the vehicle 1, and the distance "a" of the rear wheel 3 of the vehicle 1 from the curb 13 is so small that the rear edge of the vehicle 3 rests against the curb 13. The longitudinal axis 20 of the vehicle 1 is at a parallel distance if c=d from the curb 13. In this position of the vehicle 1, and therefore with the disk brush 5 and suction shaft 8 swung inward, the paths "s" between the sensors 16, 16' and the sensor points 17, 17' on the actuating cylinders 11, 12 are very short since the piston rods are retracted into the cylinders.
In this position, the suction shaft 8 is located in front of the roller brush 6 and its sensor 16' is disconnected from the control circuit. The contact function is assumed by the sensor arrangement 16, 17 of the disk brush 5 which contacts the curb 13. In this position, the rear wheel 3 is locked against being steered on the direction to the curb 13.
The front wheels 2 are in a steered position; the vehicle 1 starts to move into the position shown in FIG. 6. This position shows one possibility in which the disk brush 5 and the suction shaft 8 have been swung out and brought into contact with the curb 13. The two sensors 16, 16' operate independently, but this position is not the general case. As a general rule, only the disk brush 5 is moved by its rod 7 against the curb 13.
FIG. 6 shows the position of the vehicle in a parking place from which it is about to be driven out. In this position of the vehicle, the distance "a" the rear wheel 3 to the curb 13 is the same as that shown in FIG. 5. However, the longitudinal axis 20 of the vehicle 1 is angled away by an angle α from the curb line 13, so that the front distance "d" of the longitudinal axis from the curb is greater than the corresponding rear distance "c". The steering process commences in this position of the vehicle; the rear wheels are still locked for travel but straight, ahead they already start to move away at an angle α from the edge of the curb. The disk brush 5 is always in contact with the side of the curb 13. As shown, this can also be true of the suction shaft 8, which is also in an equivalent position with respect to the disk brush 5.
FIG. 6 shows that upon an increase of the angle α and a distance "a" the locked condition of the all wheel steering of the rear wheels is released and thus the steering of the rear wheels 3 is commenced. Although the center axes 24 of the rear wheels 3 remain perpendicular to the curb 13, and thus the rear wheels 3 travel parallel to the curb 13, while the axis 21 of the steered wheel is moved in increasingly sharper angle from the curb 13, the distance "d" of the longitudinal axis 20 from the curb steadily increases. Thus, the vehicle swings out of the parking space, the rear wheels 3 move parallel to the curb, until a distance for a given value of the angle α with respect to the curb 13, and then increasingly leave the curb 13 while increasing the distance "a" by following the radius of the center axis 24 of the rear wheels 3. The rear edge 22 of the vehicle 1 does not swing outward above the curb 13. FIG. 6 shows that the signaling pulse for the computer, which actuates the control of the all wheel steering, is affected by the sensor 16 when the suction shaft 8 is functionally coordinated with the disk brush 5.
When solely the suction shaft 8 used to pick up street dirt the disk brush 5 can be swung inward and the suction shaft 8 can be in a completely separate swung-out operating position spaced from the disk. The sensor 16' is arranged for this purpose on the actuating cylinder 12. In this manner of operation, the sensors 16, 16' each act differently on the actuating cylinders 11, 12 independently of each other, and impart their pulses separately to the common computer. As in all operating and steering situations the computer weights the pulses and thus controls the steering actuation of the rear axle. A separate actuation of the suction shaft in a purely pneumatic manner of operation. The suction shaft 8 slides with an outer edge of the suction opening along the inner surface of the curb 13 for a separate, purely suction operation of the sweeper 1. This assures the separate functioning of the sensors 16, 16'.
Contacting of the disk brush 5 with the curb 13 is brought about by the sensor 16 contacting the sensor point 17 and since, in its general operating position the suction shaft 8 is associated with the roller brush 6, the sensor arrangement 16', 17' is disconnected from the control circuit.
As the vehicle 1 moves out from the parking space, control of the steering is assumed by the disk brush 5 which is in contact with the curb 13, and the actuating cylinder of which has the sensor 16 which, in cooperation with the sensor point 17, the pulses provides control pulses to the computer to steer the rear wheels 3. Control of the vehicle 1, particularly as a utility vehicle is, of course, not limited to the illustrated example of a sweeper, but can be used in all kinds of utility vehicles.
The contact-controlled generation of control pulses, as stated by reference to the example of the disk brush 5 against the curb 13 or the like use of the suction shaft 8 in the above described embodiment of a street sweeper, can be employed with other contacting devices such as measuring sensors, measuring wires, or on the same basis to a contactless sensor-controlled arrangement. Such a contactless sensor arrangement is illustrated in FIG. 7 in which the vehicle 1 is disposed relative to the curb similarly as shown in FIG. 6 which shows a street sweeper. As the vehicle begins to move away from the curb, the distance "d" between the longitudinal axis 20 of the vehicle and the curb 13 has then increased by the steering of the front wheels 2 of the vehicle 1 by the forward movement vector of the vehicle 1, while the distance "a" of the rear wheel 3 from the curb 13 remained approximately the same since the distance "c" of the rear part of the longitudinal axis 20 of the vehicle from the curb 13 has not changed. A contactless sensor 16" such as a light pulse, or ultrasonic sensor is arranged on the vehicle frame 4 by a mount 23 directly in front of the rear wheel 3, the sensor path of which is directed towards the of the curb 13 with its sensor target point 17 at the curb. As the distance "d" of the longitudinal axis of the vehicle from the curb 13 increases by a constant distance "a" as the vehicle moves forward with turned steering position of the front wheels 2, and therefore the same amount as the distance "c" of the longitudinal axis 20 of the vehicle from the curb 13, the distance "s" between the sensor 16" and the sensor point 17" changes in the same proportion to the distance "a'". When the distance "s" reaches a predetermined value, steering of the rear wheel 3 is commenced, the wheel travels parallel to the curb 13 even as the value of the distance "a" to the curb 13 increases, until a predetermined distance "s" is reached and the longitudinal axis 20 of the vehicle reached an angle α with respect to the curb 13 which permits passage out of the parking space at the largest possible acute angle.
It can be seen from these explanations that the principle of the contactless measurement of the distance "s" by of sensors, as shown in FIG. 7 for all other types of utility vehicles with all wheel steering, is also possible for installation in a street sweeper. In that case, the actuating cylinders 11, 12 do not cooperate with the corresponding sensor arrangements but serve solely for the hydraulic actuation and bear no sensors or sensor points on their functional parts. The advantage of the sensor-controlled all wheel steering is further increased, in the example of a sweeper, by the fact that the disk brush 5 can be swung outwardly of the circumference of the vehicle. This way the advantage of all wheel steering, with the swinging in and out of the disk brush 5 with respect to the circumference of the vehicle upon commencement of contact at the point "k" with the curb 13, enables the vehicle 1 to approach the curb 13 to a minimal distance "a" which is almost zero, while the side brush swings under the vehicle. During the turning maneuver of the front wheels 2 of the vehicle 1, the rear wheels 3 remain parallel to the curb 13 while minimally spaced from the curb, as the rear wheel 3 by all wheel steering is steered continuously under computer control parallel to the curb 13. Since the turning vector of the movement of the vehicle produces a constantly larger angle α of the longitudinal axis 20 of the vehicle 1, the disk brush 5 swings out into its end position beyond the circumference of the sweeper. In this position the end of the pulse path "s" is reached, and the vehicle 1 is at a required angle α since its side brush disk has swept at a maximum distance "s'" along the curb 13.
This described activity is shown in FIG. 8 as path of movement of e.g. a sweeper, the disk brush 5 and/or suction shaft 8 of which are used as contact makers for the sensors 16, 16', 16". This enables sweeping into small parking spaces along the curb 13, and in the same way, garbage trucks or delivery vehicles can also be easily parked into small travel parallel to the curb 13. A great advantage of the present invention enables all vehicles of this type to function in this manner, since upon leaving a parking place with the sensor-controlled all wheel steering, the vehicle will not run over the curb 13, and the of the rear edge 22 of the vehicle 1 will not swing over the sidewalk beyond the curb 13.
FIG. 9 shows the vehicle 1 in a parking place in an angular position of its longitudinal center axis 20 with the angle α to the curb reference plane 13, operatively contacted by the sensor 16". The reference plane 13 serves in this case as an obstacle. The longitudinal axis 20 of the vehicle 1 is at a greater distance "a" from the curb at the front of the vehicle 1. At the angle α, the distance "b'" of the front axle from the reference plane 13 is greater than the distance "d" of the wheel 3 of the rear axle. The sensors 16", 16'" act over the sensor paths "s", "s'" to detect obstacles which can counter the movement of the vehicle 1. The sensor path "s" is limited by the sensor point on the contact point 13 and shows the presence of the curb as an obstacle. If no obstacle appeared in front of the sensor 16'", the sensor path "s'" is still unlimited and therefore without sensor point.
In its starting position, has the wheels 2, 3 of both axles of the vehicle point straight ahead. The sensor 16" in this case has recognized the reference plane 13 as an obstacle, and to move out of the tight travel place, the driver turned the front wheels way from the curb, to move out. Since the sensor 16' has recognized an obstacle at the reference plane 13, the wheels 3 of the rear axle, following the safety program, remain in the straight ahead position. This assures that the rear wheels 3 do not strike the obstacle but are steered past it. Sensors 16", 16'" are arranged directly in front in the direction of travel of the wheels 3 of the rear axle. The drawing shows that the sensor 16'" is not in an operative contact due to the absence of an obstacle to sense. The rear wheels 3 are maintained in their previously set steering position is by the recognition of an obstacle by the sensor 16'.
It is also possible to disconnect the electronic recognition of obstacles and to leave the recognition of the obstacles and the avoidance reaction to the steering of the vehicle by the driver. For this purpose an operating element (not shown) is arranged in the cab. A switch 25 is fastened on the vehicle frame 4, the sensors 16", 16'". The switch 25 is connected to a computer (not shown) and it transmits to it the control pulses from the sensors 16", 16'". The computer controls the proportionally adapted movement of the all wheel steering of the vehicle 1. Due to the fact that the sensor 16" is connected with the sensor point at the reference plane 13 for the recognition of an obstacle, the switch 25 is activated and, gives off for the side to which the sensor 16" radiates, a control pulse to the computer signaling recognition of a point of contact, in this case the reference plane 13. The sensor 16'" does not require contact with an obstacle and does not activate the switch 25. Thus the computer notes no obstacle from that sensor When two sensors 16", 16'", operate in front of wheels 3 of the rear axle and radiating laterally from the vehicle, no right/left recognition takes place since this is not necessary for the running of the computer program. There is merely a recognition of a plane of reference or obstacle and the activation of a corresponding program. When traveling around curves the sensor 16", 16'" which radiates towards the outside of the radius of the curve is disconnected by the switch 25.
FIG. 10 shows the passing of the vehicle 1 along a uniformly curved path around an obstacle, such as a street corner. The reference plane 13 is scanned by the sensor 16" and since the distance to the reference plane 13 does not change and therefore no obstacle is signaled by the sensor 16", the normal program, namely the proportionally adapted steering process, is not interrupted. The proportional steering position of the wheels 2, 3 of both axles remains the same with respect to each other within the program, and the vehicle 1 travels unimpeded past the reference plane 13 since no obstacle has been recognized.
FIG. 11 demonstrates an assumed condition in which the safety program does not enter into action. In accordance with this figure, the same situation prevails as shown in FIG. 10. The vehicle 1 approaches the reference plane 13 of the obstacle, with the steering in position for uniform travel around a curve. The driver changes the steering position due to unforeseen circumstances, interrupting the travel around the curve. If the special safety program is not in operation then, due to the normal program the steering proportionality of the wheels of both vehicle axes continuously maintained and along with the front wheels, the rear wheels are also moved into a straight forward position. Therefore, the obstacle or reference plane 13 would now be struck and driven over.
FIG. 12 shows the same travel surface as the preceding figures, but with the situation shown in FIG. 11. Furthermore, a bicycle rider 27 has approached the rear of the vehicle 1 on the side of the reference plane 13 and enters the region of the corner directly in the range of action of the sensor 16". As shown in FIG. 11, the bicycle rider 27 obstacle would now collide with the rear part of the vehicle 1. By the recognition of this obstacle the steering direction of the wheels 3 of the rear axle originally set for travel around a curve is retained, the vehicle 1 moves away, without contact with the obstacle, and then, after passing it, returns again to the proportionally adapted steering relationship of the wheels 2, 3 of the two axles of the all wheel steering with the front axle.
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A process for steering a road vehicle having all wheel steering for placing the vehicle into, within, and out of constricted spaces and small, constricted travel areas, the vehicle having a front, a rear, a longitudinal axis, front wheels steerable rear wheels, the all wheel steering being proportional between the front and rear wheels for turning the vehicle about a turning radius, apparatus for determining the distance of the vehicle from an obstacle, and apparatus for restricting or disabling the steerability of the rear wheels in response to the proximity of the obstacle, by driving the vehicle to the proximity of the obstacle, determining the distance of the vehicle from a location on the obstacle when the vehicle approaches the obstacle closer than by a predetermined distance, determining the relative angle of the longitudinal axis to the location on the obstacle, and adjusting the steering of the rear wheels in response to changes in the angular position to move the vehicle along the obstacle without the wheels contacting the obstacle. The road vehicle of the present invention has a longitudinal axis, apparatus for steering the vehicle along an obstacle a reference plane, with steerable front wheels mounted from a front axle, selectively steerable rear wheels mounted from a rear axle and adapted to be steered around a turning radius, on all wheel steering that is proportional between the front and rear wheels, apparatus for restricting or disabling the steerability of the rear wheels in response to the proximity of the reference plane, a front sensor for determining the proximity of the reference plane to the front of the vehicle, a rear sensor for determining the proximity of the reference plane to the rear of the vehicle, a computer adapted to receive signals from the front sensor and the rear sensor for determining the angle of the longitudinal axis to the reference plane, and apparatus for actuating the apparatus for restricting or disabling the steerability of the rear wheels toward the reference plane when the proximity to the reference plane falls below a predetermined distance at the rear of the vehicle.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
This invention relates to neckties, and in particular to a necktie knot forming device.
Neckties are extensively used and are an important part of a man's dress wardrobe. Neckties are usually manufactured and sold in an untied state, but worn in a knotted configuration. Most men are particular about forming consistent, neat knots in neckties while providing certain desired lengths for one or the other necktie free ends.
One of the most common necktie knots used is the four-in-hand knot. Although the four-in-hand necktie knot is one of the simplest knots used with necktie, it is also one of the most difficult to consistently form. Tying a knot in a necktie, while requiring some minimal skill, is often bothersome and time consuming because the wearer of the necktie has forgotten the correct position and manner of wrapping one free end of a particular tie about the other free end during formation of the knot in the necktie. When the wearer forgets the correct wrapping sequence or degree of wrap used to form a knot in a particular necktie, the repeated trial-and-error attempts at correctly forming the knot is time consuming and often result in wrinkling of the necktie.
A well-known technique for solving the above problems is the use of clip-on ties in which the necktie knot is preformed. Such ties are structurally limited and are not well accepted by most men. Other techniques have been disclosed in the prior art for solving the above problems, however most are quite complicated and often are designed to remain with the necktie while the necktie is being worn. Several prior art devices for forming necktie knots have been disclosed which require insertion of one or both free ends of the necktie into apertures within the device during the knot forming process.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
In view of the foregoing disadvantages inherent in the known types of devices now present in the prior art, the present invention provides an improved necktie knot forming apparatus and method. The apparatus includes a main, cylindrical body, means connected to the body for holding the necktie in position while the knot is being formed, and two projecting and divergent elongated elements protruding from one end of the cylindrical body, said elements providing wrap assist elements for knot formation.
It is, therefore, an object of the present invention to provide an improved necktie forming apparatus that overcomes the limitations of prior art devices and methods.
It is another object of the present invention to provide a necktie knot forming apparatus that is removably attached to the tie during formation of the knot.
It is yet another object of the present invention to provide a small portable knot forming apparatus that is easy to use and operate.
It is a further object of the invention to provide a necktie knot forming apparatus that can be equally utilized by those that have the knowledge and dexterity to form a four-in-hand knot, as we as those that do not.
It is an additional object of the present invention to provide a necktie knot forming apparatus that does not become part of the finished knot and is easily removed after knot formation.
It is still another object of the present invention to provide a necktie knot forming apparatus which is easy to understand and use, as well as requiring a minimum of manual dexterity to form a four-in-hand knot and can be operated utilizing one hand.
These together with other objects of the invention, along with various features of novelty which characterize the invention, are pointed out with particularity in the claims annexed hereto and forming a part of this disclosure. For a better understanding of the invention, its operating advantages and the specific objects attained by its uses, reference should be had to the accompanying drawings and descriptive matter in which there is illustrated a preferred embodiment of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a front view of a necktie with a four-in-hand knot formed therein.
FIG. 2 is a front view of the invention apparatus.
FIG. 3 is a top view of the invention apparatus.
FIG. 4 is a schematic illustration of the invention illustrating the first step in the formation of a necktie knot.
FIG. 5 is a view similar to FIG. 4 illustrating the second step in the formation of a necktie knot.
FIG. 6 is a view similar to FIG. 5 illustrating the third step in the formation of a necktie knot.
FIG. 7 is a view similar to FIG. 6 illustrating the fourth step in the formation of a necktie knot.
FIG. 8 is a view similar to FIG. 7 illustrating the fifth step in the formation of a necktie knot.
FIG. 9 is a view similar to FIG. 8 illustrating the necktie knot completely formed and the invention apparatus removed.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF INVENTION
Referring to the drawings in detail wherein like elements are indicated by like numerals, there is shown an embodiment of the invention incorporating a necktie knot forming apparatus 20 and method. The necktie 10 comprises an elongated strip of fabric which is normally worn by wrapping a portion 13 of the necktie 10 intermediate two free end sections 11, 12 thereof around the wearer's neck under the collar of his shirt, forming a knot 14 in the general shape of an inverted, truncated triangle in the portions of the free ends of the necktie 10 extending just past the wearer's collar, allowing the free end sections 11, 12 to extend downwardly therefrom in overlapped relationship. One free end section 11 is generally wider than the other free end section 12 and is normally positioned on top of the second free end section 12 when the necktie knot 14 is fully formed.
The necktie knot forming apparatus 20 comprises a cylindrical and generally vertical body 21 having an open bottom 22 from which cylindrical side walls 23 extend vertically upward, said body 21 being generally cylindrical in shape, the central longitudinal axis of said cylindrical body 21 being generally perpendicular to said bottom 22, said body 21 having a top 24 connected to said cylindrical side walls 23. Said top 24 has two projecting and divergent elongated, resilient elements 25, 26 protruding therefrom, each element 25, 26 being in mirror relation to the other 26, 25. Each element 25, 26 has an attached end 27 and a free end 28. The body 21 has a hollow bore 29 accessible through the open bottom 22. A plug 30 is removably inserted into the open bottom 22 in order to enclose the hollow bore 29. The hollow bore 29 may hold small dressing items such as cuff links, directions for making a necktie knot, and the like. In an alternate embodiment, the plug 30 may be replaced with a cap snap fitted or threadingly engaged to the bottom 22.
An elongated fastening element 40 is attached to the cylindrical body 21 adjacent the body top 24. The body side 31 to which the fastening element 40 is attached is termed the apparatus front and the opposite side 32 the apparatus rear. The body sides 33 connecting the front 31 and rear 32 are termed the apparatus sides 33. The divergent elements 25 lie in the same plane as the apparatus sides 33.
The fastening element 40 has a proximal end 41 and a distal end 42 defining the longitudinal axis of the fastening element 40. The fastening element longitudinal axis is generally horizontal and perpendicular to the central longitudinal axis of the cylindrical body 21 and is positioned in the same general plane as the apparatus front 31. The fastening element 40 has the form of a clasp which holds the necktie free end sections 11, 12 before and while the knot 14 is being formed. The fastening element 40 has two elongated, horizontal prongs 43, 44 extending distally from a spring element 45 located near to the fastener's proximal end 41. One prong 43 is positioned in parallel and horizontally behind the other prong 44. The spring element 45 has two opposite and divergent levers 46, 47 extending to and forming the fastening element proximal end 41. The spring element 45 keeps the prongs 43, 44 tensioned against each other. The tension on the fastener 40 is sufficient to retain the prongs 43, 44 against each other. Closing finger pressure on the levers 46, 47 will spread the prongs 43, 44 apart. The fastening element 40 is fixedly joined to the cylindrical body 21 by attachment of the rearward prong 43 distal end 42 to the cylindrical body 24.
The operation of the invention will be described with particular reference to FIGS. 4-9. Referring to FIG. 4, the tie 10 is first placed around the collar of the wearer with the front or leading free end section 11 crossed over the back or trailing free end section 12. The invention apparatus 20 is then moved into place and the fastener 40 manipulated to temporarily grasp the tie at the point 15 where the tie overlaps itself. Attachment of the apparatus fastening element 40 is accomplished by grasping the levers 46, 47 until the prongs 43, 44 separate far enough to accommodate the tie material at the point 15 of overlap. The tension on the levers 46, 47 is then released to allow the prongs 43, 44 to clasp the tie and hold the tie in position for knotting. The fastener 40 is positioned so that the cylinder body 21 is generally vertical and the longitudinal axes of the apparatus divergent elements 25, 26 are positioned generally upward from the body 21 and parallel to the longitudinal axes of the tie end sections 11, 12. Referring now to FIGS. 5 and 6, the leading end section 11 of the tie 10 is passed behind the divergent elements 25, 26 and then laid across the apparatus front 31 proximate the fastening element 40. The divergent elements 25, 26 provide knotting shape and anchoring during these steps, while the fastening element 40 holds the tie 10 in position. Referring now to FIG. 7, the leading end section 11 is then passed over the apparatus top 24 between the divergent elements 25, 26 and down along the front 31 of the cylindrical body 21 beneath that portion of the leading end section laid across the apparatus front 31 proximate the fastening element 40. As may be seen now from FIG. 8, the knot 14 is loosely formed. The knot 14 is then tightened by pulling the leading end section 11 downwardly. Referring to FIG. 9, the fastening element 40 is disengaged by pressing the levers 46, 47 together, thereby opening the prongs 43, 44. The apparatus 20 is then slid downward away from the tie knot 14.
It is understood that the above-described embodiment is merely illustrative of the application. Other embodiments may be readily devised by those skilled in the art which will embody the principles of the invention and fall within the spirit and scope thereof. The apparatus and method of the present invention may be used for other types of tie knots, such as windsor and half-windsor knots.
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An improved necktie knot forming apparatus and method. The apparatus includes a main, cylindrical body, means connected to the body for holding the necktie in position while the knot is being formed, and two projecting and divergent elongated elements protruding from one end of the cylindrical body, said elements providing wrap assist elements for knot formation.
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BACKGROUND OF THE DISCLOSURE
[0001] Foam concrete structures are utilized in various capacities ranging from concrete stairs, drive ways, ramps, floating docks, precast walls, abutments, retaining walls with lightweight fill load distribution slabs, roadways and applications for concrete foam systems such as Geofoam™ and other applications for concrete foam structures. In general, a foam concrete structure has a central region comprised of foam material which may be expanded polystyrene (EPS) or extruded polystyrene (XEPS) with a perimeter portion of concrete therearound. Oftentimes, a tensile strength member such as rebar is positioned within the concrete. At present time, rebar, which is comprised of steel or other iron-based compositions, is a primary form of enhancing the strength of concrete to reinforce concrete structures. In general, concrete is very poor in tension, and having an insert therein, for example a metallic member such as a longitudinally extending piece of rebar, significantly enhances the strength of the concrete structure.
[0002] Now in the case of having a concrete block with a foam center portion, when a bending moment is placed upon the structure, there is a compressive force at its greatest magnitude in one portion of the block structure, whereas the opposing portion has a tensile stress imposed thereon. The concrete is used to encapsulate or provide a protective shell, for example: floatation, geofoam, floor systems, ICF's, poured-in-place and pre-cast concrete systems. The foam portion functions as floatation, lightweight fill, or insulation. Of course, the center portion has a shear force acting as welt pursuant to basic beam theory. Therefore, having a properly spaced tensile member such as rebar positioned in the foam concrete structure is important for properly positioning the rebar in the concrete to absorb the tensile stress placed thereon.
[0003] The prior art has failed to present a system, apparatus and method for properly positioning and orienting rebar at a proper depth within the outer concrete perimeter region. In some forms the rebar is positioned during a construction state in vertically and inverted orientated positions as well as a regular horizontal position. Therefore, in one form, having an apparatus to orientate the rebar in various orientations with respect to the flux field of gravity is desirable for constructing and forming a concrete/foam structure.
[0004] Further, having a proper anchoring system to attach to the foam material allows for proper positioning of the rebar holding unit. In one form, having a properly sized and dimensioned base portion allows for a sufficient amount of stability, without requiring excessive force to penetrate the foam to be mounted during production. These steps may be carried out in a manufacturing facility, or on a job site.
SUMMARY OF THE DISCLOSURE
[0005] The structure in one form described in this disclosure is a holding member having an extension portion, a base portion, and a stirrup portion. The extension portion is configured to be inserted into a rigid construction material such as a block of foam. The extension portion in one form comprises a plurality of base members with barbs which extend radially outward from the longitudinal axis of the extension portion. These barb members are constructed to add rigidity to the structure, and assist in proper positioning within the rigid construction material. These barb members are especially helpful in preventing rotational and longitudinal movement of the holding member in relation to the foam. In one form, a plurality of barb members extend from the barb members to further maintain the position of the extension within the first construction material. The extension portion may be directly coupled to or formed with the stirrup portion, or an intermediate base portion may be provided between the two. This base portion can provide a stop which will limit the depth to which the extension member can be inserted into the foam. All three elements may also be formed as a unitary structure, say of a polymer or metal.
[0006] In one form, after inserting the extension portion of the structure into the rigid construction material, a portion of an elongate construction material, such as a length of rebar, is coupled to the stirrup portion of the structure to hold the rebar a specified distance from the rigid construction material. After the rebar is positioned within the stirrup, another construction material such as concrete can be disposed in contact with the first construction material and substantially surrounding the second construction material. This will substantially encapsulate the construction materials and form a protective shell with the rebar adding support to the concrete (second material).
[0007] In one form, the barb members previously discussed also have a plurality of barb-like extensions which are configured to keep the structure from pulling out of the rigid construction.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0008] FIG. 1 shows a side view taken along a first transverse axis of the rebar holding member;
[0009] FIG. 2 shows another side view taken along a first transverse axis;
[0010] FIG. 3 is looking longitudinally rearward along the support portion of the rebar holding member;
[0011] FIG. 4 is taken from a longitudinally forward vantage point looking at the extension portion of the rebar holding member;
[0012] FIG. 5 is a progressive view of a method of manufacture of a foam concrete block structure;
[0013] FIG. 6 shows a rebar positioned in a stirrup region of the rebar holding member which is embedded in the foam;
[0014] FIG. 7 shows a completed foam concrete structure with concrete in the outer perimeter region having a foam center region.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
[0015] As shown in FIG. 7 , there is an environmental view of a foam concrete structure 20 . In general, the foam concrete structure 20 comprises a foam material 22 and a concrete perimeter 24 . Further comprising the foam concrete structure 20 are tensile stress members such as rebars and rebar holding members 28 . Further, in one form of manufacture, an outer mold member 30 can be utilized to hold the concrete 24 in its position while in an uncured state. This outer mold member 30 can either be a part of the veneer of the structure, or be removed from the concrete perimeter 24 once the concrete cures or otherwise is sufficiently rigid to hold its stationary form.
[0016] Therefore, it can be appreciated that the tensile stress member 26 , which is most commonly rebar at the time of this writing, is positioned at a substantially center region 32 within the concrete perimeter 24 . This positioning allows the rebar 26 to engage the surrounding concrete so as to transfer force thereto, so when for example the particular concrete perimeter wall section 34 is in tension, these tensile stresses are transferred to the rebar 26 properly, whereas the concrete aggregate itself is in general very poor at handling tension, and of course very strong in compressing as is well-known pursuant to conventional material science theory.
[0017] Therefore, as described in detail herein, the rebar holding member 28 provides utility in properly positioning the rebar during the production and manufacture of the foam concrete structure 20 . Various attributes of one form of a rebar holding member will be described herein in detail with the understanding that other forms could be utilized without departing from the spirit and scope of the Applicant's broad concept.
[0018] In another embodiment, a section of tubing can be utilized instead of the tensile stress member 26 . This would not only add rigidity to the material but would also add a channel for applying fluids, gases, or serve as a conduit for electrical or communication service. For example, once the structure is completed, hot water could be provided through the tubing which would heat the structure adjacent the tubing.
[0019] Referring now to FIG. 1 , there is shown a side profile view of the rebar holding member 28 . To aid in the general description, the axes system 10 is provided where axis 12 indicates the longitudinal forward direction. Referring ahead now to FIG. 4 , there is shown a first transverse axis 14 and a second transverse axis 16 . In general, the axes 14 and 16 extend radially outward from the longitudinal center axis 12 ″. In one form these axes are orthogonal to one another, but of course the general directions of the structures related to these axes need not be orthogonal.
[0020] Referring now to FIG. 1 , it can be appreciated that in general the rebar holding member 28 has an extension portion 36 and a support portion 38 . Interposed between the extension portion 36 and the support portion 38 is a base portion 40 which in one form is a transverse extending planar member configured to be positioned adjacent to the outer surface 96 of the foam center 22 described herein with reference to FIG. 5 .
[0021] In general, the extension portion 36 is configured to be positioned in the foam material 22 in a manner as shown in FIG. 5 . The foam material in one form may be expanded polystyrene (EPS) or extruded polystyrene (XEPS). By way of background, one form of a foam concrete structure is a concrete dock where the interior portion is comprised of foam material. The perimeter portion can be between 1 and 3 inches of concrete or more. Rebar being placed in this perimeter region, as shown in FIG. 6 and FIG. 7 , greatly enhances the structural integrity of the foam concrete structure 20 (see FIG. 7 ).
[0022] Therefore, it can be appreciated that the extension portion 36 must provide a reasonably stable platform when inserted within the foam. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 , there are first and second base portions 46 and 48 . In one form these base portions are orthogonal to one another as shown in FIG. 4 , but of course need not be orthogonal to one another. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 , each of the first and second base portions 46 and 48 comprise a plurality of barb members. As shown in FIG. 2 , the plurality of barb members 50 generally comprise, in one form, three barb members 50 a , 50 b and 50 c . In one form the barb members are of a similar radial width from a center longitudinal axis 12 ′ as shown at 50 a and 50 b , and in another form the barb members reduce in their radial width extension, such as where the barb 50 c is shorter than the barb 50 b . In general, the barbs provide a transverse extension where in particular the plurality of barbs 50 extend in the first transverse direction 14 as shown in FIG. 4 , and provide a locking-like action when extended within the foam material.
[0023] Now referring to FIG. 1 , it can be appreciated that the plurality of barb members 52 are shown, and more specifically in one form there are three sets of barb members 52 a , 52 b and 52 c . In one form, the plurality of barb members 52 can have (as shown in FIG. 2 ) a perimeter flange 54 which basically extends slightly outward from the surfaces 56 and 58 of the second base member 48 . Present analysis indicates that this perimeter flange extension provides extra gripping of the foam material when inserted therein. Further, it can be appreciated that the barb members have a leading surface 60 , which is configured to engage the foam material when thrust therein. As shown in FIG. 1 , the trailing surface 62 is provided which is configured to engage the foam material to maintain the extension portion 36 mounted firmly in the core foam structure 22 (see FIG. 7 ).
[0024] With the foregoing description in place with regard to the extension portion 36 , there will now be a discussion of the support portion (otherwise referred to as a stirrup portion) 38 with initial reference to FIG. 1 . As shown in FIG. 1 , in one form the support portion 38 is comprised of a base region 70 . The base region 70 in one form can be comprised of base extensions 72 and 74 . Positioned in the longitudinally rearward region of the support portion is a support 74 which comprises first and second arms 76 and 78 . The first and second arms comprise an interior surface 80 , which is configured to hold a tension member, such as a rebar 26 as shown in FIG. 5 . In general, the interior surface can have a longitudinally outward region 82 which encompasses the cylindrical rebar member 26 so as to lock it in place therein. Further provided in the support 74 are the radially inward extension/fins 84 as shown in FIG. 1 and FIG. 3 within the stirrup 80 . In general, the radially inward extension is configured to have a width 86 which is such that the stresses placed thereon when a rebar member is placed in the radially inward extensions plastically deform and mesh to the rebar to further lock the rebar in place. This deformation is particularly advantageous because it prevents the rebar from repositioning or otherwise slipping along the longitudinal axis of the rebar, such as if the rebar is positioned in a more vertically oriented manner. Therefore, the width 86 would be somewhat less than the width 88 is shown in FIG. 3 , depending upon the material used. Using a plastic injected molded unitary piece to construct the rebar holding member 28 , a desirable plastic may have a durometer rating between 50 and 100 made from nylon, polyethylene, or other suitable material.
[0025] As further shown in FIG. 5 , in one form the first and second legs 76 and 78 each comprise an inward slanting surface 90 and 92 . The surface of course facilitates positioning the outer surface 27 of the rebar member 26 into the central chamber region 94 of the support portion 38 . Still referring to FIG. 5 , the base portion 40 generally comprises a base surface 94 positioned in a longitudinally forward direction, which is configured to engage the outer surface 96 of the full material 22 .
[0026] To further describe one form of the rebar holding member 28 , the plurality of barbs 50 and 52 as shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 are arranged such that, for example, the barb 50 a is offset by approximately 90° and interposed between the barbs 52 a and 52 b . Present analysis indicates that this transversely offset and interposed relationship provides greater engagement of the surrounding foam material when the extension portion 36 is embedded within the foam 22 as shown in the lower portion of FIG. 5 . Of course other forms of a barb can be employed and the above description is one form of carrying out the applicant's concept.
[0027] Analysis upon the overall dimensions of the rebar holding member 20 will now be presented. As shown in FIGS. 1 and 2 , these dimensions are in one form substantially to scale, and in one form 95% of an actual prototype. Of course the scope of the concept is not limited to the specified dimensions of the figures; however, for purposes of included subject matter, the figures are to scale of one embodiment (plus or minus 20%) as to the actual dimensions and the relative dimensions between portions of the rebar holding member 28 itself. In other words, it has been found that having a length from the most forward location 96 from the base surface 94 of approximately 3 11/16″ provides a desirable combination of stability of the rebar holding member 28 when fully embedded in the foam 22 (see FIG. 6 ), and ease of force required to position and force the extension portion 36 in the foam. Further, having the first and second base portions 46 and 48 which extend longitudinally provide a sufficient amount of rigidity to hold the rebar and further provide a sufficiently narrow cross-section (see FIG. 4 ) to fit within the foam material 22 , which as noted above, in one form is EPS. The stirrup can be higher, for example three-six inches (plus or minus say 20% in broader range), such as when utilizing a low distribution slab where the layer of concrete may be a thick layer so the rebar is positioned substantially in a central region thereof. In the broader scope, with a low distribution slab of say twelve inches, the stirrup region can extend vertically six inches or more. Even with the longer stirrup region, it has been found using the EPS foam that having the distance of approximately just under 4 inches (±30% in one form depending on the nature of the foam) provided a desirable combination of stability and ease of force depressing within CPS foam.
[0028] Therefore, as shown in FIG. 5 , the force vector 100 is applied to the rebar holding member 28 . The force 100 can be by way of an impact force such as a mallet-like member, or directly pushed by one who is constructing a foam concrete structure. When the extension portion 36 is fully inserted or at least substantially inserted within the foam 22 , in one form the base surface 94 is pressed thereagainst and the rebar 26 can be properly positioned within the central chamber region 94 . As shown in FIG. 6 , a plurality of rebar members 26 a and 26 b can be positioned within the various rebar holding members 28 . The support portion 38 is generally arranged to position the rebar a prescribed distance 102 from the outer surface 96 of the foam 22 (EPS in one form), and further positioned a prescribed distance 104 from the interior wall 108 of the outer mold member 30 .
[0029] FIG. 6 illustrates one method of manufacture where some form of outer mold member 30 is utilized in a lower wail or a lateral wall as shown in FIG. 6 . This outer mold member 30 can be a part of the final structure or removed thereafter. The interior wall 108 positions the un-cured concrete and maintains the desired form of the concrete until the concrete cures. The upper region 110 can additionally be poured and have concrete filled therein as shown FIG. 7 . Therefore, it can be appreciated that a foam concrete structure 20 can be more readily constructed with a higher degree of confidence of the orientation in position of the rebar contained therein. The rebar may be specified to be positioned in a central region of the overall width of the concrete layer, such as the region indicated at 32 in FIG. 7 .
[0030] In general, the device can be utilized in various forms, such as concrete sandwich panels, which in one form are poured in place, or alternatively can be pre-cast. Further, the device can be utilized in other forms, such as insulated heated floors, or further, precast concrete joists, decking, floors, or roofs and various compositions thereof. For example, the device could be utilized similar to decking for insulated reinforced concrete floor such as Decklite™ from Benchmark Foam, Inc. and other similar products from other manufactures.
[0031] While the present invention is illustrated by description of several embodiments and while the illustrative embodiments are described in detail, it is not the intention of the applicants to restrict or in any way limit the scope of the appended claims to such detail. Additional advantages and modifications within the scope of the appended claims will readily appear to those sufficed in the art. The invention in its broader aspects is therefore not limited to the specific details, representative apparatus and methods, and illustrative examples shown and described. Accordingly, departures may be made from such details without departing from the spirit or scope of Applicants' general concept.
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A fastener is disclosed having a an extension portion configured to be inserted into a first construction material such as foam, and having a stirrup portion configured to retain portion of a second construction material, such as rebar at a distance from the first construction material. A third construction material such as concrete can then be inserted (poured) in contact with the first construction material and surrounding the second construction material such that the second construction material is not directly in contact with the first construction material.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims priority to and the benefit of the filing of U.S. Provisional Patent Application Ser. No. 60/641,513, entitled “Spinning Threat Roll Bearing Estimator”, filed on Jan. 4, 2005, and the specification and claims thereof are incorporated herein by reference.
STATEMENT REGARDING FEDERALLY SPONSORED RESEARCH OR DEVELOPMENT
Not Applicable.
INCORPORATION BY REFERENCE OF MATERIAL SUBMITTED ON A COMPACT DISC
Not Applicable.
COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL
Not Applicable.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention (Technical Field)
The present invention relates to methods and apparatuses for obtaining an accurate bearing from a spinning projectile to a target emitting electromagnetic radiation.
2. Description of Related Art
The present invention provides the capability to locate cell-phone emitters rapidly before they can shut down. Other solutions to this problem involve either requiring that the emitter remain operational at least until munition apogee or by requiring additional assets such as a trailing wire antenna or a ground base station. With the present invention, only the antennas organic to the munition are required and emitter location is determined during the ascent phase of the flight.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is of an apparatus and method for determining a bearing from a spinning projectile to a target emitting electromagnetic radiation, comprising: disposing a plurality of electromagnetic radiation sensors on a body of the projectile; receiving sensed electromagnetic radiation from the plurality of sensors; determining a periodic phase modulation between pairs of the plurality of sensors; integrating the modulation over a plurality of revolutions of the projectile; and calculating a bearing estimate from the projectile to the target using the integration. In the preferred embodiment, the electromagnetic radiation is radio frequency radiation and the sensors comprise an aperture narrower than a frequency of the electromagnetic radiation. Selectable front-end filters between the sensors and the data processing element are preferably employed. The sensors preferably number four and are placed circumferentially around the body of the projectile. When two of the sensors are centered on the target, the range difference between the two of the sensors is zero. Phase/gain mismatches between channels are nulled. Preferably, the frequency of the electromagnetic radiation is 100 MHz or greater and the projectile is a munition.
Objects, advantages and novel features, and further scope of applicability of the present invention will be set forth in part in the detailed description to follow, taken in conjunction with the accompanying drawings, and in part will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon examination of the following, or may be learned by practice of the invention. The objects and advantages of the invention may be realized and attained by means of the instrumentalities and combinations particularly pointed out in the appended claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE SEVERAL VIEWS OF THE DRAWINGS
The accompanying drawings, which are incorporated into and form a part of the specification, illustrate one or more embodiments of the present invention and, together with the description, serve to explain the principles of the invention. The drawings are only for the purpose of illustrating one or more preferred embodiments of the invention and are not to be construed as limiting the invention. In the drawings:
FIG. 1 is a schematic diagram of the preferred apparatus according to the invention;
FIG. 2 illustrates the operation of the apparatus in flight;
FIG. 3 illustrates the operation of the invention to accurately measure roll angle to a target;
FIG. 4 is a graph of roll angle accuracy of the invention versus range and frequency; and
FIG. 5 is a graph of the geolocation performance of the invention, charting accuracy in meters versus time of operation of the invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
The Spinning Threat Roll Bearing Estimator (STROBE) of the invention is a method and apparatus that provides highly accurate bearing to an emitting target. The bearing is determined using passive location techniques during flight of a spinning object to obtain refined target location errors (TLE) small enough to be effective, e.g., with a mortar munition. The invention allows a spinning (rotating) munition (or other type of moving) body to accurately locate electromagnetic radiation (e.g., Radio Frequency (RF)) emitting devices with respect to the munition body. The invention allows for antennas with apertures less than the wavelength of the emitter to be located with respect to the munition body. The invention is compatible with standard techniques for guiding to the emitter currently used during the final descent phase of a munition's trajectory. These include phase or amplitude interferometry across the nose of the munition and doppler maximization to refine the emitter location, if the emitter remains in transmit operation.
STROBE is preferably used through the flight with the rotation of the munition body providing the scanning mechanism. Selectable front-end filters narrow the frequency search band. Using time of arrival measurements from the antenna array, STROBE mathematically computes and accurately locates the emitter. By coherently multiplying adjacent antenna pairs placed circumferentially around the munition, a periodic phase modulation is induced (see FIG. 3 ). This is a result of changing range difference between the elements caused by the spinning motion. When two antennas of the four (preferred number) are centered on the target, the range difference is zero. By integrating over many roll cycles, this position can be accurately determined and an angle “strobe” to the emitter is generated.
In the preferred embodiment, the invention comprises the following characteristics: (1) Four antennas are mounted circumferentially around the munition body; (2) Rotation of the munition body provides the scanning mechanism; (3) Selectable front-end filters narrow the frequency search band; (4) By coherently multiplying adjacent antenna pairs, a periodic phase modulation is induced (this is a result of changing range difference between elements caused by the spinning); (5) When two antennas are centered on the target, the range difference is zero; (6) By integrating over many roll cycles, this position can be accurately determined and an angle “strobe” to the emitter is generated; and (7) Integrating strobes over time during the munition flight provides emitter location.
The multiplicative receiver concept embodied in STROBE has several advantages over more traditional approaches, including: (1) The process is not dependent on signal type or modulation; (2) Phase/gain mismatches between channels are nulled, thus eliminating channel balance issues and reducing calibration requirements; (3) Matched filtering process extracts highest signal-to-noise ratio (SNR); (4) Rapid bearing estimation for guiding in azimuth; and (5) Accurate angle estimates for effective tactical passive ranging.
FIG. 1 illustrates the preferred apparatus 10 according to the invention. A plurality of antennas 12 , 12 ′, 12 ″, 12 ′″ ( 12 ′″ not shown) are located on the circumference of the spinning object. These provide signals to front-end filters 14 , 14 ′, 14 ″, 14 ′″ employed to narrow the detected frequency range, if desired. The filters then provide resulting signals to processor 16 , which employs the methods of the invention to determine angle to target.
FIG. 2 illustrates use of the invention in a mortar shell which determines target location during the ascending portion of flight, wherein: P 1 (t) and P 2 (t) are the received signal powers at the two antennas which fluctuate with antenna gain as the munition rolls and includes the effect of the fixed amplitude mismatch between the two channels: ΔR(t) is the fluctuating difference in emitter range between the antenna phase centers: λ is the wavelength of the emitter signal: ΔΦ 12 is the fixed phase mismatch between the two antenna channels; and n(t) is the noise process including thermal noise and sampling effects. FIG. 3 illustrates the processing of received signals to determine roll angle to target according to the invention and as understood by one of ordinary skill in the art. FIG. 4 shows that the present invention provides good roll angle accuracy down to at least 100 MHz. FIG. 5 shows that the present invention provides excellent geolocation down to 100 MHz with 20 sec of operation of the invention in-flight.
To summarize, the present invention allows a spinning (rotating) munition (or other type of moving) body to rapidly and accurately locate RF emitting devices with respect to the munition body.
The invention allows small antenna apertures (less than a wavelength) to be used to locate the emitter with respect to the munition body.
Although the invention has been described in detail with particular reference to these preferred embodiments, other embodiments can achieve the same results. Variations and modifications of the present invention will be obvious to those skilled in the art and it is intended to cover in the appended claims all such modifications and equivalents. The entire disclosures of all references, applications, patents, and publications cited above are hereby incorporated by reference.
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An apparatus and method for determining a bearing from a spinning projectile to a target emitting electromagnetic radiation comprising disposing a plurality of electromagnetic radiation sensors on a body of the projectile, receiving sensed electromagnetic radiation from the plurality of sensors, determining a periodic phase modulation between pairs of the plurality of sensors, integrating the modulation over a plurality of revolutions of the projectile, and calculating a bearing estimate from the projectile to the target using the integration.
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Genus and species of plant claimed: Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum.
Variety denomination: ‘PIILC-II’.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum , a member of the Hamamelidaceae family, hereinafter referred to by its cultivar name ‘PIILC-II’. This cultivar is grown primarily as an ornamental for landscape use and for use as a potted plant.
The cultivar originated from an open-pollination of Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum ‘Chang Nian Hong’ (not patented) in Watkinsville, Ga. in 2008, and was selected from the progeny seedlings of this open-pollination by continued evaluation for growth habit and improved foliage characteristics. The cultivar ‘PIILC-II’ originated and was discovered in a cultivated environment in an outdoor nursery in Watkinsville, Ga.
‘PIILC-II’ has been asexually reproduced by softwood cuttings since 2009 in Athens, Ga. and in Watkinsville, Ga. The characteristics of the cultivar have been stable and reproduced true to type in successive vegetative generations.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
‘PIILC-II’ has not been observed under all possible environmental conditions. The phenotype may vary somewhat with changes in light, temperature, soil and rainfall without, however, any variance in genotype.
The following traits have been observed and represent the characteristics of the new cultivar. In combination these characteristics distinguish ‘PIILC-II’ from all other varieties in commerce known to the inventor. 1) Compact, mounded, spreading growth habit. 2) Rich ruby-red new growth maturing to purplish green foliage that persists through summer and winter. 3) Bright reddish pink flowers in spring. 4) Improved cold hardiness compared to other compact purple-leaf cultivars.
‘PIILC-II’ is distinguished from its female parent ‘Chang Nian Hong’ by its growth habit and foliage color. ‘PIILC-II’ has a compact mounded, spreading growth habit reaching only 170 cm high×224 cm wide after about 4 years, whereas ‘Chang Nian Hong’ has an overall larger, rounded growth habit. ‘PIILC-II’ has rich, ruby-red new growth maturing to purplish green foliage that persists through summer and winter, whereas ‘Chang Nian Hong’ has duller red-purple foliage that will become greenish purple due to stress in summer and winter. There are no other cultivars of Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum with this combination of traits known to the inventor.
‘PIILC-II’ can be compared to the cultivar ‘Shang-hi’ (U.S. Plant Pat. No. 18,331) but is distinguished by its growth habit, foliage color, and flower color. ‘Shang-hi’ has a dense, upright, globose habit, dark purple foliage, and dark pink flowers, whereas ‘PIILC-II’ has a compact, mounded, spreading growth habit, rich ruby-red new growth maturing to purplish green foliage, and bright reddish pink flowers.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The accompanying illustrations show characteristics of the new cultivar in photographs as true to color as is reasonably possible to make in illustrations of this nature. Colors in the photographs may differ slightly from the color values cited in the detailed botanical description which accurately describe the colors of the new Loropetalum.
FIG. 1 illustrates the growth habit of a ‘PIILC-II’ plant growing in the ground.
FIG. 2 illustrates a close-up of the flowers of ‘PIILC-II’.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
In the following description, color references are made to The Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart, 2007 Edition, except where general terms of ordinary dictionary significance are used. Plants used for the description were approximately 2 and a half years old and were grown in 11.8 L containers under outdoor conditions in Watkinsville, Ga. Colors are described using The Royal Horticultural Society Colour Chart (R.H.S.).
Botanical classification: Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum , cultivar ‘PIILC-II’. Parentage:
Female, or seed, parent.—Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum ‘Chang Nian Hong’ (not patented). Male, or pollen, parent .—Unknown (open-pollinated).
Propagation: Type cutting: terminal cuttings.
Time to initiate roots, summer .—About 35 days at 32° C.
Plant description: Flowering shrub; compact, mounded, spreading growth habit. Freely branching; pruning enhances lateral branch development.
Root description.— Numerous, fine, fibrous and well-branched. Plant size.— The original plant, now about 4-years-old in the ground, is about 170 cm in height from the soil level to the top of the foliage, and about 224 cm in diameter. First year stems have a length of 25.4 cm to 30.48 cm. First year stems have a diameter of about 1 mm. Shape: round. Color: 187A. Pubescence: heavily stellate. Second year stems have a length of 45.72 cm to 60.96 cm. Second year and older stems have a diameter of about 3 mm or more. Shape: round. Color: 199B. Pubescence: none. Trunk diameter.— About 4 cm at the soil line. Color: 199A. Internode length.— About 1.4 cm. Strength.— Flexible when young, easily broken once mature. Bark.— Exfoliates in flakes beginning on second or third year stems.
Vegetative buds: Alternate in arrangement, imbricate, with stellate pubescence.
Color.— 185B. Size .—About 1 mm in length and 1 mm in width.
Foliage description:
Arrangement.— Alternate, simple. Length .—About 2.4 cm. Width .—About 1.7 cm. Shape .—Ovate-rounded. Apex .—Pointed. Base .—Oblique. Margin .—Finely toothed. Texture ( upper and lower surfaces ).—Sandpaper like pubescence. Venation pattern.— Pinnate. Venation color in developing foliage ( upper and lower surfaces ).—187A. Venation color in fully expanded foliage ( upper surface ).—N186A. Venation color in fully expanded foliage ( lower surface ).—59B. Color in developing foliage ( upper and lower surfaces ).—187A. Color in fully expanded foliage ( upper surface ).—N186A. Color in fully expanded foliage ( lower surface ).—N77C. Petiole length.— About 3 mm. Petiole diameter .—About 1 mm. Petiole color.— 187A. Pubescence .—Stellate.
Flower description: Flowers are produced in April in Watkinsville, Ga. and sporadically until frost. An inflorescence is showy for about two weeks, and individual flowers last about two to three days and are self-cleaning. Fragrance: none.
Inflorescence type.— Umbel produced from leaf axils and terminally. Inflorescence length ( depth ).—About 2.6 cm. Inflorescence width .—About 3.4 cm. Shape .—Four to five strap-like petals forming a loose funnel. Number of florets per inflorescence: 4-8. Sepals .—Arrangement: opposite. Number: 4. Shape: ovate. Margin. entire. Apex: acute to obtuse turning outward. Base: fused onto calyx cup. Length: 0.32 cm. Width: 0.2 cm. Texture: pubescent. Color: upper surface — 64C; lower surface — 59C. Peduncle.— About 3 mm in length, about 1 mm in diameter, color is 187A, with stellate pubescence. Flower buds.— Shape: orbicular. Length: about 4 mm. Diameter: about 2 mm. Quantity of flower buds: four to eight flower buds on branchlet terminals abundantly cover the plant. Color: 187D. Calyx.— About 6 mm in length, about 3 mm in diameter, color 187D both surfaces, with stellate pubescence.
Petals:
Arrangement/appearance .—Opposite, 4 to 6 per flower. Petal length.— About 2.4 cm. Petal width.— About 2.2 mm. Petal shape.— Strap-shaped. Petal apex .—Acuminate. Petal margin .—Entire. Texture .—Smooth. Petal base .—Obtuse. Petal color.— Upper and lower surfaces are 60B.
Stamens:
Quantity/arrangement.— 4 or 5 stamens, 1.5 mm long, 0.3 mm in width, and 187B in color. Pollen .—Produced in very small quantities and is 158A in color.
Pistils:
Quantity.— One or two inferior pistils per flower. Pubescence .—None. Pistil length .—About 2.5 mm in length. Pistil color.— 60A. Stigma .—Rounded, 60A in color. Style.— 1 mm in length and 60A in color. Ovary.— 1.5 mm in length, 1.5 mm in diameter, and 60A in color.
Fruit:
Type/appearance.— Woody, two-valved, ovoid capsule. Length .—About 6 mm. Diameter .—About 4 mm. Mature color .—Close to 200C. Each capsule contains one or two seeds that are about 5 mm long, 2 mm wide, and close to 200A in color. A mature plant will produce 25 to 50 fruits.
Plant hardiness:
Plant hardiness .—USDA Plant Hardiness Zone Map (2012): Zone 7 to 9.
Plants of the claimed Loropetalum cultivar grown in the garden have not been noted to be susceptible or resistant to pathogens and pests common to Loropetalum.
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A new and distinct cultivar of Loropetalum chinense var. rubrum plant named ‘PIILC-II’, characterized by its compact, mounded, spreading growth habit; rich ruby-red new growth maturing to purplish green foliage that persists through summer and winter; bright reddish pink flowers in spring; and improved cold hardiness compared to other compact purple-leaf cultivars.
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BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a data accessing method and system, and particularly relates to a system including master and slave devices.
2. Description of the Prior Art
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating prior art writing operations between master devices and slave devices. As shown in FIG. 1 , master devices include a master device 101 and a master device 103 , and slave devices include a slave device 105 and a slave device 107 . The master device 101 includes a processor that can process less data each process cycle (for example, 24 bit), and the master device 103 includes a processor that can process more data each process cycle (for example, 32 bit). Also, the slave device 105 can access less data each process cycle (for example, 24 bit), and the slave device 107 can access more data each process cycle (for example, 32 bit). The master device 101 and the master device 103 can respectively write data to the slave device 105 and the slave device 107 , as indicated by the arrows shown in FIG. 1 . However, since the empty space of the slave device can not be filled with blank data or null data and all data received by the slave device must be data having meanings, some problem will happen if a master device writes data less than the data amount that a slave device can receive each process cycle to the slave device. For example, the master device 101 writes 24 bit data to the slave device 107 .
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating prior art reading operations between master devices and slave devices. Similar with FIG. 1 , master devices in FIG. 2 include a master device 201 (24 bit) and a master device 203 (32 bit), and slave devices include a slave device 205 (24 bit) and a slave device 207 (32 bit). The master device 201 and the master device 203 can respectively read data from the slave device 205 and the slave device 207 , as indicated by the arrows shown in FIG. 2 . However, a problem will develop if a master device reads more data than the data amount the master device can process each process cycle. For example, the master device 201 reads 32 bits data from the slave device 207 .
Therefore, a new data accessing method and a system utilizing the data accessing method is needed to solve the above-mentioned problems.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
One objective of the present invention is to provide a data accessing method and system to overcome the above-mentioned problems.
One embodiment of the present invention discloses a data accessing system for bridging a first master device and a second master device to a first slave device and a second slave device. The data accessing system includes: a register; a first multiplexer, for outputting one of outputs from the first master device and the second master device to both the first slave device and the second slave device, according to a controlling signal; a second multiplexer, for outputting one of outputs from the first slave device and the second slave device to both the first master device and the second master device, according to the controlling signal; a control unit, for generating the control signal and for performing in a first mode, if the first master device generates a first data and a second data to the second slave device in order, including: extracting part of the first data, controlling the register to register the extracted part of the first data, merging the registered part of the first data and the second data to generate a merged data as the output of the first multiplexer; and writing the merged data to the second slave device; wherein the control unit further performs in a second mode, if the first master device reads a data from the second slave device: extracting part of the data, including: controlling the register to register part of the data, controlling the second multiplexer to output the un-registered part of the data and registered part of the data in order; and controlling the first master device to read un-registered part of the data and the registered part of the data in order.
According above mentioned description, new data accessing method and a system utilizing the data accessing method can be acquired. By this way, the prior art problem described in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 can be avoided.
These and other objectives of the present invention will no doubt become obvious to those of ordinary skill in the art after reading the following detailed description of the preferred embodiment that is illustrated in the various figures and drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a block diagram illustrating prior art writing operations between master devices and slave devices.
FIG. 2 is a block diagram illustrating prior art reading operations between master devices and slave devices.
FIG. 3 is a data accessing system according to an embodiment of the present invention.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
Certain terms are used throughout the description and following claims to refer to particular components. As one skilled in the art will appreciate, electronic equipment manufacturers may refer to a component by different names. This document does not intend to distinguish between components that differ in name but not function. In the following description and in the claims, the terms “include” and “comprise” are used in an open-ended fashion, and thus should be interpreted to mean “include, but not limited to . . . ”. Also, the term “couple” is intended to mean either an indirect or direct electrical connection. Accordingly, if one device is coupled to another device, that connection may be through a direct electrical connection, or through an indirect electrical connection via other devices and connections.
FIG. 3 is a data accessing system 300 according to an embodiment of the present invention. As shown in FIG. 3 , the data accessing system 300 includes a master device 301 (24 bit), a master device 303 (32 bit), multiplexers 305 , 307 , a slave device 309 (24 bit), a slave device 311 (32 bit), a control unit 313 and a register 315 . The master devices 301 and 303 can be processors. Please note that the devices and structures shown in FIG. 3 are only for example and do not mean to limit the scope of the present invention. Also, the multiplexers 305 , 307 , the control unit 313 and the register 315 can be regarded as a bus system according to an embodiment of the present invention, for bridging a master device 301 and a master device 303 to a slave device 309 and a slave device 311 .
Please refer to the master device 301 , the master device 303 , the multiplexers 305 , the slave device 309 , the slave device 311 , the control unit 313 and the register 315 . These devices perform writing operations of the data accessing system 300 . The master device 301 or a master device 303 will send information to inform the controller 313 when the master device 301 or the master device 303 requires sending data Out a1 or Out a2 to the slave device 309 or the slave device 311 . The control unit 313 will send a control signal CS to select one of the data Out a1 or Out a2 as the output data Out m1 of the multiplexer 305 according to the requirement of the master device 301 or the master device 303 . The control unit 313 further controls one of the slave device 309 and the slave device 311 to receive the output data Out m1 of the multiplexer 305 , and controls the other one of the slave device 309 and the slave device 311 to reject the output data Out m1 of the multiplexer 305 . In one embodiment, if the data Out a1 is written to the slave device 309 , or the data Out a2 is output to the slave device 309 , normal written operations are performed.
However, if data Out a1 (24 bit) is written to the slave device 311 (32 bit), the problem described in FIG. 1 will happen, therefore a special data writing method according to the present invention is performed. In one embodiment, the master device 301 generates a requirement of writing data to the slave device 311 , and the master device 301 generates a first output data Out a1 (24 bit) and a second output data Out a1 (24 bit) to the slave device 311 in order. The control unit 313 performs that 8 bits of the first output data Out a1 is registered in the register 315 in the slave device 309 . After that, the second output data Out a1 that is output after the first output data Out a1 will be merged with the 8 bit registered data to form a 32 bit merged data, and the multiplexer 305 outputs the 32 bit merged data according to a control signal CS. Then the 32 bit merged data is written to the slave device 311 . By this way, the slave device 311 will have no empty space and the problem described in FIG. 1 can be avoided. The 8 bit registered data can be LSB (Least significant bit) or MSB (Most significant bit) of the first output data Out a1 , but this does not mean to limit it to these bits. Besides, it should be noted the register 105 is not limited to be included in the slave device 309 and the register 105 can be independent from the slave device 309 . Furthermore, the slave devices and the master devices are not limited to 24 bit and 32 bit, and the registered data is not limited to 8 bit.
Therefore, the writing operation of the data accessing system 300 can be summarized as follows: Utilize a first electronic device (for example, master device 301 ) to provide a first data (for example, first output data Out a1 ). Extract and register part of the first data (for example, 8 bits of the first output data Out a1 ). Provide a second data (for example, second output data Out a1 generated after the first output data Out a1 ). Merge the registered part of the first data and the second data to generate a merged data. Write the merged data to a second electronic device (for example, slave device 311 ). These operation steps can also be regarded as a data writing method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
Besides the writing operations, the reading operations of the data accessing system 300 are described in the following description. Please refer to the master device 301 , the master device 303 , the multiplexer 307 , the slave device 309 , the slave device 311 , the control unit 313 and the register 315 . These devices perform reading operations of the data accessing system 300 . The master device 301 or a master device 303 will send information to inform the controller 313 when the master device 301 or the master device 303 requires reading data Out s1 , or Out s2 from the slave device 309 or the slave device 311 . The control unit 313 will send a control signal CS to the multiplexer 307 for selecting one of the data Out s1 or Out s2 as the output data Out m2 of the multiplexer 307 . The control unit 313 further controls one of the master device 301 and the master device 303 to receive the output data Out m2 of the multiplexer 307 , and controls the other one of the master device 301 and the master device 303 to reject the output data Out m2 of the multiplexer 307 . In one embodiment, if the master device 301 reads data Out s1 , or the master device 303 reads data Out s1 or Out s2 , normal reading operations are performed.
However, if the master device 301 (24 bit) reads the data Out s2 (32 bit), the problem described in FIG. 2 will happen, therefore a special reading method according to the present invention is performed. In one embodiment, the master device 301 (24 bit) generates a requirement of reading a data Out s2 (32 bit) from the second slave device to the control unit 313 . The control unit 313 performs that 8 bits of the data Out s2 is extracted and registered in the register 105 in the slave device 309 . After that, the multiplexer 307 outputs the un-registered 24 bit data of the data Out s2 and the registered 8 bit data of the data Out s2 in order according to a control signal CS. The master device 301 reads the un-registered 24 bit data of the data Out s2 first. Then the master device 301 reads the registered 8 bit data, and the empty space of the master device 301 can be filled with blank data. By this way, the problem described in FIG. 2 can be avoided. Besides, it should be noted the register 315 is not limited to being included in the slave device 309 and there can be independent from the slave device 309 . Furthermore, the slave devices and the master device are not limited to 24 bit and 32 bit, and the registered data is not limited to 8 bit.
Therefore, the reading operation of the data accessing system 300 can be summarized as follows: Read a data (for example, the master device 301 reads 32 bit data from the slave device 311 ). Register part of the data (for example, 8 bit data of the 32 bit data from the slave device 311 ). Read un-registered part of the data (for example, the un-registered 24 bit data of the 32 bit data from the slave device 311 ). Read the registered part of the data. These operation steps can also be regarded as a data reading method according to an embodiment of the present invention.
According to the above mentioned description, a new data accessing method and a system utilizing the data accessing method can be acquired. By this way, the prior art problem described in FIG. 1 and FIG. 2 can be avoided.
Those skilled in the art will readily observe that numerous modifications and alterations of the device and method may be made while retaining the teachings of the invention.
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A data accessing system bridges a first master device and a second master device to a first slave device and a second slave device. The data accessing system includes a register, a first multiplexer, a second multiplexer and a control unit. The amount of data that the first master device can process each cycle is less than which of the second slave device. The data accessing system can solve the problem when the first master device writes data to the second slave device via merging two different data. Also, the data accessing system can solve the problem when the first master device reads data to the second slave device via extracting part of the data.
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[0001] CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0002] This application claims priority to U.S. Provisional Application No. 60/269141, filed Feb. 15, 2001 (the '141 application) and U.S. Provisional Application No. ______, filed Feb. 14, 2002 (the '_______application). The application filed Feb. 14, 2002 corresponds to Dorsey & Whitney Docket No. 10030US.01. The '141 application and the '______application are both hereby incorporated by reference as though fully set forth herein.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
[0003] a. Field of the Invention
[0004] The present invention relates to the field of curved ceilings and support systems for curved ceilings. In particular, the present invention relates to a support system that may be pre-curved or curved at a job site and to panels fabricated from metal or other materials that are suspended by the support system and that obscure the support system.
[0005] b. Background Art
[0006] Metal ceilings are known in the art. There are two types of metal ceilings: a linear ceiling and a tile ceiling. A typical linear ceiling is formed at the job site into long, longitudinally-extending panels with no predetermined length, and hung with perpendicular supports coupled to the back of the panels. A typical tile ceiling is made of ceiling tiles of a predetermined size manufactured off of the job site and suspended by a T-grid suspension system. The T-grid system is first suspended from the rough ceiling and then the ceiling tile is mounted to the grid. Typically there will be both longitudinal and latitudinal supports. This support grid is necessary to suspend the panels.
[0007] When using metal ceilings, it is preferable to have upstands positioned at the interface of the panels to hide any supporting grid work. This is usually more of an issue with tile panels than with linear ceilings, because the tile panel uses a support grid, whereas the longitudinal panel has perpendicular supports suspending the panel. The upstands are shaped and subsequently positioned in a manner that substantially hides the grid support system. Hiding the grid is one method of hanging a metal ceiling panel.
[0008] The tile ceiling system with upstands that hide the support system requires that both the T-grid support and the panel be curved at the factory prior to shipping to the job site. Shipping this type of panel can be difficult and expensive. The curve of the panel must be supported, and much air is shipped. To alleviate this problem with a curved T-grid support system, an alternate ceiling panel system is available. This ceiling panel system uses a flat piece of metal with no upstands on its edges. This metal panel does not hide the T-grid, but instead is supported by the up face of the “T” of the T-grid support. The metal panel can be shipped flat to the job site and takes the curve of the T-grid support, which still must be curved off of the job site at a manufacturing facility. Since the T-grid is not hidden by this system, this ceiling is not as aesthetically pleasing as the ceiling with upstands that hide the support system.
[0009] The T-grid support used to support known metal tile ceilings is comprised of four independent pieces of metal roll formed together to create a single piece. Because of the complexity of curving an individual piece of metal created from four pieces of metal, any curving has to be done off site.
BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
[0010] The above discussed and other problems with the prior art are addressed by the ceiling panels and ceiling support system of the present invention. The ceiling system of the present invention includes a ceiling support system, a ceiling panel, and a panel locking device that holds the ceiling panel to the ceiling support system. The ceiling panel has at least a longitudinal three-dimensional edge and may include three-dimensional edges perpendicular to the longitudinal edge. The ceiling panel remains flat until placed onto a curved longitudinal support. The ceiling support system can be curved at the job site with a radius ranging from one foot to flat, and more preferably from four feet to flat, and most preferably from about eight feet to flat. The panel locking device holds the adjoining ceiling panels to the ceiling support system.
[0011] The ceiling panel is preferably made from a sheet of metal with longitudinally extending, upstanding edges. The upstanding edges provide both structural support and aesthetics. By using an upstanding edge, the panel can be coupled to the support system in a manner that hides the support system, thus providing a more aesthetically pleasing ceiling. An important element of a metal ceiling panel is the ratio of the height of the upstanding edge to the thickness of the sheet metal for the type of metal being used. This ratio determines if a flat panel with upstanding edges will follow the curve of a curved support system. In one embodiment this ratio is, for a 1063 T5 Aluminum sheet metal, 0.400 inches upstand height to 0.032 inches sheet metal thickness. For other types of metals and thicknesses the ratio may be different. Generally, the panel has an edge that can be coupled to the support system to hide the support system and will first lay flat, and then follow the curve of the longitudinal supports.
[0012] The upstand has two basic shapes, though many other shapes could be used. One of the two shapes is a C-shape in which the upstand is created by an outwardly facing ninety degree turns to create essentially a C-shape at the edge of the panel. The other shape is a Z-shape in which the upstand is created by an outwardly facing ninety degree angle to create a Z-shape at the edge of the panel, with the Z being formed with ninety degree angles. Essentially the C-shape creates an upstand with a flange directed inwardly toward the panel and the Z-shape creates and upstand with a flange directed outwardly from the panel.
[0013] The support system in the present invention is a unique design. In the present embodiment the support member is a robust extruded aluminum rail having a shape resembling a T or I. The design includes a longitudinally extending slot at the bottom of the T that allows for the capture of a panel lock clip that locks in the upstand of the panel. Once locked into place the panel cannot move. The T of the support member flanges out in both directions from the center leg of the T. Small hooks then, basically, curl back toward the T to help support or capture the upstand. The shape of the T-support member may be different if a C-shaped flange or upstand is formed on the ceiling panel instead of a Z-shaped flange or upstand.
[0014] Being made of a single extrusion, the support member can be easily shaped in the field with the proper tool. The radius of the curve can change over length or remain the same. Multiple curves can be added to a support member, and the curve from one longitudinal support member to the next adjacent longitudinal support member can change a small amount and on and on. This change creates a dome like appearance for the ceiling when the ceiling tile is ultimately applied. A typical curve would be about an eight-foot radius to flat. Support members with curves having radii as small as three feet have been shaped. It is conceivable that a support member could be shaped to a curve with a radius of one foot. It should be noted that the support member may comprise multiple smaller segments rather than a single segment where ease of storage, shipping, or assembly so dictate.
[0015] Panel locks couple the ceiling panel to the support member. These may include a support lock that slides into a channel or channels extruded into the support member and are captured by the support member. The locks may then place the upstand of the panel into contact with the hooks of the support member, thus securing the panel. The panel locks may be an integral portion of the panel itself, such as a groove or extrusion, a separate lock, button, or clip, or may simply be the unadorned panel edge capable of interlocking with the aforementioned support members.
[0016] The C-panel lock or clip is either spring operated in one embodiment or alternatively screw driver operated in a second embodiment. Each system will be discussed in more detail below. The Z-panel clip or lock may be spring loaded.
[0017] The invention also involves an installation tool for use in assembling a ceiling panel to a support beam. The installation tools includes a support bar having a first end portion and a second end portion. A first support bracket assembly is connected with the first end portion and a second support bracket assembly is connected with the second end portion. Each support bracket assembly includes a brace and a blade. Each support bracket assemblies may also include a first separator rotatably connected with each end portion of the support bar. The separator defines a finger portion adapted to engage a strike plate on the brace to bias the first brace away from the first blade. The installation tool may be suspended between two support beams. In one embodiment, the support bracket assemblies are each secured to a support beam. When suspended, the support bar portion of the installation tool extends between and below the two support beams to provide a support upon which a panel may be rested to assist an installer in the installation of the panel.
[0018] A unique method of supporting the panel for installation also exists. This support tool provides for an installation support to be positioned under the panel and coupled to the support beams. When two installation supports are in place, the flat panel can be slid into place by a single person and then subsequently coupled to the support beams, again by a single person or installer. This feature allows installation of a curved or flat metal ceiling panel by a single person.
[0019] Other objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent as the following specification progresses, reference being had to the accompanying drawings for an illustration of one example of the invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0020] [0020]FIG. 1 is an isometric view of the curved ceiling system of the present invention;
[0021] [0021]FIG. 2 depicts a curved support beam section forming a concave arc depicting a possible notch and hole configuration;
[0022] [0022]FIG. 3 is an enlarged, detailed view of the end portion of the curved support beam section depicted in FIG. 2 and labeled with the number 3;
[0023] [0023]FIG. 4 is an enlarged, detailed view showing a mid portion of the curved support beam depicted in FIG. 2;
[0024] [0024]FIG. 5 is an isometric view of a clip-in beam joiner that may be used to connect abutting support beam sections like the one depicted in FIG. 2;
[0025] [0025]FIG. 6 is a cross sectional view taken through the center support of the clip-in beam joiner depicted in FIG. 5, the cross section taken along line 6-6;
[0026] [0026]FIG. 7 is a top planed view of the clip-in beam joiner depicted in FIGS. 5 and 6, showing the lazy H-shaped cross section;
[0027] [0027]FIG. 8 is a metal beam joiner that may be used as a substitute for the clip-in beam joiner depicted in FIGS. 5 - 7 ;
[0028] [0028]FIG. 9 is an isometric view of a metal beam joiner that is being positioned to join to support beam sections in an end-to-end abutting relationship;
[0029] [0029]FIG. 10 is similar to FIG. 9, but shows that the metal beam joiner has been fully installed by folding the punched tabs inwardly toward the main webs of the adjacent support beam sections;
[0030] [0030]FIG. 11 is an exploded, isometric view of an optional cross brace that may be temporarily or permanently used to maintain the relative position of a first support beam section to an adjacent, parallel support beam section;
[0031] [0031]FIG. 12 is an enlarged, fragmentary view of one end of the cross brace depicted in FIG. 11, showing in more detail the notching of the cross brace;
[0032] [0032]FIG. 13 is a fragmentary planed view looking downwardly on a C-panel having inwardly-directed ledges for returns along the long edges of the panel;
[0033] [0033]FIG. 14 is a view taken along line 14 - 14 of FIG. 13, depicting an end view of a panel short edge;
[0034] [0034]FIG. 15 is an enlarged, fragmentary view of the C-panel portion within the dashed circle numeral 15 of FIG. 14, depicting a C-panel upstand;
[0035] [0035]FIG. 16 is a schematic, fragmentary, isometric view of the C-panel depicted in FIGS. 13 - 15 ;
[0036] [0036]FIG. 17 is an isometric view of an asymmetric panel lock button that may be installed in the field;
[0037] [0037]FIG. 18 is a cross sectional view taken along line 18 - 18 of FIG. 17 and clearly depicting the screw driver slot;
[0038] [0038]FIG. 19 is an isometric view similar to FIG. 17 but depicting an asymmetric panel lock button that is installed in a support beam before the support beam is transported to the installation site;
[0039] [0039]FIG. 20 is a cross sectional view taken along line 20 - 20 of FIG. 19 and clearly depicting the screw driver slot;
[0040] [0040]FIG. 21 is an end view of a square head support beam supporting two C-panels with the asymmetric panel lock button of FIGS. 19 and 20 installed and oriented to permit installation or removal of the left and C-panel depicted in FIG. 21;
[0041] [0041]FIG. 22 is an isometric view looking downwardly at a leaf spring panel lock that may be used as an alternative to the asymmetric panel lock buttons depicted in FIGS. 17 - 20 ;
[0042] [0042]FIG. 23 is a fragmentary isometric view looking upwardly at two C-panels that are installed on a square head support beam with a leaf spring panel lock in place;
[0043] [0043]FIG. 24 is an end view of the combination depicted in FIG. 23, clearly depicting the staggered nature of the panel locking humps that are also visible in FIGS. 22 and 23;
[0044] [0044]FIG. 25 depicts a spline panel lock being used in combination with a square head support beam to keep two C-panels in their mounted configuration;
[0045] [0045]FIG. 26 is an isometric view looking downwardly at the spline panel lock depicted in FIG. 25;
[0046] [0046]FIG. 27 is an end view of a threaded groove support beam that may be used to mount two C-panels and depicts the hex set locking screw just prior to installation in the lower portion of the threaded groove support beam to lock the panels in position;
[0047] [0047]FIG. 28 is an enlarged isometric view of the hex set locking screw depicted in FIG. 27;
[0048] [0048]FIG. 29 depicts a top-down view of a Z-panel in accordance with an embodiment of the present invention.
[0049] [0049]FIG. 30 depicts a cross-sectional view taken along line H-H of the Z-panel of FIG. 29.
[0050] [0050]FIG. 31 depicts an expanded view of the panel long edge as shown in FIG. 30.
[0051] [0051]FIG. 32 depicts an isometric view of the Z-panel of FIGS. 29 - 31 , more clearly displaying the outwardly-directed ledge and Z-panel upstand running along the first and second panel long edges.
[0052] [0052]FIG. 33 depicts a cross-sectional view of a Z-panel support beam and an installed Z-panel.
[0053] [0053]FIG. 34 depicts an isometric view of a panel locking strip.
[0054] [0054]FIG. 35 depicts a top-down view of a C-panel with altered first and second panel short edges.
[0055] [0055]FIG. 36 depicts a cross-sectional view taken along line I-I of the wall-flange C panel of FIG. 35.
[0056] [0056]FIG. 37 depicts a detail view of the notch of the wall-flange C panel shown in FIGS. 35 and 36.
[0057] [0057]FIG. 38 depicts a cross-sectional side view taken along line K-K of FIG. 35, showing the flange end form in greater detail.
[0058] [0058]FIG. 39 depicts a detailed view of the wall end form taken along line J-J of FIG. 35.
[0059] [0059]FIG. 40 depicts an isometric view of the wall-flange C panel.
[0060] [0060]FIG. 41 depicts a cross-sectional side view of two installed wall-flange C panels resting on a support beam, taken along the panel long edge.
[0061] [0061]FIG. 42 depicts a top-down view of a wall-flange Z panel.
[0062] [0062]FIG. 43 depicts a front view along the long axis of the wall-flange Z panel of FIG. 42.
[0063] [0063]FIG. 44 depicts a detail view of the Z-panel upstand of the wall-flange Z panel shown in FIGS. 42 and 43.
[0064] [0064]FIG. 45 depicts a detail view of the wall end form of the wall-flange Z panel shown in FIG. 42.
[0065] [0065]FIG. 46 depicts a detail view of the flange end form of the wall-flange Z panel shown in FIG. 42.
[0066] [0066]FIG. 47 depicts an isometric view of the wall-flange Z panel.
[0067] [0067]FIG. 48 depicts one embodiment of a wall treatment for a C-shaped ceiling panel.
[0068] [0068]FIG. 49 depicts a three-quarter view of an installed wall treatment including the adjustable support and wall edge trim.
[0069] [0069]FIG. 50 depicts a wall treatment for use with such a partial panel.
[0070] [0070]FIG. 51 depicts an interval upstand extending from a ceiling panel.
[0071] [0071]FIG. 52 depicts an isometric view of the wall treatment of FIG. 50 showing the hanger ledge and the interval upstand in their installed positions.
[0072] [0072]FIG. 53 depicts yet another embodiment of a wall treatment for use with a partial panel.
[0073] [0073]FIG. 54 depicts an isometric view of the wall treatment shown in FIG. 53.
[0074] [0074]FIG. 55 depicts a cross-sectional view of a floating beam corner capable of hiding a floating ceiling edge created by a partial panel.
[0075] [0075]FIG. 56 depicts an isometric view of the floating beam corner of FIG. 55.
[0076] [0076]FIG. 57 depicts floating beam corner capable of hiding a floating ceiling edge created by a full C-panel.
[0077] [0077]FIG. 58 depicts a panel splice.
[0078] [0078]FIG. 59 depicts the panel splice of FIG. 58 being used as a long edge end treatment.
[0079] [0079]FIG. 60 depicts a cross-sectional view taken along the long axis of a pair of C-panels showing the panel splice of FIG. 58 mating two panels along their respective short edges.
[0080] [0080]FIG. 61 depicts a floating wall treatment for a ceiling panel short edge.
[0081] [0081]FIG. 62 depicts a cross-section of the short edge floating wall treatment of FIG. 61 affixed to a C-panel.
[0082] [0082]FIG. 63 depicts an isometric view of an alternate embodiment of a short edge floating wall treatment in use.
[0083] [0083]FIG. 64 depicts a cross-sectional view of the short edge floating wall treatment of FIG. 63 when used adjacent a support beam.
[0084] [0084]FIG. 65 is a perspective view of an installation tool according to one embodiment of the invention;
[0085] [0085]FIG. 66 is an exploded perspective view of the installation tool illustrated in FIG. 65;
[0086] [0086]FIG. 67 is a side view of a support bracket assembly of the installation tool according to one embodiment of the invention;
[0087] [0087]FIG. 68 is a perspective view of a blade support bracket of the support bracket assembly according to one embodiment of the invention;
[0088] [0088]FIG. 69 is a perspective view of a brace support bracket of the support bracket assembly according to one embodiment of the invention;
[0089] [0089]FIG. 70 is a perspective view of a separator support bracket of the support bracket assembly according to one embodiment of the invention;
[0090] [0090]FIG. 71 is a side view of the installation tool in engagement with a support beam and supporting a panel according to one embodiment of the invention; and
[0091] [0091]FIG. 72 is an exploded perspective view of one side of the installation tool with an alternative embodiment of the support bracket assembly.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
[0092] Referring first to FIG. 1, the ceiling system of the present invention is shown generally at 10 . Ceiling system 10 includes a plurality of panels 12 mounted between parallel support beams 14 . Each panel has a panel long edge 16 and a panel short edge 18 . The support beams are attached to the actual ceiling structure of a room (not shown) by a plurality of strategically placed suspension wires 20 . A number of metal beam joiners 22 are depicted in the embodiment of FIG. 1, each metal beam joiner being used to connect two curved support beams positioned in an abutting end-to-end relationship. This technique for joining longitudinally abutting support beams is described further below in connection with FIGS. 8 - 10 . Details concerning how the panels are connected to the support beams are provided below.
[0093] [0093]FIG. 1 is merely a sample configuration that may be obtained using the present invention. The curvature seen in the support beams 14 and panels 12 of FIG. 1 may be accomplished on the actual job site where the ceiling is being installed.
[0094] In general, the panels 12 depicted in FIG. 1 are shipped flat and only become curved when the panels are installed and thus take on the shape of the support beams 14 . Also, the ceiling panels can be transitioned across a ceiling from a curved section to a flat section. As shown in FIG. 1, the support beams are hung by typical ceiling suspension wires 20 that are known in the art. The suspension wires are fixedly attached to the actual ceiling structure of a room on one end and are attached to suspension wire mounting holes (see, e.g., FIG. 9) on their opposite ends as described further below.
[0095] As also shown in FIG. 1, the ceiling panels 12 are typically longer than they are wide. In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 1, the panel short edges 18 extend between adjacent support beams, and the panel long edges 16 extend along a support beam 14 . Adjacent panels may be arranged end-to-end as shown in FIG. 1 so that the panel short edge of one panel abuts the panel short edge of an adjacent panel.
[0096] [0096]FIG. 2 depicts a curved support beam 14 in the shape of a concave arc. The support beam may be any desired length. For example, the support beam shown in FIG. 2 may be a single twelve foot piece of metal curving to follow a portion of an eight foot radius circle. FIG. 3 is a detailed view of the region encircled at the left hand portion of FIG. 2. Similarly, FIG. 4 is a detailed view of the region encircled at the mid portion of the curved support beam 14 of FIG. 2. As may be seen in each of FIGS. 2 - 4 , rectangular holes 24 may be notched at regular or irregular intervals along the support beam. These notches may serve a variety of purposes. For example, as explained below in connection with FIG. 5- 10 , these notches may be used to connect end-to-end abutting support beams. Also, as will be described further in connection with FIGS. 11 and 12, a cross brace, which may optionally be placed between a pair of support beams, locks into a notch at each end of the cross brace. Also visible in FIGS. 2 - 4 are mounting or clearance holes 26 . In the embodiment depicted in FIGS. 2 - 4 , a pair of mounting holes straddles each rectangular hole. As will be described further below, these mounting holes may receive a bolt or screw used to attach a support beam to a wall or other surface.
[0097] Referring next to FIGS. 5 - 7 , a clip-in beam joiner 28 , which may be used to join or tie together two support beams 14 that are positioned in an end-to-end abutting relationship, is described next. FIG. 5 is an isometric view looking downwardly at the clip-in beam joiner having an H-shaped cross section. FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken along line 6 - 6 of FIG. 5 through the center support web 30 of the clip-in beam joiner. FIG. 7 is an end view which clearly depicts the internal, ramp-shaped barbs 32 or catches comprising part of the clip-in beam joiner. The clip-in beam joiner comprises four plates 34 that extend outwardly from the center support web. The two plates ( 34 a, 34 b ) that extend outwardly away from one side of the center support web define a first gap 36 between them, and a similar second gap 38 is formed between the remaining two plates ( 34 c, 34 d ) that extend outwardly from the opposite side of the center support web.
[0098] The ramp shaped retention barbs 32 depicted to best advantage in FIG. 7 are mounted within these two gaps ( 36 , 38 )—two in each gap. Referring most specifically to FIG. 6, each internal barb comprises a plurality of surfaces. For example, each barb comprises a lead in surface 40 , a ramp surface 42 , a ramp apex 44 , a locking ledge 46 (FIG. 7), and a rear surface 48 .
[0099] To install the clip-in beam joiner 28 , two support beams 14 would be arranged as depicted in, for example, FIG. 9. The clip-in beam joiner has a height 50 (FIG. 6) that may be accommodated by the main beam web 52 (FIG. 9) of a support beam 14 . The clip-in beam joiner is first attached to the main beam web of one support beam by sliding the main beam web into one of the two gaps ( 36 , 38 ) defined between the outwardly extending plates 34 of the clip-in beam joiner. Once the clip-in beam joiner is pushed longitudinally along the support beam a sufficient distance, the ramp shaped barb 32 snaps into the rectangular notch 24 or hole closest to the end of that support beam. The clip-in beam joiner is then locked onto the first support beam to be joined. The main beam web 52 of the second support beam to be clipped is then slid into the opposing gap of the clip-in beam joiner until the ramp shaped barbs 32 in this opposite gap snap into the corresponding rectangular notch 24 adjacent to the abutting edge of the second support beam. Once the clip-in beam joiner is properly locked in position, thereby holding the two support beams in abutting end-to-end relationship, the clip-in beam joiner would rest in a position similar to the position of the metal beam joiner 54 depicted in FIG. 10.
[0100] Referring most particularly to FIGS. 8 - 10 , installation of a metal beam joiner 54 , which would be used as an alternative to the clip-in beam joiner of FIGS. 5 - 7 , is described next. As shown in FIG. 8, the metal beam joiner comprises a pair of punched tabs 56 . Before the metal beam joiner is installed to join a pair of support beams 14 , the punched tabs extend substantially perpendicularly away from the metal beam joiner main body. During installation of the metal beam joiner, two support beams are again placed in abutting, end-to-end relationship. FIG. 9 shows two support beams just prior to being in such abutting, end-to-end relationship, and the metal beam joiner as depicted in FIG. 9 is exploded away from its installed position.
[0101] Once the two support beams 14 to be joined are slid together as shown in FIG. 10, the metal beam joiner 54 can be installed. Installation of the metal beam joiner requires slipping the punched tabs 56 through appropriate notched holes 24 at the longitudinal ends of the adjacent support beams to be joined. Once the punched tabs are slid through these notched holes, the punched tabs are folded inwardly as depicted by the arrows in FIG. 10, or, alternatively, the punch tabs could be folded outwardly against the main beam web 52 , 180 degrees from the folded positions depicted in FIG. 10.
[0102] Referring most specifically to FIGS. 9 and 10, additional support beam details are described next. FIGS. 9 and 10 depict one possible embodiment for a support beam 14 . In this embodiment, working upwardly from the lower portion of the support beam, a panel support portion 58 may first be seen. This panel support portion comprises a series of channels and ledges that are described in greater detail in connection with FIG. 21. The panel support portion is connected to an intermediate wall 60 by the main beam web. It is the main beam web that was just described as having rectangular notches and mounting holes therethrough. The intermediate wall is connected to a beam cap 62 by a suspension web 64 . The suspension web has a plurality of suspension wire mounting holes 66 through it. The suspension wires 20 depicted in FIG. 1 extend between these suspension wire mounting holes and the actual ceiling structure (not shown).
[0103] [0103]FIGS. 11 and 12 depict a cross brace 68 that may optionally be used in connection with the ceiling system 10 of the invention. These cross braces help, for example, keep the support beams 14 in the correct relative position until ceiling panels 12 have been installed. Following installation of the ceiling panels in the support beams, the cross braces may or may not be removed. The cross brace depicted in FIG. 11 is based upon an existing design. It includes a main body 70 , a base 72 , and a clip 74 installed at each longitudinal end of the main body. FIG. 12 is an enlarged, fragmentary view of one end of the cross brace and clip. The clip includes a barbed end piece 76 . When a cross brace is placed substantially perpendicularly between two adjacent support beams, the barbed end piece at each end of the cross brace locks into one of the rectangular notches 24 in the main beam webs 52 of the adjacent support beams. The notched region 78 of the cross brace main body accommodates any portion of the support beam that might otherwise interfere with proper placement of the cross brace.
[0104] FIGS. 13 - 16 depict a C-panel 80 that may be used in connection with, for example, the support beam 14 depicted in FIGS. 9 and 10. The C-panel includes a sheet portion 82 covering an area defined within panel short edges 18 and panel long edges 16 . FIG. 14 is an edge view taken along line 14 - 14 on FIG. 13 and shows the C-panel upstands 84 formed along each panel long edge 16 . FIG. 15 is an enlarged, fragmentary view of the region encircled by dashed circle 15 in FIG. 14.
[0105] It may be seen in FIG. 15 that the C-panel upstand 84 comprises an upwardly-directed wall 86 and an inwardly-directed ledge 88 or return. When a panel is formed into a curved configuration like that depicted in FIG. 1, the panel long edges and thus the upstands become curved. When the panel long edges are curved, the C-panel upstand depicted to best advantage in FIGS. 14 and 15 is curved or arched. The ratio of the height of the upwardly-directed wall of the C-panel upstand to the panel thickness, when considered in view of the material from which the C-panel is made, influences how much the C-panel upstands may be curved during attachment of the C-panels to the support beams before undesirable buckling occurs. It is apparent that, if the C-panel were being curved upwardly like the two panels in the left-hand side of FIG. 1 are curved, the upper portion of the upwardly directed wall, adjacent to the inwardly-directed ledge, would be placed in compression and the lower portion of the upwardly-directed wall, adjacent to where it intersects the sheet portion of the C-panel, would be place in tension. Conversely, if the C-panel is curved the opposite way (see, e.g., similar to the right-hand most two panels in FIG. 1), the upper portion of the upwardly-directed wall would be placed in tension and the lower portion of the upwardly-directed wall would be placed in tension. At some point, the upwardly-directed wall of the C-panel upstands buckle.
[0106] The following table provides dimensions “A”, “B”, and “G” (See FIG. 15) that work satisfactorily when the panel 12 is made from aluminum.
“G” .015 .020 .032 .040 .060 Each “A” & “B” Dim “A” Thickness .100 .200 .300 Each “B” and “G” No Return Dim “B” .400 .600 Each “A” & “G”
[0107] FIGS. 17 - 21 depict two different asymmetric panel lock buttons 90 . FIGS. 17 and 18 depict an asymmetric panel lock button 90 a that may be installed by pressing it into a panel lock channel defined or formed in an upper portion of the panel support portion of a support beam and FIGS. 19 - 21 depict an asymmetric panel lock button 90 b that is installed by sliding it into the panel lock channel from a longitudinal end of a support beam. These panel lock buttons 90 hold installed C-panels 80 in position as shown in, for example, FIG. 21. In FIG. 21, a support beam 14 is depicted with two C shaped panels 80 installed. The panel lock button 90 b of FIGS. 19 and 20 includes a lock button suspension head 94 that slides easily into the panel lock channel 92 defined above a pair of lock channel ledges 96 . The panel lock button shown in FIGS. 19 - 21 is slid into the panel lock channel from a longitudinal end of the support beam either before or after the support beams are installed. As long as a support beam has at least one open longitudinal end, one can install panel lock buttons like the one depicted in FIGS. 19 - 21 . Once in position in the panel lock channel, the asymmetric panel lock button may be rotated in the panel lock channel using for, for example, a screwdriver (shown in phantom in FIG. 21).
[0108] When the asymmetric panel lock button 90 is oriented as depicted in FIG. 21, the left hand C-panel 80 depicted in that figure can be removed from or installed above the left hand panel support ledge 96 . Once the left hand C-panel is in position, the screwdriver could be used to rotate the panel lock button 180°, placing the panel locking leg 98 against the upstand 84 of the left hand C-panel, thereby making it possible to remove or install the right hand C-panel in FIG. 21. Once the C-panels are positioned as desired, the asymmetric panel lock button would be rotated into its performance position, which is 90° in either direction from the orientation depicted in FIG. 21. When the asymmetric panel lock button is in the performance position, the panel locking leg (i.e., the long leg) spans the gap between the upstands of the left and right C-panels, thereby locking the two C-panels in position above the panel support ledges 96 comprising part of the panel support portion 58 of the support beam.
[0109] The asymmetric panel lock button 90 a depicted in FIGS. 17 and 18 is specially configured to permit installation from below the support beam 14 and upwardly into the panel lock channel 92 depicted in FIG. 21 (e.g., it need not be slid into the panel lock channel from a longitudinal end of the support beam like the panel lock of FIGS. 19 - 21 ). The lock button suspension head 100 includes various features to facilitate this installation. In particular, the lock button suspension head has sloped sides 102 .
[0110] These sloped sides may be pressed upwardly against the lock channel ledges 96 and help to guide the asymmetric panel lock button of FIGS. 17 and 18 past these lock channel ledges and into the panel lock channel 92 . In particular, when a enough upward force is placed on this asymmetric panel lock button, the two halves of the split lock panel suspension head flex 100 slightly toward each other, thereby reducing the U-shaped channel 104 slightly as each half of the split lock button suspension head flexes slightly towards each other under the influence of the lock channel ledges pressing against the sloped sides of the split lock panel suspension head. Once the sides of the split channel suspension head clear the lock channel ledges, the split lock channel suspension head substantially returns to its uncompressed configuration depicted in FIG. 17. Once the asymmetric panel lock button of FIGS. 17 and 18 is thus installed, it too may be rotated using, for example, a screwdriver in the same fashion that the asymmetric panel lock button depicted in FIGS. 19 - 21 can be rotated.
[0111] FIGS. 22 - 23 depict a leaf-spring panel lock 106 , which is an alternative means for locking the C-panels 80 in position in a support beam 14 . In particular, FIG. 22 is an isometric view looking downwardly at the leaf-spring panel lock. As depicted in FIG. 22, the leaf-spring panel lock includes three mounting plates 108 and two staggered, panel-locking humps 110 , each of these two humps extending between and terminating at a pair of the mounting plates. FIG. 23 is an isometric view looking upwardly at a support beam with two C-panels installed and with the leaf-spring panel lock 106 in place. The configuration depicted in FIG. 23 is achieved by sliding the three mounting plates 108 of the leaf-spring panel lock into the panel-lock channel 92 of the support beam. The leaf-spring panel lock is thus inserted into the panel-lock channel from one longitudinal end of the support beam.
[0112] In their relaxed position, the staggered panel-locking humps 110 of the leaf-spring panel lock extend downwardly. One of these panel-locking humps abuts an upstand 84 from a first C-panel, and the other panel-locking hump abuts the upstand of the adjacent C-panel. This abutting relationship between each hump and its respective C-panel is depicted to good advantage in FIG. 24, which is an end view of the leaf-spring panel lock 106 in position with its mounting plates slippingly mounted in the panel lock channel 92 , and each staggered hump positioned against one of the C-panel upstands.
[0113] Once the leaf-spring panel lock 106 is installed as depicted in FIG. 23, it is unnecessary to slide the mounting plates 108 longitudinally out of the panel-lock channel 92 in order to be able to remove one or both of the C-panels 80 . Rather, it is possible to press upwardly in the direction of the arrows depicted in FIG. 23 on one or both of the staggered, panel-locking humps 110 , thereby flattening out the corresponding staggered, panel-locking hump or humps of the leaf-spring panel lock and increasing the distance between adjacent mounting plates. In other words, as an upward force along lines H in FIG. 23 is applied to the base of each panel-locking hump, the leaf-spring panel lock flattens out, until the lowest edges of the panel-locking humps are positioned above the inwardly-directed ledge 88 of the C-panel upstands. Once in that configuration, one or both of the C-panels may be removed from the panel-support ledges at the lower end of the support beam. After one or both of the C-panels is thus removed, upward pressure on the bottom surface of the staggered, panel-locking humps may be released allowing the humps to return to their natural, downwardly projecting configurations, where each of the panel-locking humps rest against an upwardly-directed wall of a C-panel upstand.
[0114] [0114]FIGS. 25 and 26 depict yet another alternative for locking C-panels in position over the panel support ledges. According to this particular C-panel locking technique, a spline panel lock 112 is inserted into the gap between the upstands 84 of adjacent C-panels 80 . In particular, the spline panel lock, an isometric view of which is depicted in FIG. 26, is pressed upwardly into the gap between the upwardly-directed walls of the adjacent C-panel upstands until the spline panel lock ledges 114 snap onto the lock channel ledges 96 at the lower portion of the panel-lock channel 92 . As the spline panel lock is pressed upwardly between the upstands of adjacent C-panels, the longitudinally-extending legs of the spline panel lock flex toward each other until the spline panel lock ledges can snap above the respective lock-channel ledges. Once the spline panel lock is thus positioned, the lower width of the spline panel lock extends between and may abut the two upwardly-directed walls 86 of the adjacent C-panel upstands.
[0115] [0115]FIGS. 27 and 28 depict another alternative for holding adjacent C-panels 80 in position in a support beam 14 . The support beam depicted in FIG. 27 includes a special panel support portion 116 . In this configuration, the panel-lock channel has been altered from that depicted in, for example, FIGS. 21 and 23- 25 . The lock-channel ledges have been removed and threaded grooves 118 have been added at select locations along the inwardly-facing vertical walls of the panel-lock channel 92 as depicted to good advantage in FIG. 27. Once the C-panels are in position and supported by the panel-support ledges 120 , as depicted in FIG. 27, a locking screw 122 may be inserted from the bottom of the panels and threaded into a selected threaded groove in the panel-lock channel. Once the locking screw is threaded into the threaded grooves lining at least a portion of the panel-lock channel, the head of the locking screw comes to rest adjacent to the upwardly directed wall of the adjacent C-panel upstands, thereby preventing each C-panel from dislodging from its respective panel-support ledge and falling from the panel-support channel. FIG. 28 is an isometric view depicting the locking screw as a hexset screw.
[0116] [0116]FIGS. 29 through 32 generally depict an alternate embodiment of a panel 12 suitable for use with the present invention. Turning now to FIG. 29, a top-down view of a Z-panel 124 may be seen, as opposed to the C-panel displayed in FIGS. 13 - 16 . The Z-panel includes a generally rectangular sheet portion 126 defined by a first and second panel short edge 128 and first and second panel long edge 130 , as does the C-panel. The Z-panel long edges, however, each has an outwardly-directed edge 132 instead of the inwardly-directed edge 88 of the C-panel. The outwardly-directed edge or return may be more clearly seen in FIG. 30, which is a cross-sectional view taken along line 30 - 30 of the Z-panel shown in FIG. 29.
[0117] [0117]FIG. 31 is an expanded view of the panel long edge 130 encircled by a dashed line in FIG. 30. As may be seen, the present panel has a Z-panel upstand 134 rather than the C-panel upstand characterizing the C-panel. The Z-panel upstand is formed by an upwardly-directed wall 136 perpendicular to the sheet portion 126 and an outwardly-directed ledge 132 set at a ninety degree angle from the upwardly directed wall. Thus, the outwardly-directed return is parallel to the sheet portion, although it extends away from the terminus of the sheet portion instead of overlapping the sheet portion.
[0118] An isometric view of a Z-panel 124 is shown in FIG. 32, more clearly displaying the outwardly-directed ledge 132 and Z-panel upstand 134 running along the first and second panel long edges 130 . It should be noted that, although the present embodiment generally employs Z-panels measuring approximately four feet by eight feet, alternate embodiments may use panels of varying sizes, areas, dimensions, thicknesses, and so forth. Further, although the Z-panel is typically manufactured from 1063 T 5 aluminum, the Z-panel may be created from different gauges of aluminum, different metals, plastics, polymers, resins, and so forth.
[0119] Due to its outwardly-directed ledge 132 , the Z-panel 124 typically requires a support beam 14 that is different from the support beam used to suspend C-panels when hung from a ceiling. The Z-panel support beam and an installed Z-panel are shown in cross-section in FIG. 33. The Z-panel support beam 138 includes a beam cap at the top of the support, a suspension web connecting the beam cap to an intermediate wall, a main beam web extending downwardly from the intermediate wall, and a panel support portion suspended from the lower edge of the main beam web. The panel support portion comprises a pair of panel lock channels and a pair of panel support ledges.
[0120] When installed, the Z-panel 124 is suspended from the Z-panel support beam 138 on the panel support ledges and held in place by a panel locking strip 154 . In particular, outwardly-directed ledge 132 of the Z-panel upstand 134 sits atop the panel support ledge. The panel support channel 150 is slightly wider than the outwardly-directed ledge's thickness, so the outwardly-directed ledge may be easily placed into the panel support channel atop the panel support ledge.
[0121] A panel locking strip 154 secures the Z-panel 124 to the Z-panel support beam 138 . The panel locking strip comprises a mounting plate 156 , spring arm 158 , and lever arm 160 . The mounting plate lodges in the panel lock channel 150 and is wider than the opening in the top of the panel lock channel. The spring arm places tension on the mounting plate and lever arm. The lever arm, in turn, presses against the upwardly-directed wall 236 of the Z-panel upstand 134 , thus holding the Z-panel 124 firmly in place. The panel locking strip 154 may be inserted into the panel lock channel by pulling on the lever arm while pressing the mounting plate into the channel at an angle. Because the mounting plate's thickness is less than the width of the opening at the top of the panel lock channel, the mounting plate may slide into the channel relatively easily. Alternatively, the locking plate of the panel locking strip may be inserted into the panel lock channel from a longitudinal end of the Z-panel support beam. Once the panel locking strip is in place, the lock channel ledges overlap the front and back of the mounting plate, securing it in the panel lock channel as shown in FIG. 33. This, in turn, prevents the Z-panel from substantially shifting. An isometric view of the panel locking strip, which may be a plastic extrusion, may be seen in FIG. 34.
[0122] Another embodiment of a panel according to the present invention is shown in FIGS. 35 - 40 . FIG. 35 displays a top-down view of a C-panel with end forms, which are altered first and second panel short edges (a “wall-flange C-panel”). Specifically, one panel short edge terminates in a wall end form, while the other panel short edge terminates in a flange end form. The wall-flange C-panel may be hung from a ceiling where a different aesthetic is desired. Generally, when a series of wall-flange C-panels are installed, the flange of one panel abuts the wall of the next adjacent panel. This creates a series of depressions or grooves running along the ceiling, as explained more fully with respect to FIG. 41, below.
[0123] Turning now to FIG. 36, a cross-sectional view taken along line 36 - 36 of the wall-flange C-panel of FIG. 35 is shown. The wall end form is notched at each upper corner. This notch is shown in greater detail in FIG. 37, which is an enlarged view of the portion encircled by a dashed line in FIG. 36. The notch permits the panel to hang from a support beam, such as those more fully described in the above discussion of FIGS. 21 and 25. The notch ensures that sufficient space exists to permit a panel support ledge to fit underneath the inwardly-directed return and above the wall end form. Were the wall end form not notched so that the form extended to the bottom of the inwardly-directed return of the upstand, the panel could not be hung. It should be noted that the wall-flange C-panel may use any support beam or fastening means used with the earlier-described C-panel.
[0124] [0124]FIG. 38 displays a cross-sectional side view taken along line 38 - 38 of FIG. 35, showing the flange end form in greater detail. Generally, the flange end form comprises an outwardly-extending flange set at a right angle to an upwardly-extending portion, which is in turn perpendicular to the sheet portion of the panel. The upwardly-extending portion of the flange end form abuts the upwardly-directed wall of the C-panel upstand.
[0125] By contrast, the wall end form has no outwardly extending flange. FIG. 39 depicts a detailed view of the wall end form taken along line 37 - 37 of FIG. 35. The wall end form extends substantially directly upwardly from the sheet portion and lies adjacent to the upwardly-directed wall of the C-panel upstand.
[0126] [0126]FIG. 40 is an isometric view of the wall-flange C-panel. As shown, the height of the top of the outwardly-extending flange is approximately equal to the height of the top of the notch in the wall end form. This permits the wall-flange C-panel to slide along the support rails and into position as necessary.
[0127] [0127]FIG. 41 is a cross-sectional side view of two installed wall-flange C-panels resting on a support beam, taken along the panel long edge. The cross-section is taken through the full-height wall end form, and thus the notch is not shown. Generally, it may be seen that the outwardly-extending flange of the first panel substantially abuts the wall end form of the second panel. Because the outwardly-extending flange lies below the support beam, when an installed ceiling comprised of wall-flange C-panels is viewed from below continuous depressions or grooves may be seen between panels. The flange, however, prevents the viewer from seeing the support beam. This creates an alternate aesthetic effect when compared to the standard C- and Z-panels described above.
[0128] FIGS. 42 - 47 depict a wall-flange Z-panel. The wall-flange Z-panel differs from the wall-flange C-panel in that the panel long edges form Z-panel upstands as shown in FIGS. 43 and 44, rather than C-panel upstands. The Z-panel upstand was discussed above with respect to FIGS. 29 - 32 . Accordingly, the wall-flange Z-panel may be hung from a Z-panel support beam, as discussed with respect to FIG. 33. The wall-flange Z-panel is generally secured via the panel locking strip of FIG. 34. As may be seen in FIGS. 45 and 46, the wall end form and flange end form are substantially similar in appearance and construction to those of the wall-flange C-panel. Similarly, when installed, a surface made of wall-flange Z-panels looks substantially identical from below the ceiling to a surface comprising installed wall-flange C-panels. FIG. 47 is an isometric view of the wall-flange Z-panel.
[0129] FIGS. 48 - 49 generally show one embodiment of a wall treatment for a full C-panel (i.e., a panel having an upstand adjacent to the wall). The wall treatment is comprised of a support beam, an adjustable support, a screw, and a wall trim. This structure conceals the edges of the panel via the adjustable support, thus creating a more uniform and pleasing appearance.
[0130] The support beam may be secured to the structured ceiling of the room (not shown) by one or more suspension wires (FIG. 1). The support beam may be a square. head support beam (see, e.g., FIG. 21), a threaded groove support beam (see, e.g., FIG. 27), or a pointed head support beam (see, e.g., FIG. 50). Alternate embodiments employing a different support beam to secure a C-panel may use the same support beam herewith.
[0131] The support beam is affixed to the wall via a screw having an integral spring between the wall side of the support beam and the wall. In an alternate embodiment, the spring and screw may be separate. The spring allows the distance between the support beam and wall to be easily varied in order to account for irregularities in the surface of the wall (i.e., non-plumb walls) and still line up with other support beams accepting the C-panel. For example, a slightly curved or otherwise irregular wall would force multiple support beams into different vertical planes, depending on the magnitude of the irregularity, were a standard fastener providing a fixed distance between the wall and the beam used. In other words, each support beam would be offset from the next by the depth of the wall irregularity or the difference in curvature. By using the aforementioned spring-screw arrangement, the support beam may be securely fastened to the wall while still allowing the distance between the beam and wall to be varied as necessary. Where practicable, however, alternate embodiments may use standard screws or fasteners in place of the screw-spring arrangement.
[0132] As depicted in FIG. 48, the inwardly-directed return of the C-panel upstand is placed in the panel support channel on the panel support ledge. An abutment wall of the wall edge trim abuts the C-panel upstand's upwardly-directed wall, applying pressure to maintain the C-panel's position. The wall edge trim has a serrated extension with an upwardly-facing serrated surface. The upwardly-facing serrated surface mates with a downwardly-facing serrated surface of the adjustable support. The adjustable support, in turn, directly abuts the wall. The serrations on the upwardly-facing and downwardly-facing serrated surfaces not only help to immobilize the wall edge trim when it is in place, but also permit the distance between the wall and the wall edge trim's abutment wall to vary as necessary to ensure steady pressure on the C-panel upstand. By moving the serrated surfaces back and forth, the distance between the wall and the wall edge trim's abutment wall is adjustable. The wall edge trim also includes a pair of hanger ledges, one of which fits into the panel support channel and the other of which fits in the panel lock channel as shown. These hanger ledges provide additional security for the wall treatment, as well as additional stability holding the C-panel in the panel support channel. Finally, the base of the adjustable support extends from the wall, beyond the beam between the wall edge trim's abutment wall and the C-panel upstand, and partially along the lower surface of the sheet portion of the C-panel. This not only hides the seam or discontinuity between the wall edge trim and C-panel, thus creating a more pleasing aesthetic, but also serves to further stabilize the C-panel. FIG. 49 shows a fragmentary view of an installed wall treatment, including the adjustable support and wall edge trim.
[0133] Oftentimes, a wall may be less than a full panel width from the nearest suspended support beam. In such a case, a full panel will not fit between the suspended support beam and the wall. Thus, the panel must be cut to size. FIG. 50 displays a wall treatment for use with such a partial panel. One or more interval upstands are formed along the cut long edge of the partial panel by periodically turning up part of the sheet portion as shown in FIG. 51. The interval upstands lack any projection or flange permitting them to be secured in the support beam's panel support channel. Accordingly, the wall edge trim used in this embodiment has two hanger ledges, one of which fits into each side of the panel support channel. One hanger ledge abuts both the outer surface and top edge of the interval upstands. As with the embodiment discussed with respect to FIG. 48, both the adjustable support and wall edge trim have mating serrated surfaces. By adjusting the length of the overlap between the wall edge trim's upwardly-facing serrated surface and the adjustable support's downwardly-facing serrated surface, the distance between the abutment wall and the wall may be varied. In turn, this adjusts the pressure placed against the interval upstands. The adjustable support again extends beyond the meeting of the abutment wall and interval upstands, continuing some distance along the bottom of the panel's sheet portion. Thus, the adjustable support provides a resting surface for the cut ceiling panel. It should be noted that the present embodiment may work with either C- or Z-panels. Further, although the embodiment shown in FIG. 50 is depicted as attached to the wall with a standard screw, the spring-screw apparatus described with respect to FIG. 48 may also be employed.
[0134] [0134]FIG. 52 is a fragmentary isometric view of an installed wall treatment in accordance with the embodiment of FIGS. 50 and 51, showing the hanger ledges and an interval upstand in their installed positions.
[0135] [0135]FIGS. 53 and 54 show yet another embodiment of a wall treatment for use with a partial panel. Although the partial panel shown is a C-panel, the embodiment works equally well with a Z-panel. In this embodiment, the support beam is again affixed to the wall with a spring-screw apparatus, although a standard screw or other fastener may be used. The support beam is substantially similar to that described with respect to FIG. 48. The wall edge trim generally includes two hanger ledges, each of which fits into a side of the panel support channel and rests on a respective panel support ledge. Unlike the previous embodiment, here the abutment wall is located beneath the wall edge trim's upwardly-facing serrated surface. Instead of being located between the abutment wall and a panel support ledge, the panel's interval upstand is positioned between the abutment wall and an abutment vise. In the present embodiment, neither the abutment wall nor vise are in direct contact with the interval upstand. Instead, they define a narrow channel which may receive the upstand and permit a minimal amount of back and forth movement necessary to position the upstand. Further, the downwardly-facing serrated surface of the adjustable support and the upwardly-facing serrated surface of the wall edge trim are substantially longer, thus permitting more adjustability between surfaces. Once again, the base of the adjustable support extends a distance along the bottom of the sheet portion of the ceiling panel. Generally, the ceiling panel simply rests on the adjustable support base while its movement is minimized via the abutment wall and abutment vise. No direct pressure is used in this embodiment to maintain the panel's position. FIG. 54 is an isometric view of the FIG. 53 embodiment.
[0136] Occasionally, ceilings may vary in height. For example, a loft, skylight, or atrium may cause an abrupt termination of the ceiling well away from any wall. This is generally referred to as a “floating edge.” In such cases, a casual viewer looking at the ceiling from an angle may be able to perceive the edges of any ceiling panel. In order to preserve design principles, it may be desirable to conceal these edges. Since a ceiling may conceivably require a floating edge at any distance from a wall, the floating edge may occur either at the natural terminus of a ceiling panel or may require the panel to be cut.
[0137] [0137]FIGS. 55 and 56 shows a floating beam cover capable of hiding a floating ceiling edge created by a partial panel. The floating beam cover connects to a support beam via a top clamp and a side clamp, which are connected to one another via an elongate body. The top clamp comprises a first and second angled ledge, each of which fits snugly over the T-shaped beam cap at the top of the suspension web. The T-shaped beam cap rests on these angled ledges. The support beam is further connected to the floating beam cover via a side clamp having a blunt projection and a tine. The blunt projection is positioned above the top of the panel support portion and may or may not be in direct contact therewith. The tine sits below the bottom of the panel support portion, and generally is in sufficiently tight contact with the panel support portion to exert stabilizing pressure on the panel support portion. The tine presses the panel support portion fairly tightly against the sidewall of the side clamp. The side clamp further includes a panel guide and a bottom portion, both projecting inwardly from the side clamp sidewall. Typically, the panel guide is located above the bottom portion of the side clamp. The distance between the bottom portion and panel guide is generally slightly greater than the thickness of a ceiling panel. The sheet portion of the partial panel sits on the bottom portion of the side clamp and partially beneath the panel guide. Generally, the partial panel's cut edge is substantially snug against the side clamp's sidewalls. Thus, the bottom portion of the side clamp (and by extension, the floating beam cover) supports the partial panel. Typically, the support beam is attached to the ceiling with a suspension wire (FIG. 1), which may be connected to the support beam at any convenient location. Alternately, the suspension wire may be connected to some portion of the floating beam cover, such as the top clamp or elongate body. Insofar as the floating beam cover and support beam are tightly coupled and the partial panel rests on the bottom portion of the floating beam cover, the embodiment as a whole is suspended from the ceiling by the wire regardless of where it is attached.
[0138] [0138]FIG. 57 displays a floating beam cover capable of hiding a floating ceiling edge created by a full C-panel. In this embodiment, the general configuration of the floating beam cover is the same as that shown in FIGS. 55 and 56. Further, the floating beam cover is affixed to the support beam in the same manner as previously described. However, because the C-panel includes a C-panel upstand (discussed more thoroughly with respect to FIGS. 13 through 15), the panel may not lie flat between the panel guide and bottom portion of the beam cover. Instead, the inwardly-directed return is placed within the panel support channel, as generally discussed with respect to FIG. 21. A panel locking device secures the C-panel upstand in the panel support channel. Again, the bottom of the sheet portion of the panel rests on the bottom portion of the floating beam cover. Thus, the floating beam cover not only shields the outer edge of the floating ceiling panel, but also provide aesthetic continuity to the bottom of the ceiling by extending some distance along the sheet portion of the ceiling panel.
[0139] Sometimes, it may prove useful to mount a wall treatment flush to the outer surface of a wall, rather than offsetting the treatment from the wall by the length of a screw or spring, as detailed above. Other times, it may be necessary to join two adjacent panels together along abutting panel short edged. This may, for example, provide additional longitudinal support when the short edges of two adjacent panels are affixed. In such situations, a panel splice as shown in FIG. 58 may be useful.
[0140] The panel splice is generally C-shaped, with a T-shaped member protruding downwardly from the bottom of the C. The C-shaped portion of the panel splice consists of an upper flange (the top of the C), a vertical web section (the side of the C), and a V-shaped intermediate wall (the bottom of the C). The V-shaped intermediate wall includes an obtuse approximately 150 degree interior angle placed slightly closer to the vertical web section than the end of the V-shaped intermediate wall. The exact placement of the angle, however, may vary in alternate embodiments. Similarly, the angle measurement may differ in different embodiments. Generally, the V-shaped intermediate wall extends further than the upper flange, although this too may change in alternate embodiments.
[0141] Depending down from the obtuse interior angle is an upside down T-shaped member. The T-shaped member comprises a divider web connecting the member to the V-shaped intermediate wall (the base of the T), and a bottom wall approximately paralleling the upper flange (the branches of the T). The bottom wall, divider web, and outer portion of the V-shaped intermediate wall define a first opposing channel. Similarly, the bottom wall, divider web, and inner portion of the V-shaped intermediate wall define a second opposing channel. Generally speaking, the height of the first and second opposing channels is slightly greater than the thickness of the sheet portion of a ceiling panel. Thus, the edge of a partial or cut panel may be placed in either the first or second opposing channel.
[0142] For example, FIG. 59 shows the panel splice being used as a long edge end treatment. Specifically, the panel splice is connected to a wall via a screw or other fastener in such a manner that the vertical web section lies flat against the wall with the first opposing channel and upper flange projecting away from the wall. When a C- or Z-panel is cut to length, the cut long edge may rest in the first opposing channel. This hides the end of the panel from casual inspection from below, as well as providing stability to the panel.
[0143] The panel splice may also be used as a butt joint assembly to mate two panels along their respective short edges. FIG. 60 displays a cross-sectional view taken along the long axis of a pair of C-panels showing the panel splice serving this purpose. As can be seen, the panel splice is located between a first and second panel, with the short edges of the panels' sheet portions resting in the first and second opposing channels, respectively. The upwardly-directed wall and inwardly-directed ledge comprising the C-shaped upstand are positioned behind the panel splice in the view of FIG. 60. Generally, the width of the panel splice is less than the width of a panel in order to avoid interfering with either the C- or Z-shaped upstands located long the long edges of the panels, as described above. The panel splice may be suspended from the ceiling by a support wire (not shown) in order to partially support the weight of the ceiling panels contacted by the splice.
[0144] Referring back to FIG. 1 briefly, the curved nature of an installed ceiling system making use of an embodiment of the present invention may be seen. Sometimes, the ceiling panel curvature dictates that the formed ceiling terminates on a downward curve near a wall. For example, the ceiling system shown in FIG. 1 may terminate next to a wall (not shown) on the right edge of the figure. Because the rightmost ceiling panel slopes downward, a portion of the panel interior may be visible to an observer standing under the panel. To prevent this unsightly problem, a floating wall treatment may be used on the short edge of the panel to block an observer's view.
[0145] [0145]FIG. 61 displays a floating wall treatment for a ceiling panel short edge. The short edge floating wall treatment is generally clip-shaped, with an upper and lower prong connected at one end by a base. The upper prong may have one or more interior downwardly-pointing teeth. Typically, the space between the teeth and the lower prong of the short edge floating wall treatment is slightly smaller than the thickness of a ceiling panel. By contrast, the space between the lower prong and upper prong as measured across the floating wall treatment base is slightly greater than the ceiling panel thickness. In the present embodiment, this distance remains constant along the length of the prongs. Alternate embodiments may have decreasing distance from the base to the prong tips, so that the upper and lower prongs slant towards one another. Typically, although not necessarily, the lower prong protrudes further than the upper prong.
[0146] [0146]FIG. 62 shows a cross-section of the short edge floating wall treatment affixed to a C-panel. The C-panel extends at a downward angle until the top of the panel (that is, the C-panel upstand and inwardly-directed return) contact the wall surface. Because of the panel angle, however, a slight gap exists between the lower panel edge (the sheet portion) and the wall. The short edge floating wall treatment is affixed to the sheet portion of the C-panel along the short edge. The upper prong rests above the sheet portion, while the lower prong sits below. The teeth anchor the short edge floating wall treatment to the panel. It should be noted that the short edge floating wall treatment works equally well with a Z-panel as described above.
[0147] [0147]FIG. 63 displays an isometric view of an alternate embodiment of a short edge floating wall treatment in use. This embodiment includes an L-shaped extrusion extending upwardly from the base which generally parallels and rests against the wall while the treatment is in use. The L-shaped extrusion aids in stabilizing the ceiling panel. Otherwise, the means of connection and general function of the short edge floating wall treatment is similar to that discussed immediately above.
[0148] [0148]FIG. 64 displays a cross-sectional view of the short edge floating wall treatment of FIG. 63 when used adjacent a support beam.
[0149] Now referring to FIG. 65, one embodiment of an installation tool for use in hanging ceiling panels of the invention is depicted generally as ______. Installation tool ______includes a support bracket assembly at each end of a support bar to secure the support bar between two support beams. When secured between two adjacent support beams, in one example, the support bar extends between each support beam and the support bar hangs below the support beams so that a ceiling panel may be placed on the support bar. One or more installation tools may be used to assist in the installation of ceiling panels. For example, one installation tool may be secured between two support beams at one end of the support beams and a second installation tool secured between two support beams at the opposite end of the support beams. Once the tools are in place, one end of a panel is suspended by the installation tool at one end of the support beams and the other end of the panel is suspended by the second installation tool at the opposite end of the support beams After the panel is suspended on the installation tools, the installer can more easily secure the panel to the support beams. With the use of one or more installation tools, one person can install an entire ceiling by him or herself.
[0150] [0150]FIG. 66 illustrates an exploded perspective view of the installation tool according to one embodiment of the invention. In one example, at each end of the support bar, the support assembly bracket includes a blade support bracket, a brace support bracket, and separator, each extending generally transversely to the bar. Each pair of brace and blade is secured to an end of the support bar by a screw adapted to engage a threaded aperture (not shown) in the support bar. One of ordinary skill in the art will recognize that the blades and the braces may be secured to the support bar by other means, such as a weld, a rivet, a snap tab, and the like. FIG. 67 illustrates a side view of the support bracket assembly of an uninstalled installation tool.
[0151] [0151]FIG. 68 illustrates a perspective view of one embodiment of the blade. In one example, the blade is rigid, and is fabricated from steel, stainless steel, or any other suitable rigid material. The blade defines a widening trapezoidal blade with a wide portion and a narrow portion. A blade tab extends at about a right angle to the blade at the narrow end of the blade. The blade tab defines an aperture adapted to receive the screw so that the blade may be secured to the support bar. The blade also defines a pivot screw aperture in its narrow portion adjacent the tab adapted to receive a pivot screw, which is discussed in more detail below.
[0152] [0152]FIG. 69 illustrates one embodiment of the brace. In one example, the brace is flexible, and is fabricated from spring steel, or any other suitable flexible material. The brace defines a widening trapezoidal central body portion with a wide section and a narrow section. A brace tab extends at about a right angle to the central body portion at the narrow end of the brace. The brace tab defines an aperture adapted to receive the screw so that the brace may be secured to the support bar. In one example, the blade is sandwiched between the brace and the support bar. Accordingly, the brace tab fits over the blade tab so that the aperture in the blade tab aligns with the aperture in the brace tab so that a single screw secures both the blade and the brace to the support bar. In the narrow section of the central body portion of the brace adjacent the tab, the brace also defines a pivot aperture, which when assembled with the blade aligns with the pivot aperture in the narrow portion of the blade.
[0153] A retaining tab extends at an angle from the wide section end of the central body portion of the brace. As shown in FIG. 67, before attaching the installation tool to the support beam, the retaining tab extends away from the blade. Extending away from the blade, the retaining tab is also flared away from the support bar. As the retaining tab is fabricated from spring steel or the like, when the installation tool is secured to the support beam and the retaining tab is deflected inwardly toward the blade, a bias force is created which helps to secure the installation tool to the support brace as discussed in more detail below. A retaining flange, which also helps to secure the installation tool to the support beam, is defined at the top of the retaining flange opposite the central body portion of the brace.
[0154] Referring to FIG. 70, a separator plate is shown according to one embodiment of the present invention. The separator plate is rotatably secured to the support bar with the pivot screw. The pivot screws engage threaded apertures defined at each end of the support bar. In one example, the separator plate defines a pivot aperture that may be aligned with the pivot apertures in the blade and the brace, which pivot apertures are adapted to receive the pivot screw so that the separator plate may rotate with respect to the blade and the brace. The brace and the blade are also secured by the screw so that the brace and the blade will not rotate.
[0155] In one example, the separator plate defines a generally U-shape with the pivot aperture defined along one prong of the U and an offset finger defined along the other prong of the U. A handle is defined along the radius of the U. The handle extends generally transversely to the separator plate and may be used to insert or remove the finger from between the blade and the brace.
[0156] The wide section of the central body portion of the brace defines a first separator strike plate and a second separator strike plate. Each separator strike plate defines a ramp, in one example. Referring to FIG. 65, the separator is shown not engaged with the brace and the blade. In the unengaged position, the separator is rotated at an angle to the blade so that the finger is pointing toward the ramp surface of the separator strike plate. It will be recognized by one of ordinary skill in the art that the brace defines a first and a second separator strike plate so that the brace may be used at either end of the support bar. For example, still referring to FIG. 66, at the left side of the installation tool, in the unengaged position the separator is rotated forwardly from the brace and the blade, and the finger is aligned to engage the forwardly facing first separator strike plate. At the right side of the installation tool, in the unengaged position the separator is rotated rearwardly from the brace and the blade, and the finger is aligned to engage the rearwardly facing second separator strike plate.
[0157] [0157]FIG. 71 illustrates a cross section of the installation tool secured to the support beam. Generally speaking, the installation tool is hung from the support beam. As shown in FIG. 71, when the installation tool is hung from the support beam, a panel may be laid on the support bar to position the panel adjacent the support beams so that an installer can work on securing the panel to the support beam while the panel is held in place by the installation tool.
[0158] The installation tool is generally secured to the panel lock channel. In one example, the brace is snapped into place so that the retaining flange engages the top surface of the lock channel ledge. The generally outward orientation of the retaining tab and the flexibility of the retaining tab provide the bias force which helps to secure the installation tool to the support beam. When the installation tool is snapped into place and the brace has engaged the panel lock channel, using the handle, the separator is rotated so that the finger contacts the strike plate of the brace. The finger may then be inserted between the brace and the blade to firmly engage the brace within the lock channel. To insert the finger between the brace and the blade, the finger is pressed against the ramp which forces the brace away from the blade and opens up a space between the brace and the blade. The finger rides along the face of the ramp and then inserts into the space created between the brace and the blade. When the finger is inserted between the brace and the blade, the brace is biased outwardly from the support bar against the lock channel ledge to further secure the installation tool to the support beam.
[0159] To remove the installation tool after the panel is secured to the support beams, the separators are rotated away from the brace and the blade to that the finger is no longer between the brace and the blade. De-insertion of the finger reduces the overall bias force securing the installation tool to the support beams, but does not eliminate the bias force altogether as some portion of the bias force is provided by the outwardly biased engaging tab. After the finger is removed, the installation tool may be pulled downward firmly to disengage the retaining tab and the retaining flange from the lock channel and thus disconnect the installation tool from the support beam.
[0160] [0160]FIG. 72 is an exploded perspective view of an alternative embodiment of the installation tool which includes an alternative embodiment of the brace and the blade, and does not use a separator. The brace shown is FIG. 72 is similar to the brace shown in FIG. 70, with the difference being that the brace shown in FIG. 72 does not define an aperture adapted to receive the pivot screw and does not define separator strike plates. The blade shown in FIG. 72 is similar to the blade shown in FIG. 68, with the difference being that the blade shown in FIG. 72 does not define an aperture adapted to receive the pivot screw. The alternative embodiment of the installation tool shown in FIG. 72 is held to the support brace primarily by the bias force of the engagement tab and does not utilize the additional bias force created by insertion of the separator. In other respects, the alternative embodiment shown in FIG. 72 operates substantially similarly to the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 65 - 71 .
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A method and apparatus for creating and installing a curved ceiling support system and associated panels. The invention includes a ceiling support system, a ceiling panel, and a clip or fastener that holds the ceiling panel to the ceiling support system. The ceiling panel may include an upstand taking one of two basic shapes: a C-shaped upstand or a Z-shaped upstand. The C-shaped upstand has an inwardly directed flange while the Z-shaped upstand has an outwardly directed flange. Further, the edges perpendicular to the upstand may be extruded or shaped in three dimensions. Panel locks couple the ceiling panel to a curved support member suspended from the ceiling. Once inserted, the ceiling panel conforms to the curve of the support member. An installation tool aids in fitting the ceiling panel to a support beam.
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This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 08/511,294, filed Aug. 4, 1995, entitled “Method and Apparatus for Geometric, Compression of Three-Dimensional Graphics Data”, by Michael F. Deering now U.S. Pat. No. 5,793,371.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to compressing three-dimensional graphics data, and more particularly to methods and apparatuses that provide lossy high compression ratios for three-dimensional geometry compression.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Modern three-dimensional computer graphics use geometry extensively to describe three-dimensional objects, using a variety of graphical representation techniques. Computer graphics find wide use in applications ranging from computer assisted design (“CAD”) programs to virtual reality video games. Complex smooth surfaces in of objects can be succinctly represented by high level abstractions such as trimmed non-uniform rational splines (“NURBs”), and often detailed surface geometry can be rendered using texture maps. But adding more realism requires raw geometry, usually in the form of triangles. Position, color, and normal components of these triangles are typically represented as floating point numbers, and describing an isolated triangle can require upwards of 100 bytes of storage space.
Understandably, substantial space is necessary for three-dimensional computer graphics objects to be stored, e.g., on a computer hard disk or compact disk read-only memory (“CD-ROM”). Similarly, considerable time in necessary for such objects to be transmitted, e.g., over a network, or from disk to main memory.
Geometry compression is a general space-time trade-off, and offers advantages at every level of a memory/interconnect hierarchy. A similar systems problem exists for storage and transmission of two-dimensional pixel images. A variety of lossy and lossless compression and decompression techniques have been developed for two-dimensional pixel images, with resultant decrease in storage space and transmission time. Unfortunately, the prior art does not include compression/decompression techniques appropriate for three-dimensional geometry, beyond polygon reduction techniques. However, the Ph.D. thesis entitled Compressing the X Graphics Protocol by John Danskin, Princeton University, 1994 describes compression for two-dimensional geometry.
Suitable compression can greatly increase the amount of geometry that can be cached, or stored, in the fast main memory of a computer system. In distributed networked applications, compression can help make shared virtual reality (“VR”) display environments feasible, by greatly reducing transmission time.
Most major machine computer aided design (“MCAD”) software packages, and many animation modeling packages use constructive solid geometry (“CSG”) and free-form NURBS to construct and represent geometry. Using such techniques, regions of smooth surfaces are represented to a high level with resulting trimmed polynomial surfaces. For hardware rendering, these surfaces typically are pre-tessellated in triangles using software before transmission to rendering hardware. Such software pre-tessellation is done even on hardware that supports some form of hardware NURBS rendering.
However, many advantages associated with NURBS geometric representation are for tasks other than real-time rendering. These non-rendering tasks include representation for machining, interchange, and physical analysis such as simulation of turbulence flow. Accurately representing trimming curves for NURBS is very data intensive, and as a compression technique, trimmed NURBS can not be much more compact than pre-tessellated triangles, at least at typical rendering tessellation densities. Finally, not all objects are compactly represented by NURBS. Although many mechanical objects such as automobile hoods and jet turbine blades have large, smooth areas where NURBS representations can be advantageous, many objects do not have such areas and do not lend themselves to such representation. Thus, while NURBS will have many applications in modelling objects, compressed triangles will be far more compact for many classes of application objects.
Photo-realistic batch rendering has long made extensive use of texture map techniques to compactly represent fine geometric detail. Such techniques can include color texture maps, normal bump maps, and displacement maps. Texture mapping works quite well for large objects in the far background, e.g., clouds in the sky, buildings in the distance. At closer distances, textures work best for three-dimensional objects that are mostly flat, e.g., billboards, paintings, carpets, marble walls, and the like. More recently, rendering hardware has begun to support texture mapping, and real-time rendering engines can also apply these techniques.
However, texture mapping results in a noticeable loss of quality for nearby objects that are not flat. One partial solution is the “signboard”, in which a textured polygon always swivels to face the observer. But when viewed in stereo, especially head-tracked VR stereo, nearby textures are plainly perceived as flat. In these instances, even a lower detail but fully three-dimensional polygonal representation of a nearby object would be much more realistic.
Polyhedral representation of geometry has long been supported in the field of three-dimensional raster computer graphics. In such representation, arbitrary geometry is expressed and specified typically by a list of vertices, edges, and faces. As noted by J. Foley, et al. in Computer Graphics: Principles and Practice , 2nd ed., Addison-Wesley, 1990, such representations as winged-edge data structures were designed as much to support editing of the geometry as display. Vestiges of these representations survive today as interchange formats, e.g., Wavefront OBJ. While theoretically compact, some compaction is sacrificed for readability by using ASCII data representation in interchange files. Unfortunately, few if any of these formats can be directly passed as drawing instructions to rendering hardware.
Another historical vestige in such formats is the support of N-sided polygons, a general primitive form that early rendering hardware could accept. However, present day faster rendering hardware mandates that all polygon geometry be reduced to triangles before being submitted to hardware. Polygons with more than three sides cannot in general be guaranteed to be either planar or convex. If quadrilaterals are accepted as rendering primitives, it is to be accepted that they will be arbitrarily split into a pair of triangles before rendering.
Modern graphics languages typically specify binary formats for the representation of collections of three-dimensional triangles, usually as arrays of vertex data structures. Thus, PHIGS PLUS, PEX, XGL, and proposed extensions to OpenGL are of this format form, and will define the storage space taken by executable geometry.
It is known in the art to isolate or chain triangles in “zigzag” or “star” strips. For example, Iris-GL, XGL, and PEX 5.2 define a form of generalized triangle strip that can switch from a zigzag to star-like vertex chaining on a vertex-by-vertex basis, but at the expense of an extra header word per vertex in XGL and PEX. A restart code allows multiple disconnected strips of triangles to be specified within one array of vertices.
In these languages, all vertex components (positions, colors, normals) may be specified by 32-bit single precision IEEE floating point numbers, or 64-bit double precision numbers. The XGL, IrisGL, and OpenGL formats also provide some 32-bit integer support. The IrisGL and OpenGL formats support vertex position component inputs as 16-bit integers, and normals and colors can be any of these as well as 8-bit components. In practice, positions, colors, and normals can be quantized to significantly fewer than 32 bits (single precision IEEE floating point) with little loss in visual quality. Such bit-shaving may be utilized in commercial three-dimensional graphics hardware, providing there is appropriate numerical analysis support.
In summation, there is a need for graphics compression that can compress three-dimensional triangles, and whose format may be directly passed as drawing instructions to rendering hardware. Preferably such compression should be readily implementable using real-time hardware, and should permit decompression using software or hardware.
The present invention discloses such compression.
SUMMARY OF THE PRESENT INVENTION
According to the present invention, geometry is first represented as a generalized triangle mesh, which structure allows each instance of a vertex in a linear stream preferably to specify an average of between ⅓ triangle and 2 triangles. Individual positions, colors, and normals are quantized, with a variable length compression being applied to individual positions, colors, and normals. Quantized values are delta-compression encoded between neighbors to provide vertex traversal orders, and mesh buffer references are created. Histograms of delta-positions, delta-normals and delta-colors are created, after which variable length Huffman tag codes, as well as delta-positions, delta-normals and delta-colors are created. The compressed output binary stream includes the output Huffman table initializations, ordered vertex traversals, output tags, and the delta-positions, delta-normals, and delta-colors.
Decompression reverses this process. The decompressed stream of triangle data may then be passed to a traditional rendering pipeline, where it can be processed in full floating point accuracy, and thereafter displayed or otherwise used.
Other features and advantages of the invention will appear from the following description in which the preferred embodiments have been set forth in detail, in conjunction with the accompanying drawings.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 depicts a generalized network system over which three-dimensional graphics compressed according to the present invention may be transmitted, and decompressed for user viewing;
FIG. 2 depicts a generalized triangular mesh data structure, and generalized mesh buffer representation of surface geometry, according to the present invention;
FIG. 3 depicts six-way sign-bit and eight-way octant symmetry in a unit sphere, used to provide forty-eight way reduction in table look-up size, according to the present invention;
FIG. 4A depicts a vertex command in a geometry compression instruction set, according to the present invention;
FIG. 4B depicts a normal command in a geometry compression instruction set, according to the present invention;
FIG. 4C depicts a color command in a geometry compression instruction set, according to the present invention;
FIG. 4D depicts a mesh buffer reference command in a geometry compression instruction set, according to the present invention;
FIG. 4E depicts a set state instruction in a geometry compression instruction set, according to the present invention;
FIG. 4F depicts a set table command instruction in a geometry compression instruction set, according to the present invention;
FIG. 4G depicts a pass through command instruction in a geometry compression instruction set, according to the present invention;
FIG. 4H depicts a variable length no-op command instruction in a geometry compression instruction set, according to the present invention;
FIG. 4I depicts tag and Δ-position data structure, according to the present invention;
FIGS. 4J-1 and 4 J- 2 depict alternative tag and Δ-normal data structure, according to the present invention;
FIG. 4K depicts tag and Δ-color data structure, according to the present invention;
FIG. 5 is a flowchart of method steps in a geometry compression algorithm, according to the present invention;
FIG. 6 is a block diagram of decompressor hardware, suitable for use with the present invention;
FIG. 7 is a detailed overall block diagram of a decompressor unit suitable for decompressing data compressed according to the present invention;
FIG. 8 is a detailed block diagram of the input block shown in FIG. 7;
FIG. 9 is a detailed block diagram of the barrel shifter unit shown in FIG. 7;
FIG. 10 is a detailed block diagram of the position/color processor unit shown in FIG. 7;
FIG. 11A is a detailed block diagram of the normal processor unit shown in FIG. 7;
FIG. 11B is a detailed block diagram showing the decoder, fold, and ROM look-up components associated with the normal processor unit of FIG. 11A;
FIG. 12 is a block diagram showing interfaces to a mesh buffer, as shown in FIG. 10 and/or FIG. 11A;
FIG. 13A depicts interfaces to Huffman tables;
FIG. 13B depicts a preferred format for entry of the Huffman table data;
FIG. 14A depicts a vertex instruction;
FIG. 14B depicts vertex component data formats;
FIG. 14C depicts the format for the set normal instruction;
FIG. 14D depicts a set color instruction;
FIG. 14E depicts a mesh buffer reference instruction;
FIG. 14F depicts a set state instruction;
FIG. 14G depicts a set table instruction;
FIG. 14H depicts a passthrough instruction;
FIG. 14I depicts a variable-length NOP instruction; and
FIG. 14J depicts a skip 8 instruction.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT
A graphics compressor according to the present invention may be used to reduce the space needed to store three-dimensional graphics object, e.g., on a CD-ROM or the like, as well as to reduce the time needed to transmit a compressed three-dimensional graphics object, for example over a network. Before describing three-dimensional graphics compression per se, the overall environment in which the present invention may be practiced will be described with respect to FIG. 1 .
FIG. 1 depicts a generalized network with which three-dimensional compression according to the present invention may advantageously be used, to decrease storage space and to decrease time to transmit compress three-dimensional graphics objects. Of course, three-dimensional graphics compression according to the present invention may be used in other environments as well, e.g., to reduce requirements to store three-dimensional graphics on CD-ROMs, to compress data in real-time, for example, in an interactive television environment.
As shown in FIG. 1, a source of three-dimensional graphics data 10 may be coupled to a server or encoder system 20 whose processed and compressed output is coupled over one or more networks 30 to one or more target clients or decoder systems 40 . The network may be homogeneous, heterogeneous, or point-to-point.
Server 20 includes a central processing unit 50 that includes a central processor unit per se (“CPU”) 60 with associated main memory 70 , a mesh buffer 80 , a memory portion 90 that preferably contains an algorithm used to implement compression according to the present invention, and a region of read-only-memory (“ROM”) 100 . ATTACHMENT 1 is a copy of a code listing for a preferred embodiment of a compression algorithm, according to the present invention. Alternatively, compression according to the present invention may be carried out in hardware as opposed to software.
Server 20 also includes a three-dimensional graphics compression unit 60 , whose compressed output data is arranged by a disk layout unit 70 for storage onto storage disk unit 80 , which may include one or more CD-ROMs. The server communicates over the network(s) 30 via network interface unit 110 . Those skilled in the art will appreciate that server 20 may include a mechanism for arbitrating between a plurality of client-decoder requests for compressed data.
It is to be understood that the compressed three-dimensional graphics data on video disk or CD-ROM 80 need not be transmitted over a network. Disk or CD-ROM 80 may, for example, be mailed to a user wishing to access the compressed three-dimensional graphics information stored thereon. However, if transmitted, e.g., over a network, transmission time will be advantageously reduced because the compression substantially reduces the bit-size of the file to be transmitted. Lossy compression of three-dimensional geometric data according to the present invention can produce ratios of six:one to ten:one, with little loss in displayed object quality. Further, such compression can be included at relatively low cost into real-time three-dimensional rendering hardware, or can instead be implemented using purely software techniques. In a network environment, at the receiving end, decoder systems(s) 40 include a central processing system 150 that includes a CPU 160 , memory 170 , a portion of which 180 may include decompression software, and ROM 190 . Three-dimensional graphics that have been compressed with the present invention may advantageously be decompressed using software, hardware, or a combination of each.
Decoder 40 further includes a network interface unit 120 , a unit 130 that decompresses three-dimensional graphics data, and whose output is coupled to a three-dimensional graphics rendering unit 140 . The thus-decompressed three-dimensional graphics image(s) may then be coupled to a viewer 200 , or to another system requiring the decompressed graphics. Of course, unit 40 may be a standalone unit, into which three-dimensional graphics data, precompressed according to the present invention, may be coupled for decompression. Unit 40 may, for example, comprise a computer or workstation.
Applicant's patent application Ser. No. 08/511,294 filed Aug. 4, 1995, entitled METHOD AND APPARATUS FOR DECOMPRESSION OF COMPRESSED GEOMETRIC THREE-DIMENSIONAL GRAPHICS DATA, assigned to the assignee here, discloses a preferred method and system for decompressing data that has been compressed according to the present invention. Attached hereto as ATTACHMENT 2 is a code listing of a decompression algorithm with which such decompression may preferably be implemented.
The operation of three-dimensional graphics compression unit 60 will now be described. In the present invention, the first stage of geometry compression converts triangle data into an efficient linear strip form, namely a generalized triangle mesh. For a given fixed capacity of storage medium 80 , a triangle mesh data structure is a near-optimal representation of triangle data. In the preferred embodiment, three-dimensional graphics object may be represented as three-dimensional triangular data, whose format after conversion causes each linear strip vertex, on average, to specify from about ⅓ triangles to about 2 triangles.
Further, a generalized triangle strip structure permits compact representation of geometry while maintaining a linear data structure. Stated differently, the compressed geometry can be extracted by a single monotonic scan over the vertex array data structure. This feature is advantageous for pipelined hardware implementations.
FIG. 2 depicts a generalized triangle mesh data structure, and generalized mesh buffer representation of surface geometry. Such a mesh data structure may be used in three-dimensional geometry compression, although by confining itself to linear strips, a generalized triangle strip format wastes a potential factor of two in space.
The geometry shown in FIG. 2, for example, can be represented by one triangle strip, but many interior vertices will appear twice in the strip.
In FIG. 2, a generalized triangle strip may be defined as follows, where the R denotes restart, 0 denotes replace oldest, M denotes replace middle, and a trailing letter p denotes push into mesh buffer. The number following a capital letter is a vertex number, and a negative number is the mesh buffer reference, in which −1 denotes the most recent pushed vertex.
R6, O1, O7, O2, O3, M4, M8, O5, O9, O10, M11
M17, M16, M9, O15, O8, O7, M14, O13, M6, O12, M18, M19, M20, M14, O21, O15, O22, O16, O23, O17, O24, M30, M29, M28, M22, O21, M20, M27, O26, M19, O25, O18
Using the same nomenclature, a generalized triangle mesh may be defined as follows:
R6p, O1, O7p, O2, O3, M4, M8p, O5, O9p, O10, M11, M17p, M16p, M−3, O15p, O-5, O6, M14p, O13p, M9, O12, M18p, M19p, M20p, M−5, O21p, O-7, O22p, O-9, O23, O-10, O-7, M30, M29, M28, M-1, O-2, M-3, M27, O26, M-4, O25, O-5
It is to be noted that a vertex reference advantageously can be considerably more compact (e.g., be represented by fewer bits) than a full vertex specification.
Geometry compression according to the present invention explicitly pushes old vertices (e.g., vertices with a trailing letter “p” above) into a queue associated with mesh buffer memory 80 (see FIG. 1 ). These old vertices will later be explicitly referenced when the old vertex is desired again. This approach provides a fine control that supports irregular meshes of nearly any shape. In practice, buffer memory 80 has finite length, and in the preferred embodiment a maximum fixed queue length of 16 is used, which requires a 4-bit index. As used herein, the term “mesh buffer” shall refer to this queue, and the expression “generalized triangle mesh” will refer to a combination of generalized triangle strips and mesh buffer references.
The fixed size of mesh buffer 80 requires all tessellators/re-strippers for compressed geometry to break-up any runs longer than sixteen unique references. However, as geometry compression typically will not be programmed directly at the user level but rather by sophisticated tessellators/reformatters, this restriction is not onerous. Sixteen old vertices can in fact permit avoiding re-specification of up to about 94% of the redundant geometry.
FIG. 2 also is an example of a general mesh buffer representation of surface geometry. Geometry compression language supports the four vertex replacement codes of generalized triangle strips, namely: replace oldest, replace middle, restart clockwise, and restart counterclockwise. Further, the language adds an additional bit in each vertex header to indicate whether or not this vertex should be pushed into the mesh buffer. In the preferred embodiment, the mesh buffer reference command has a 4-bit field to indicate which old vertex should be re-referenced, along with the 2-bit vertex replacement code. Mesh buffer reference commands do not contain a mesh buffer push bit; old vertices can only be recycled once.
In practice, geometry rarely is comprised purely of positional data. In general, a normal, and/or color, and/or texture map coordinate are also specified per vertex. Accordingly, in the preferred embodiment, entries into mesh buffer 80 contain storage for all associated per-vertex information, specifically including normal and color and/or texture map coordinate.
For maximum storage space efficiency, when a vertex is specified in the data stream, per vertex normal and/or color information preferably is directly bundled with the position information. Preferably, such bundling is controlled by two state bits: bundle normals with vertices (BNV), and bundle colors with vertices (BCV). FIG. 4E depicts a command structure including bits, among others. When a vertex is pushed into the mesh buffer, these bits control if its bundled normal and/or color are pushed as well.
It should be noted that compression according to the present invention is not limited to triangles, and that vectors and dots may also be compressed. Lines, for example, are a subset of triangles, in which replacement bits are MOVE and DRAW. An output vertex is then a vertex that represents one end point of a line whose other vertex is the most recently, previously omitted vertex. For dots, the replacement bits are DRAW, and an output vertex is the vertex.
When CPU 52 executes a mesh buffer reference command, this process is reversed. That is, the two bits specify whether a normal and/or color should be inherited, or read, from the mesh buffer storage 80 , or obtained from the current normal or current color. Software 58 preferably includes explicit commands for setting these two current values. An exception to this rule exists, however, when an explicit “set current normal” command is followed by a mesh buffer reference, with the BNV state bit active. In this situation, the former overrides the mesh buffer normal, to allow compact representation of hard edges in surface geometry. Analogous semantics are also defined for colors, allowing compact representation of hard edges in surface colors.
Two additional state bits control the interpretation of normals and colors when the stream of vertices is converted into triangles. A replicate normals over triangle (RNT) bit indicates that the normal in the final vertex that completes a triangle should be replicated over the entire triangle. A replicate colors over triangle (RCT) bit is defined analogously, as shown in the command structure of FIG. 4 E.
Compression of image xyz positions will now be described. Use of the 8-bit exponent associated with 32-bit IEEE floating-point numbers allows positions to range in size from sub-atomic particles to billions of light years. But for any given tessellated object, the exponent is actually specified just once by a current modeling matrix, and object geometry is effectively described within a given modeling space using only a 24-bit fixed-point mantissa. In many cases far fewer bits are needed for visual acceptance. Thus applicant's geometry compression language supports variable quantization of position data down to one bit.
At the other extreme, empirical visual tests as well as well as consideration of semiconductor hardware implementation indicate that no more than 16 bits of precision per component of position is necessary for nearly all cases.
Assume, however, that the position and scale of local modeling space per object are specified by full 32-bit or 64-bit floating-point coordinates. Using sufficient numerical care, multiple such modeling spaces may be combined together to form seamless geometry coordinate systems with much greater than 16-bit positional precision.
Most geometry is local. Thus, within a 16-bit (or less) modeling space for each object, the difference (Δ) between adjacent vertices in the generalized mesh buffer stream is likely to be less than 16 bits in significance. If desired, one may construct a histogram representing bit length of neighboring position delta's in a batch of geometry, and based upon this histogram assign a variable length code to compactly represent the vertices. As will be described, preferably customized Huffman coding is used to encode for the positional delta's in the geometry compression.
Compression of red-blue-green-alpha (“RBGA”) colors will now be described. Color data are treated similarly to positions, but with a smaller maximum accuracy. Thus, RGBA color data are first quantized to 12-bit unsigned fraction components that are absolute linear reflectivity values (in which 1.0 represents 100% reflectivity). An additional parameter allows color data effectively to be quantized to any amount less than 12 bits. By way of example, colors may all be within a 5—5—5 RGB color space, as shown in FIG. 4 C. The optional α field is controlled by a color a present (“CAP”) state bit shown in FIG. 4 E. On the final rendered image individual pixel colors are still interpolated between the quantized vertex colors, and also typically are subject to lighting.
As a design decision, it was decided to use the same delta-coding for color components as is used for positions. The area of color data compression is where geometry compression and traditional image compression confront the most similar problems. However, many advanced image compression techniques were avoided for geometry color compression because of the difference in focus.
For example, the JPEG image compression standard relies upon assumptions about viewing of the decompressed data that cannot be made for geometry compression. For example, in image compression, it is known a priori that the pixels appear in a perfectly rectangular array, and that when viewed, each pixel subtends a narrow range of visual angles. By contrast, in geometry compression, the relationship between the viewer and the rasterized geometry is unpredictable.
In image compression, it is known that the spatial frequency of the displayed pixels upon on the viewer's eyes is likely higher than the color acuity of the human visual system. For this reason, colors are commonly converted to YUV space so that the UV color components can be represented at a lower spatial frequency than the Y (intensity) component.
Usually digital bits representing sub-sampled UV components are divided among two or more pixels. However, geometry compression cannot take advantage of this because there is no fixed display scale of the geometry relative to the viewer's eye. Further, given that compressed triangle vertices are connected to four to eight or more other vertices in the generalized triangle mesh, there is no consistent way of sharing “half” the color information across vertices.
Similar arguments apply for the more sophisticated transforms used in traditional image compression, such as the discrete cosine transform. These transforms assume a regular (rectangular) sampling of pixel values, and require a large amount of random access during decompression.
It is known in the art to use pseudo-color look-up tables, but such tables would required a fixed maximum size, and would represent a relatively expensive resource for real-time processing. While pseudo-color indices could yield slightly higher compression ratios for certain scenes, the RGB model is more generalized and considerably less expensive to implement.
In the RGB model used in the present invention, RBG values are represented as linear reflectance values. Theoretically, if all effects of lighting could be known a priori, one or two representation bits could be dropped if the RGB components had been represented in a nonlinear, or perceptually linear space (sometime referred to as gamma corrected space). In practice, lighting effects tend not to be predictable, and on-the-fly conversion from nonlinear light to linear light would require considerable hardware resources.
The compression of surface normals will now be described. Traditionally 96-bit normals (three 32-bit IEEE floating-point numbers) were used in calculations to determine 8-bit color intensities. Theoretically, 96 bits of information could be used to represent 2 96 different normals, spread evenly over the surface of a unit sphere. The resultant extremely high accuracy represents a normal projecting in any direction every 2 −46 radians.
But for IEEE floating-point normalized normals, the exponent bits are effectively unused. Given the constraint N x 2 +N y 2 +N z 2 =1, at least one of N x , N y , or N z must be in the 0.5 to 1.0 range. During rendering, this normal will be transformed by a composite modeling orientation matrix: N x ′ = N x · T 0 , 0 + N y · T 0 , 1 + N z · T 0 , 2 N y ′ = N x · T 1 , 0 + N y · T 1 , 1 + N z · T 1 , 2 N z ′ = N x · T 2 , 0 + N y · T 2 , 1 + N z · T 2 , 2
Assuming a typical implementation in which lighting is performed in world coordinates, the view transform is not involved in the processing of normals. If the normals have been pre-normalized, then to avoid redundant re-normalization of the normals, the composite modeling transformation matrix T is typically pre-normalized to divide out any scale changes. Thus:
T 0,0 2 +T 1,0 2 +T 2,0 2 =1, etc.
During normal transformation, floating-point arithmetic hardware effectively truncates all additive arguments to the accuracy of the largest component. The result is that for a normalized normal undergoing transformation by a scale preserving modeling orientation matrix, the numerical accuracy of the transformed normal value is reduced to no more than 24-bit fixed-point accuracy in all but a few special cases.
By comparison, even 24-bit normal components would still provide higher angular accuracy than the repaired Hubble space telescope. In practice, some systems utilize only 16-bit normal components are used. In empirical tests with 16-bit normal components, applicant determined that results from an angular density of 0.01 radians between normals were not visually distinguishable from finer representations. This was about 100,000 normals distributed over a unit sphere. In rectilinear space, these normals still require high representation accuracy and as a design choice 16-bit components including one sign and one guard bit were decided upon. This still requires 48 bits to represent a normal, but since only 100,000 specific normals are of interest, theoretically a single 17-bit index could denote any of these normals.
The use of normals as indices, and the resultant advantages provided will now be described. One method of converting an index of a normal on the unit sphere back into a N x , N y , N z value is with a table look-up, the table being loaded into memory 70 perhaps. Although table size is potentially large, the requisite size can be substantially reduced by taking advantage of a 48-way symmetry present in the unit sphere.
More particularly, as shown by FIG. 3, the unit sphere is symmetrical by sign bits in the eight quadrants by sign bits. By allowing three of the normal representation bits to be the three sign bits of the xyz components of a normal, it then is only necessary to represent one eighth of the unit sphere.
As shown by FIG. 3, each octant of the unit sphere can be divided into six identical components by folding about the planes x=y, x=z, and y=z. The six possible sextants are encoded with another three bits, which leaves only {fraction (1/48)} of the sphere remains to be represented.
Utilizing the above-noted symmetry reduces the look-up table size by a factor of 8×6=48. Instead of storing 100,000 entries, the look-up table need store only about 2,000 entries, a size small enough to be an on-chip ROM look-up table, stored perhaps within ROM 59 (see FIG. 1 ). Indexing into the look-up table requires 11 address bits, which when added to the previously described two 3-bit fields results in a 17-bit field to describe all three normal components.
Representing a finite set of unit normals is equivalent to positioning points on the surface of the unit sphere. Although no perfectly equal angular density distribution exists for large numbers of points, many near-optimal distributions exist. Theoretically, a distribution having the above-described type of 48-way symmetry could be used for the decompression look-up table associated with the three-dimensional geometry decompression unit 130 (see FIG. 1 ).
However, several additional constraints mandate a different choice of encoding. First, a scalable density distribution is desired, e.g., a distribution in which setting in the look-up table more low order address bits to “0” still results in fairly even normal density on the unit sphere. Otherwise a different look-up table for every encoding density would be required. Secondly, a Δ-encodable distribution is desired in that adjacent vertices in geometry statistically have normals that are nearby on the surface of the unit sphere. Nearby locations on the two-dimensional space of the unit-sphere surface are most succinctly encoded by a two-dimensional offset. It is desirable to have a distribution in which such a metric exists. Finally, although computational costs associated with the normal encoding process are not critically important, distributions having lower encoding costs are still preferred.
For these reasons the present invention utilizes a distribution having a regular grid in the angular space within one sextant of the unit sphere. As such, rather than a monolithic 11-bit index, all normals within a sextant are advantageously represented with two 6-bit orthogonal angular addresses. This configuration then revises the previous bit-total to 18-bits. As was the case for positions and colors, if more quantization of normals is acceptable, these 6-bit indices can be reduced to fewer bits, and thus absolute normals can be represented using anywhere from 18 to as few as 6 bits. However, as described below, this space preferably is Δ-encoded to further reducing the number of bits required for high quality representation of normals.
Normal encoding parameterization will now be described. Points on a unit radius sphere are parameterized using spherical coordinates by angles θ and φ, where θ is the angle about the y axis and φ is the longitudinal angle from the y=0 plane. Equation (1) governs mapping between rectangular and spherical coordinates as follows:
x = cos θ. cos φ y = sin φ z= sin θ.cos φ (1)
Points on the sphere are folded first by octant, and then by sort order of xyz into one of six sextants. All table encoding takes place in the positive octant in the region bounded by the half spaces:
x≳z z≳y y≳ 0
As shown in FIG. 3, the described triangular-shaped patch runs from 0 to π/4 radians in θ, and from 0 to a maximum 0.615479709 radians in φ.
Quantized angles are represented by two n-bit integers {circumflex over (θ)} n and {circumflex over (φ)} n , where n is in the range of 0 to 6. For a given n, the relationship between indices θ and φ is: Θ ( Θ ^ n ) = arcsin tan ( φ max · ( n - Θ ^ n ) 2 n
φ ( φ ^ n ) = φ max · φ 2 n ( 2 )
Equations (2) show how values of {circumflex over (θ)} n and {circumflex over (φ)} n can be converted to spherical coordinates θ and φ, which in turn can be converted to rectilinear normal coordinate components via equation (1).
To reverse the process, e.g. to encode a given normal N into {circumflex over (θ)} n and {circumflex over (φ)} n , one cannot simply invert equation (2). Instead, the N must be first folded into the canonical octant and sextant, resulting in N′. Then N′ must be dotted with all quantized normals in the sextant. For a fixed n, the values of {circumflex over (θ)} n and {circumflex over (φ)} n that result in the largest (nearest unity) dot product define the proper encoding of N. Other, more efficient methods for finding the correct values of {circumflex over (θ)} n and {circumflex over (φ)} n exist, for example indexing through the table to set φ, and then jumping into θ.
At this juncture, the complete bit format of absolute normals can be given. The uppermost three bits specify the octant, the next three bits the sextant, and finally two n-bit fields specify {circumflex over (θ)} n and {circumflex over (φ)} n . The 3-bit sextant field takes on one of six values, the binary codes for which are shown in FIG. 3 .
Some further details are in order. The three normals at the corners of the canonical patch are multiply represented, namely 6, 8, and 12 times. By employing the two unused values of the sextant field, these normals can be uniquely encoded as 26 special normals.
This representation of normals is amenable to Δ-encoding, at least within a sextant, although with some additional work, this can be extended to sextants that share a common edge. The Δ code between two normals is simply the difference in {circumflex over (θ)} n and {circumflex over (φ)} n , namely Δ{circumflex over (θ)} n and Δ{circumflex over (φ)} n .
Applicant's use of compression tags will now be described. Many techniques are known for minimally representing variable-length bit fields but for the geometry compression according to the present invention, a variation of a conventional Huffman algorithm is used.
The Huffman compression algorithm takes in a set of symbols to be represented, along with frequency of occurrence statistics (e.g., histograms) of those symbols. From this, variable length, uniquely identifiable bit patterns are generated that allow these symbols to be represented with a near-minimum total number of bits, assuming that symbols do occur at the frequencies specified.
Many compression techniques, including JPEG, create unique symbols as tags to indicate the length of a variable-length data-field that follows. This data field is typically a specific-length delta value. Thus, the final binary stream consists of (self-describing length) variable length tag symbols, each immediately followed by a data field whose length is associated with that unique tag symbol.
In the present invention, the binary format for geometry compression uses this technique to represent position, normal, and color data fields. For geometry compression, these <tag, data> fields are immediately preceded by a more conventional computer instruction set op-code field. These fields, along with potential additional operand bits, will be referred to as geometry instructions (see FIGS. 4 A- 4 K).
Traditionally, each to be compressed value is assigned its own associated label, e.g. an xyz Δ position would be represented by three tag-value pairs. But since the Δxyz values are not uncorrelated, a denser, simpler representation can be attained. In general, the xyz Δ's statistically point equally in all directions in space. Thus, if n is the number of bits needed to represent the largest of the Δ's, then statistically the other two Δ values require an average of n-1.4 bits for their representation. The preferred embodiment therefore uses a single field-length tag to indicate the bit length of Δx, Δy, and Δz. although other design choices could have been made.
Unfortunately, using this approach prevents taking advantage of another Huffman technique to save somewhat less than one more bit per component. However, the implemented embodiment outweighs this disadvantage by not having to specify two additional tag fields (for Δy and Δz). A further advantage is that using a single tag field permits a hardware decompression engine to decompress all three fields in parallel, if desired.
Similar arguments hold for A's of RGBA values, and. accordingly a single field-length tag is used to indicate bit-length of the R, G, B and, if present, α, fields.
Absolute and Δ normals are also parameterized by a single value (n) that can be specified by a single tag. To facilitate high-speed, low-cost hardware implementations, the length of the Huffman tag field was limited to six bits, a relatively small value. A 64-entry tag look-up table allows decoding of tags in one clock cycle. One table exists for positions, another table exists for normals, and yet another table exists for colors (and optionally, also for texture coordinates). Each table contains the length of the tag field, the length of the data field(s), a data normalization coefficient, and an absolute/relative bit.
For reasonable hardware implementation, an additional complication must be addressed. As described below, all instruction are broken-up into an eight-bit header, and a variable length body, sufficient information being present in the header to determine the body length. But the header of one instruction must be placed in the data stream before the body of the previous instruction to give the hardware time to process the header information. For example, the sequence . . . B0 H2B1 H2B2 H3. . . has to be encoded as . . . H1 B0 H2 B1 H3 B2. . . .
The geometry compression instruction set used in the preferred embodiment will now be described with respect to FIGS. 4A-4K. FIG. 4A depicts a vertex command that specifies a Huffman compressed Δ-encoded position, as well as possibly a normal and/or color, depending on bundling bits (BNV and BCV). Two additional bits specify a vertex replacement code (REP), and another bit controls mesh buffer pushing of this vertex (MBP).
As shown in FIG. 4B, a normal command specifies a new current normal and the color command shown in FIG. 4C depicts a new current color. The normal command and color command each use Huffman encoding of Δ values.
The mesh buffer reference command structure is shown in FIG. 4 D. The mesh buffer reference command allows any of the sixteen most recently pushed vertices (and associated normals and/or colors) to be referenced as the next vertex. As further shown in FIG. 4D, A 2-bit vertex replacement (“REP”) code is also specified.
FIG. 4E depicts the set state instruction that updates the five state bits: RNT, RCT, BNV, BCV, and CAP.
FIG. 4F depicts a set table command, which is used to set entries to the entry value specified in one of the three Huffman decoding tables (Position, Normal, or Color).
FIG. 4G depicts a passthrough command that allows additional graphics state not controlled directly by geometry compression to be updated in-line.
FIG. 4H depicts a variable length no-op (“VNOP”) command that allows fields within the bit stream to be aligned to 32-bit word boundaries. This permits aligned fields to be efficiently patched at run-time by the general CPU 52 .
FIGS. 4I, 4 J and 4 K respectively depict tag and Δ-position data structure, tag and Δ-normal data structure, and tag and Δ-color data structure.
Those skilled in the art will recognize that instruction sets other than what has been described above may instead be used to implement the present invention.
The ratio of the time required for compression relative to decompression is an important measure for many forms of compression. In practice, it is acceptable for off-line image compression to take up to perhaps sixty-times more time than decompression, but for real-time video conferencing, the ratio should be one.
Advantageously, geometry compression does not have this real-time requirement. Even if geometry is constructed on the fly, most geometry creating techniques, e.g., CSG, require orders of magnitude more time than needed for displaying geometry. Also, unlike continuous images found in movies, in most applications of geometry compression a compressed three-dimensional object will be displayed for many sequential frames before being discarded. Should the three-dimensional object require animating, animation is typically done with modeling matrices. Indeed for a CD-based game, it is quite likely that an object will be decompressed billions of times by customer-users, but will have been compressed only once by the authoring company.
Like some other compression systems, geometry compression algorithms can have a compression-time vs. compression-ratio trade-off. For a given quality target level, as allowable time for compression increases, the compression ratio achieved by a geometry compression system increases. There exists a corresponding “knob” for quality of the resulting compressed three-dimensional object, and lower the quality knob, the better the compression ratio achieved.
Aesthetic and subjective judgment may be applied to geometry compression. Some three-dimensional objects will begin to appear bad when target quantization of normals and/or positions is slightly reduced, whereas other objects may be visually unchanged even with a large amount of quantization. Compression can sometimes cause visible artifacts, but in other cases may only make the object look different, not necessarily lower in quality. In one experiment by applicant, an image of an elephant actually begin to appear more realistic, with more wrinkle-like skin, as the image normals were quantized more. Once a model has been created and compressed, it can be put into a library, to be used as three-dimensional clip-art at the system level.
While many aspects of geometry compression are universal, the above-described geometry compression instruction set has been somewhat tailored to permit low-cost, high-speed hardware implementations. (It is understood that a geometry compression format designed purely for software decompression would be somewhat different.). The preferred geometry compression instruction set is especially amenable to hardware implementation because of the one-pass sequential processing, limited local storage requirements, tag look-up (as opposed to a conventional Hamming bit-sequential processing), and use of shifts, adds, and look-ups to accomplish most arithmetic steps.
FIG. 5 is a flowchart outlining method steps in a geometry compression algorithm routine, according to the present invention. Such routine may be stored in memory 80 and executed under control of CPU 60 (see FIG. 1 ).
At step 200 , an object is represented by an explicit group of triangles to be compressed, along with quantization thresholds for positions, normals, and colors. At step 210 , a topological analysis of connectivity is made, and hard edges are marked in normals and/or color, if such information is not already present.
At step 220 , vertex traversal order and mesh buffer references are created, and at step 230 histograms of Δ-positions, Δ-normals, and Δ-colors is created. At step. 240 , separate variable length Huffman tag codes are assigned for the Δ-positions, Δ-normals, and Δ-colors, based upon histographs.
At step 250 , a binary output stream is generated by first outputting Huffman table initialization, after which the vertices are traversed in order. Appropriate tags and Δ's are output for all values.
Applicant has implemented a Wavefront OBJ format compressor that supports compression of positions and normals, and creates full generalized triangle strips, but does not yet implement a full meshifying algorithm. Future embodiments will explore variable precision geometry, including fine structured updates of the compression tables. The present compressor expends time calculating geometric details already known to the tessellator, and ultimately it is hoped to generate compressed geometry directly. However, even its present unoptimized state, applicant's software can compress about 3,000 triangles/second in many cases.
At the user end, it is of course desirable to decompress the compressed data, and the above-referenced patent application describes a preferred manner of such decompression. An applicable geometry decompression algorithm is set forth in ATTACHMENT 2, and may be outlined as follows:
(1) Fetch the rest of the next instruction, and the first 8 bits of the following instruction;
(2) Using the tag table, expand any compressed value fields to full precision;
(3A) If values are relative, add to current value; otherwise replace;
(3B) If mesh buffer reference, access old values;
(3C) If other command, do housekeeping.
(4) If normal, pass index through ROM table to obtain full values.
(5) Output values in generalized triangle strip form to next stage.
Applicant has implemented a software decompressor that successfully decompresses compressed geometry at a rate of about 10,000 triangles/second. Hardware designs are in progress, a simplified block diagram can be seen in FIG. 6 . The rate of hardware decompression may in the range of tens of millions of triangles/second.
Before describing decompression, it is helpful to examine the results of the above-described compression techniques. Table 1, shown below, describes these results for several graphical objects: a triceratops, a Spanish galleon, a Dodge Viper, a '57 Chevy, and an insect. Generally speaking, Table 1 shows that positional quantization much above 24 bits (from an original 32 bits per z/y/z coordinate) has no significant visible effects unless zooming is performed on the object. Positional quantization to 24 bits is denoted herein as “P72” (24×3). Furthermore, normal coordinates may be reduced from 96 bits (32 bits per coordinate) to as little as 36 bits (12 bits per coordinate) with little visible change. Normal quanitization to 12 bits per coordinate is denoted herein as “N36” (12×3). While the location of specular highlights may differ slightly with normal quanitzation, it is not visually apparent that such changes are reductions in quality.
Without zooming into the object, positional quantization much above 24-bits has essentially no significant visible effect. As the normal quantization is reduced, the positions of specular highlights on the surfaces are offset slightly. However, it is not visually apparent that such changes are reductions in quality, at least above 12 bits per normal. The quantization parameters were photographed with the objects, and otherwise even applicant could not distinguish between the original and most compressed versions of the same object.
Table 1 summarizes compression and other statistics for these objects. Column 1 notes the object in question, column 2 represents the number of A's, and column three the Δ-strip length. The fourth column represents system overhead per vertex (overhead being everything beyond position tag/data, and normal tag/data). The “xyz quant” column denotes quantization thresholds, and the sixth column depicts the number of bits/xyz. “Bits/tri” ninth column depicts bits per triangle.
The results in Table 1 are measured actual compression data except for estimated mesh buffer results, which are shown in parenthesis. No actual mesh buffer results were present in that applicant's prototype software compressor did not yet implement a full meshifying algorithm. The estimate (in parenthesis) assumes a 46% hit ratio in the mesh buffer.
In Table 1, the right-most column shows compression ratio performance achieved over existing executable geometry formats. Although total byte count of the compressed geometry is an unambiguous number, in stating a compression ratio some assumptions must be made about the uncompressed executable representation of the object. Applicant assumed optimized generalized triangle strips, with both positions and normals represented by floating-point values to calculate “original size” data for Table 1.
To demonstrate the effect of pure 16-bit fixed point simple strip representation, Table 1 also shows byte count for the mode of OpenGL. As shown, average strip length decreased in the range of 2-3. Few if any commercial products take advantage of generalized triangle strips, and thus Table 1 considerably understates potential memory space savings.
TABLE 1
Δstp
ovrhd/
xyz
bits/
norm
bits/
bits/
org'l size
comp. size
comp.
Obj. name
#Δ's
len.
vertex
quant
xyz
quant
norm
tri
(bytes)
(bytes)
ratio
triceratops
6,039
15.9
7.5
48
30.8
18
16.8
55.9
179,704
42,190
4.3X
(35.0)
(28,380)
(8.9X)
triceratops
6,039
15.9
7.5
30
17.8
12
11.0
38.0
179,704
27.159
6.7X
(24.4)
(18,388)
(9.8X)
galleon
5,577
12.1
7.5
30
21.9
12
10.8
41.0
169,084
28,536
6.0X
(27.2)
(18,907)
(9.0X)
Vipor
58,203
23.8
7.5
38
20.1
14
10.9
37.5
1,698,118
272,130
6.3X
(25.0)
(181,644)
(9.4X)
57 Chevy
31,782
12.9
7.5
33
17.3
13
10.9
35.8
958,180
141,830
8.8X
(24.3)
(98,281)
(10.0X)
insect
283,783
3.0
7.5
39
22.8
15
11.0
51.5
9,831,528
1,896,283
5.8X
(33.9)
(1,115,534)
(8.9X)
While certainly statistical variation exists between objects with respect to compression ratios, general trends are nonetheless noted. When compressing using the highest quality setting of the quantization knobs (P48/N18), compression ratios are typically about six. As ratios approach nearly then, most objects begin to show visible quantization artifacts.
In summation, geometry compression according to the present invention can represent three-dimensional triangle data with a factor of six to ten times fewer bits than required with conventional techniques. Applicant's geometry compression algorithm may be implemented in real-time hardware, or in software. For a fixed number of triangles, compression can minimize the total bit-size of the representation, subject to quality and implementation trade-offs. The resultant geometry-compressed image suffers only slight losses in object quality, and may be decompressed using software or hardware implementations. If three-dimensional rendering hardware contains a geometry decompression unit, application geometry may be stored in memory in compressed format. Further, data transmission may use the compressed format, thus improving effective bandwidth for a graphics accelerator system, including shared virtual reality display environments. The resultant compression can substantially increase the amount of geometry cacheable in main memory.
To promote a fuller understanding of the role of the present invention, especially in a compression-decompression system, decompression of data that have been compressed according to the present invention will now be described in detail. The following description of decompression is taken from applicant's earlier-referenced patent application.
FIG. 7 is a detailed block diagram of the decompressor unit 130 , shown in FIG. 1 . As shown in FIG. 7, unit 130 includes a decompression input first-in-first-out register (“FIFO”) 200 whose inputs include control signals and a preferably 32-bit or 64-bit data stream, which signals and data stream preferably come from an accelerator port data FIFO (“APDF”) in interface unit 120 (see FIG. 1 ). The APDF portion of interface 120 includes a controller that signals the size of the incoming data stream to unit 130 . FIFO 200 provides output to an input block state machine 220 and to an input block 210 , state machine 220 and input block unit 210 communicating with each other.
Output from block 210 is coupled to a barrel shifter unit 240 and to a Huffman table set 230 , the output from the Huffman look-up being coupled to state machine 220 . Opcode within state machine 220 processes the values provided by the Huffman tables 230 and outputs data to the barrel shifter unit 240 . State machine 220 also provides an output to data path controller 260 , which outputs a preferably 12-bit wide signal to a tag decoder unit 294 and also outputs data to the barrel shifter unit 240 and to a normal processor 270 , and a position/color processor 280 .
Barrel shifter unit 240 outputs to the normal processor 270 and to a position/color processor 280 . The outputs from processors 270 and 280 are multiplexed by output multiplexer unit 290 into a preferably 48-bit wide signal that is provided to a format converter 292 .
Decompression unit 130 generates a preferably 12-bit tag that is sent to tag decoder 294 in parallel with either 32-bits or 48-bits (for normals), that are sent to the format converter 292 . These data streams provide instructions that generate output to format converter 292 . A preferably 32-bit read-back path is used to read-back the state of the unit.
Table 2, below, shows interface signals used to implement a preferred embodiment of a decompression unit 130 :
TABLE 2
Signal Name
Signals
I/O
Description
id_data
64
I
Data inputs from APDF
id_tag
12
I
Data on inputs is valid from APDF
fd_stall
1
I
Stall signal from format converter
di_busy
1
O
Busy signal to status register
di_faf
1
O
Fifo-almost-full signal-to-input FIFO
df_data
48
O
Data output to formal converter
df_tag
12
O
Tag output to tag decoder
du_context
32
O
Context output to UPA section
Table 3, below, shows output data formats provided by unit 130 . As described herein, vertex, mesh buffer reference, and passthrough instructions generate transactions from decompression unit 130 . Vertex and mesh buffer reference instructions send data to the format converter, and each generates a header indicating vertex replacement policy for the current vertex, followed by component data. Each of these instructions always generates position data and, depending upon the value of the state register, may contain color or normal data. All three of the normal components preferably are sent in parallel, whereas each position and color component is separately sent. A passthrough instruction sends preferably 32-bits of data to the collection buffer.
TABLE 3
COMPONENTS
FORMAT
Header
32.
Position
s.15
Color
s.15
Normal
s1.14 (x3)
Passthrough
32.
FIG. 8 is a detailed block diagram of the input block 210 depicted in FIG. 7. A preferably 64-bit input register 300 receives data from the APDF portion of interface 130 , with 32-bits or 64-bits at a time being loaded into register 300 . Register 300 outputs preferably 32-bits at a time via multiplexer 310 to a first barrel shifter 320 whose output passes through a register 330 into a merge unit 340 . The 64-bit output from merge unit 340 is input to data register 350 , part of whose output is returned as input to a second barrel shifter 360 . The output from second barrel shifter 360 is passed through a register 370 and is also input to merge unit 340 . First barrel shifter 320 aligns data to the tail of the bit-aligned data stream being recycled from data register 350 through second barrel shifter 360 . The second barrel shifter 360 shifts-off the used bits from data register 350 .
FIG. 9 is a detailed block diagram of barrel shifter unit 240 , shown in FIG. 7 . In overview, barrel shifter unit 240 expands the variable-length position, color, and normal index components to their fixed-point precisions. Data into unit 240 from unit 210 and/or 220 is input to a register 400 whose output is shown as defining opcode and/or data units 410 , 420 , 430 , 440 , 450 , and 460 , which are input to a multiplexer unit 470 .
Multiplexer unit 470 input A is used for the X component of the vertex instruction, input B is used for the set normal instruction and the first component of the set color instructions, and input C is used for the remaining components of the vertex and set color instructions. Unit 240 further includes a barrel shift left register 480 coupled to receive tag_len data and to output to register 490 , whose output in turn is input to a barrel shift right register 500 that is coupled to receive data_len data. Register 500 outputs to a mask unit 510 that is coupled to receive shift data and whose output is coupled to register 520 , which outputs v_data. The output of data block 460 is coupled to a register 530 whose output is coupled to a second register 540 , which outputs pt_data.
An appropriate table within Huffman tables 230 (see FIG. 7) provides values of tag_len, data_len, and shift into units 480 , 500 and 510 , respectively. Barrel shift left unit 480 shifts the input data left by 0 to 6 bits (tag_len), thus shifting off the Huffman tag. By contrast, barrel shift right register 500 shifts the data to the right by 0 to 16 bits (16 - data_len), and sign extends the data, thus bringing the data to its full size. Mask unit 510 masks off the lower ‘shift’ bits to clamp the data to the correct quantization level.
FIG. 10 depicts in greater block diagram detail the position/color processor unit 280 , shown in FIG. 7 . Processor unit 280 generates final position or color component values. As shown in FIGS. 7 and 9, processor unit 280 receives a preferably 16-bit value (v_data) from the barrel shifter unit 240 , specifically mask unit 510 therein.
If the abs_rel bit from the Huffman table 230 is set to relative, the incoming data are added by combiner unit 600 to the appropriate current stored data. The new value passes through multiplexer 610 , and is stored back into the register 620 , and is sent along to the output multiplexer 290 , shown in FIG. 7 . However, if the abs_rel bit is set to absolute, the incoming data bypasses adder 600 is latched into the register 620 , and is also sent out to the output multiplexer 290 .
As shown in FIG. 10, the position/color processor unit 280 further includes a position/color mesh buffer 630 that is coupled to receive the input to register 620 . The output from mesh buffer 630 is coupled to multiplexer gates, collectively 640 , whose outputs reflect current values of x, y, z, r, g, b and α. A register set, collectively shown as 650 , provides these current values to the input of a multiplexer 660 , whose output is coupled to the adder 600 . Processor unit 280 further includes a register 670 that receives and outputs pt_data from barrel shifter unit 240 .
As shown in FIG. 7, normal processor unit 270 also outputs data to the output multiplexer 290 . FIG. 11A depicts in detail the sub-units comprising normal processor unit 270 . As seen in FIG. 7 and FIG. 9, the normal processor unit 270 receives an 18-bit normal index as three separate components: sextant/octant, u and v, or encoded Δu and Δv components from mask unit 510 in barrel shifter unit 240 . If the value is a Δ-value (relative), the Δu and Δv are added to the current u and v values by respective adders 710 . The intermediate values are stored and are also passed on to a fold unit 800 associated with decoder-fold-rom unit 272 (see FIG. 11 B).
As shown in FIG. 11A, the normal processor unit 270 further includes registers 712 , 714 , 716 , 718 , 720 , 722 , 724 , 726 which hold respective octant, sextant, u and v values, curr_oct, curr_sext, curr_u and curr_v values. Also present in unit 270 are multiplexers 740 , 742 , 744 , 746 , 748 , 750 , 752 , 754 , 756 , 758 and 760 , 1's complementing units 770 , 772 , latch-flipflop units 780 , 782 , 784 for holding respective v, u, and uv information, further adders 790 , 792 , and a normal mesh buffer 794 coupled to receive curr_normal input components.
With reference to FIGS. 11A and 11B, for an absolute reference, the u and v values are passed directly to fold unit 800 . The octant and sextant portions of the index are sent to decoder 810 , within unit 272 . Decoder 810 controls multiplexer 820 (which select constants), as well as multiplexers 840 , 842 , 844 , 860 , 862 , 864 , which reorder components, and invert signs (using 2's complement units 850 , 852 , 854 ).
Fold unit 800 uses the u and v components of the normal index, from unit 270 , to calculate the address into the normal look-up table ROM 830 . The octant and sextant fields, from unit 270 , drive a decoder 810 that determines sign and ordering of components output from the ROM look-up table 830 . Decoder 810 also handles special case normals not included in the normal ROM look-up table 830 .
FIG. 12 depicts interfaces to a mesh buffer, as shown in FIG. 10 and/or FIG. 11 A. Preferably, mesh buffer 794 is implemented as a register file and a pointer to the current location. Data is input to the mesh buffer FIFO at the position of the current location pointer. However, random access to any of the 16 locations is allowed when reading the data out of the FIFO by indexing off this pointer: address=(curr_loc_ptr−index) mod 16 .
FIG. 13A depicts interfaces to Huffman tables, e.g., tables 230 in FIG. 7 . Huffman tables are used to decode the Huffman tags preceding the compressed data. Three Huffman tables are used: one for position, for color, and for normal data, with each table preferably holding 64 entries.
FIG. 13B depicts a preferred format for entry of position and color data in the Huffman tables, while FIG. 13C depicts the preferred format for normal table entries. The instruction format for loading the Huffman tables in the compressed data stream is described later herein.
Several instructions generate data for the format converter 292 , shown in FIG. 7, and appropriate tags must be generated for this data so the format converter can correctly process the data. Table 4, below, shows tags generated for the different data components. The components that show two tags may set the launch bit, and the second tag shows the value with the launch bit set.
TABLE 4
COMPONENTS
TAG
Header
0x020
X
0x011
Y
0x012
Z
0x013/0x413
Nx/Ny/Nz
0x018/0x418
R
0x014
G
0x015
B
0x016/0x416
A
0x017/0x417
U
0x0c0/0x4c0
V
0x01c/0x41c
Input block state machine 220 (see FIG. 7) includes a preferably six-bit state register that holds information about the processing state of the decompression unit. Preferably, the following state bits are defined:
Bit 5: tex—Texture values in place of color
Bit 4: rnt—Replicate normal per vertex
Bit 3: rct—Replicate color per vertex
Bit 2: bnv—Normal bundled with vertex
Bit 1: bcv—Color bundled with vertex
Bit 0: cap—Color includes alpha (α)
Position/Color processor unit 280 (see FIGS. 7 and 10) preferably includes three 16-bit registers, curr_x, curr_y, and curr_z, which contain the current position components, X, Y, and Z, and are only updated by vertex instructions.
Normal processor unit 270 (see FIGS. 7 and 11A) preferably includes three six-bit registers, curr_oct, curr_sext, curr_u, curr_v) that contain the current normal. The first register holds the 3-bit sextant and octant fields, and the remaining two registers contain the u and v coordinates for the normal. These values are written using the set normal instruction, or they are updated by the vertex instruction if the bnv bit is set in the state register.
Position/color processor 280 further preferably includes four 16-bit registers, curr_r, curr_g, curr_b, curr_a, which contain the current color components, red, green, blue and alpha (α). These components are set using the se5t color instruction, or they are updated by the vertex instruction if the bcv bit is set in the state register. Preferably, alpha is valid only if the cap bit is set in the state register. The test bit is set when processing texture components, in which case only red and green are valid.
A preferred instruction set implementing decompression of data compressed according to the present invention will now be described. FIG. 14A depicts the vertex instruction format, an instruction that uses variable-length Huffman encoding to represent a vertex. Position information is always present in this instruction.
(REP) The vertex replacement policy is as follows:
00 —Restart clockwise
01 —Restart counter-clockwise
10 —Replace middle
11 —Replace oldest
(M) —mesh buffer push:
0 —No push
1 —Push
With reference to FIG. 14A, the position data consists of a variable-length Huffman tag (0 to 6 bits) followed by three data fields of equal length for the X, Y, and Z components which are either Δ-values or absolute values. The data_len field for the entry in the position Huffman table gives the length of each of the X, Y, and Z fields, the tag_len entry gives the length of the tag, and the abs_rel entry tells whether the data is absolute data or is relative to the previous vertex. The shift entry from the Huffman table gives the quantization level (number of trailing zeroes) for the data.
If the bnv bit is set in the state register, a normal is included. The encoded normal has a Huffman tag followed by either two variable-length data fields for Δu and Δv, or a fixed-length field for the sextant and octant (6 bits) followed by two variable-length fields for u and v. The former encoding is for delta encodings of normals, while the latter encoding is for absolute encodings. The data_len, tag_len, abs_rel, and shift fields from the normal Huffman table are used similarly as entries from the position table.
FIG. 14B depicts vertex component data formats. If the bcv bit in the state register is set, color is included with the vertex. The color is encoded similar the position, using three or four fields, but how the fields are used is determined by the tag table. If tagged absolute, then x, y, z, r, g, b data is used. Absolute normals are used with sectant and octant fields. However, if the tag table indicates relative, delta normals are used, and it suffices to send latitude and longitude data (e.g., θ and Φ, also referred to herein as u and v.
With further reference to FIG. 14B, a Huffman tag is followed by three equal length fields for R, G, and B. The cap bit in the state register indicates whether an additional field for α is included. The data_len, tag_len, abs_rel, and shift fields from the color Huffman table are used similarly as for entries from the position and normal tables.
The states of the vertex instruction set are as follows:
1. Latch next opcode; output X; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by ptag_len+pdata_len−pquant+2.
2. Merge; output Header.
3. Output Y; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by pdata_len−pquant.
4. Merge
5. Output Z; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by pdata_len−pquant.
6. Merge.
a. If (bnv)
i. if (absolute normal), goto 7,
ii. else goto 9. /*relative normal*/
b. else If (rnt), goto 21,
c. else If (bcv) goto 13,
d. else If (rct) goto 22,
e. else Merge; branch to next instruction.
7. Latch next opcode; output sextant/octant; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by ntag_len+6.
8. Merge.
9. Output U.
a. If (absolute normal), shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by ndata_len−nquant.
b. else/*relative normal*/, latch next opcode; shift Bs2 by ntag_len+ndata_len−nquant
10. Merge.
11. Output V.
12. Merge.
a. If (bcv), goto 13,
b. else If (rct), goto 22,
c. else Merge; branch to next instruction.
13. Latch next opcode; output R.; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by ctag_len+cdata_len−cquant.
14. Merge
15. Output G; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by cdata_len−cquant.
16. Merge; if (tex), branch to next instruction.
17. Output B; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by cdata_len−cquant.
18. Merge; if ( − cap) branch to next instruction.
19. Output A; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by cdata_len−cquant.
20. Merge; branch to next instruction.
21. Output curr_normal.
a. If (bcv), goto 13,
b. else If (rct), goto 22,
c. else Merge; branch to next instruction.
22. Output curr_r.
23. Output curr_g. If (tex), Merge; branch to next instruction
24. Output curr_b. If (cap), Merge; branch to next instruction.
25. Output curr_a. Merge branch to next instruction.
FIG. 14C depicts the format for the set normal instruction. The set normal instruction sets the value of the current normal registers. The normal data is encoded similarly as is normal data in the vertex instruction, described herein. The states of the set normal instruction are as follows:
If (absolute normal)
1. Latch next opcode; output sextant/octant; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by ntag_len+8.
2. Merge.
3. Output U; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by ndata_len−nquant.
4. Merge.
5. Output V; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by ndata_len+nquant.
6. Merge; branch to next instruction.
else/*relative normal*/
1. Latch next opcode; output dU; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by n_tag_len+ndata_len−nquant.
2. Merge.
3. Output dV; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by ndata_len−nquant.
4. Merge; branch to next instruction.
FIG. 14D depicts the set color instruction, an instruction that sets the value of the current color registers. Encoding of the color data is similar to encoding of the color data in the vertex instruction. The states of the set color instruction are as follows:
1. Latch next opcode; output R; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by ctag_len+cdata_len−cquant +2.
2. Merge.
3. Output G; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by cdata_len−cquant.
4. Merge. If (tex), branch to next instruction.
5. Output B; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by cdata_len−cquant.
6. Merge. If ( −cap ) branch to next instruction.
7. Output A; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by cdata_len−cquant.
8. Merge; branch to next instruction.
FIG. 14E is a preferred format for the mesh buffer reference instruction. This instruction causes data from an entry in the mesh buffer to be sent out to the format converter as the next vertex. With reference to FIG. 14E, the index indicates the entry from the mesh buffer to send. The newest entry in the mesh buffer has index 0, and the oldest has index 15. REP, the above-described replacement policy for the vertex instruction, is the same as used for the mesh buffer reference instruction. The states for the mesh buffer reference instruction are as follows:
1. Latch next opcode; output Header; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by 9.
2. Output X from mesh buffer.
3. Output Y from mesh buffer.
4. Output Z from mesh buffer.
a. If (bnv or rnt) goto 5,
b. else If (bcv or rct) goto 6,
c. else Merge; branch to next instruction.
5. If (bnv), output Normal from mesh buffer, else if (rnt) output curr_normal.
a. If (bnv or rct) goto 6,
b. else Merge; branch to next instruction.
6. If (bcv), output R from mesh buffer, else if (rct) output curr_r.
7. If (bcv), output G from mesh buffer, else if (rct) output curr_g. If (tex), Merge; branch to next instruction.
8. If (bcv), output B from mesh buffer, else if (rct) output curr_b. If ( − cap), Merge; branch to next instruction.
9. If (bcv), output A from mesh buffer, else if (rct) output curr_a. Merge; branch to next instruction.
FIG. 14F depicts the set state instruction, which sets the bits the decompression unit state register. The states for the set state instruction are as follows:
1. Latch next opcode; shift barrel shifter 2 by 11 bits.
2. Merge; branch instruction
FIG. 14G depicts the set table instruction, which sets Huffman table entries. The table selection is as follows:
00 —Position table
01 —Color table
10 —Normal table
11 —Undefined
The tag length is derived from the address. The nine bits in the entry field correspond to the absolute/relative bit, data length, and shift amount fields of the Huffman table entries. (The preferred format of the Huffman table entries has been described earlier herein.) The states of the set table instruction are as follows:
1. Latch next opcode; send address and entry to Huffman tables; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by 23.
2. Merge; branch to next instruction.
Table 5, below, shows the preferred Huffman Table Fill Codes.
TABLE 5
Address
Entries Filled
Tag Length
Fill Range
0tttttt
1
6
tttttt
10ttttt
2
5
ttttt0-ttttt1
110tttt
4
4
tttt00-tttt11
1110ttt
8
3
ttt000-ttt111
11110tt
16
2
tt0000-tt1111
111110t
32
1
t00000-t11111
1111110
64
0
Entire table
FIG 14 H depicts the passthrough instruction, which allows passthrough data to be encoded in the compressed-data stream. The length of the instruction preferably is 64-bits. Aligning successive passthrough instructions to a 64-bit boundary allows for patching of passthrough data in the encoded stream. The states for the passthrough instruction are as follows:
1. Latch next opcode; read address shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by 32 bits.
2. Merge.
3. Output data, shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by 32 bits.
4. Merge; branch to next instruction.
FIG. 14I depicts the variable-length NOP (“VNOP) instruction, which encodes a variable number of 0 bits in the data stream. The five-bit count shown in FIG. 14I designates the number of 0 bits that follow. This instruction is implicitly used for the start of the data stream. This instruction may also be used to pad the data stream to 32-bit or 64-bit boundaries, or encoding regions, for later patching. The states for this instruction are:
1. Latch next opcode; read count; barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by 13 bits;
2. Merge.
3. Barrel shift right unit reads “count” positions;
4. Merge; branch to next instruction.
FIG. 14J shows the skip 8 instruction, whose states are:
1. Latch next opcode; shift barrel shift right unit 500 (see FIG. 9) by 16 bits;
2. Merge; branch to next instruction.
It will be appreciated that it may be advantageous to reduce bandwidth requirements between devices by not decompressing a data stream at a single point in a decompression system. It will be appreciated that parallel decompression of a data stream may be implemented by providing an additional command advising the arrival of a given number of data words that may be processed in parallel.
The presence of such parallel opportunities may be recognized by the presence of mark bits, at which occurrence the stated number of data words may be shuttled to other processors within the system for parallel decompression. Further, it is then permissible to jump ahead the given number of words in the data stream to arrive at the next data that is not eligible for parallel processing.
Further, morphing capability may be implemented to eliminate any abrupt perception gap in viewing a decompressed three-dimensional object. Within the decompressed data stream, it is possible to specify vertices as linear or other interpolations of vertices that are actually present or have previously been decompressed. Assume, for example, that the three-dimensional object is a tiger. At a far distance, no teeth are present in the tiger's mouth, yet at near distance teeth are present. The result is a seamless transition such that as distance to the tiger shrinks, the teeth grow, with no sudden change seen between a toothless tiger and a toothed tiger.
Modifications and variations may be made to the disclosed embodiments without departing from the subject and spirit of the invention as defined by the following claims.
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A system and method for compression of surface normals in three-dimensional graphics data. The method comprises compressing a normal by identifying the location of a first point located at the intersection of the surface of a predetermined sphere (centered on the origin of a set of x-y-z axes) and a vector extended from the origin in a direction specified by the coordinate values of the normal. Identification of the first point includes specifying an index value and one or mapping values. The index value is usable during decompression to identify a second point on the sphere from a plurality of points in a predetermined surface region (such as a predetermined sextant of a predetermined octant region). In one embodiment, the index includes a θ component and a φ component which are usable to locate the second point. The θ component value is measured about the y axis to the second point while the φ component value is measured latitudinally from a plane defined by y=0 to the second point. The one or more mapping values include a sextant value which translates the second point to a third point by performing foldings about the planes x=y, y=z, and x=z within the predetermined octant. The one or more mapping values also include an octant value which is usable to locate the first point from the third point by identifying one or more sign bits of the fist point. Delta-encoding of normals is also disclosed.
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BACKGROUND
Embodiments herein generally relate to printing devices and more particularly to sensing the presence of sheets of media in paper trays of printing devices.
In any media feeding system the media must be sensed as being in the tray before feeding can commence. Without a media present sensor, when the feed system tries to feed and is unable because of the lack of media, the next sensor upstream will trip and a paper jam fault will occur. This raises shut down and unscheduled maintenance request rates significantly and upsets customers, because this causes customers to look for paper jams that do not exist.
For systems that do include paper present sensors, these sensors and their dedicated wiring and circuitry add cost, and in a system where pricing is important, any cost reduction is critical. More specifically, conventional paper present sensors include a separate photo-reflective sensor, separate wiring connector, flag, and associated wiring harness and separate pins out that eventually connect to the motherboard of the processor, etc. Such additional components add cost, complexity, and material usage.
SUMMARY
An exemplary printing device herein comprises a processor, a printing engine operatively (directly or indirectly) connected to the processor, and a tray slot comprising a media tray connection. The tray slot is also operatively connected to the processor. A media sheet tray connects to the tray slot. The media sheet tray has an integrated circuit board that, in turn, includes a first media size sensor and a second media size sensor. A first circuit connects the first media size sensor to the media tray connection of the tray slot and a second circuit connects the second media size sensor to the media tray connection of the tray slot.
A switch is positioned within the second circuit, the switch can be in an open position disconnecting a continuity of the second circuit, or a closed position maintaining the continuity of the second circuit. The switch is closed by media being within the media sheet tray. The first media size sensor is operatively connected to the processor when the first circuit is connected to the media tray connection. The second media size sensor is operatively connected to the processor when the switch is in the closed position, and the second circuit is connected to the media tray connection. The combination of the first media size sensor being connected to the processor and the second media size sensor being disconnected from the processor indicates to the processor that paper is absent from the media sheet tray.
The first media size sensor outputs a first measurement of media within the media sheet tray to the processor when the first circuit is connected to the media tray connection, and the second media size sensor similarly outputs a second measurement of media within the media sheet tray, different than the first measurement, to the processor when the second circuit is connected to the media tray connection and the switch is in the closed position.
The media sheet tray can further comprise a media lift plate, and the switch can extend through the media lift plate. The switch can be a pressure switch. Thus, the switch could comprise a conductive rotating member and a conductive contact. The conductive rotating member rotates into a position contacting the conductive contact when pressure from gravitational weight of at least one sheet of media is exerted on the conductive rotating member by the sheet of media is in the media sheet tray. The switch is in the closed position and completes the second circuit when the conductive rotating member is in contact with the conductive contact.
These and other features are described in, or are apparent from, the following detailed description.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
Various exemplary embodiments of the systems and methods are described in detail below, with reference to the attached drawing figures, in which:
FIG. 1 is a flow diagram illustrating various embodiments herein;
FIG. 2 is a top-view schematic diagram of a device according to embodiments herein;
FIG. 3 is a top-view schematic diagram of a device according to embodiments herein;
FIG. 4 is a top-view schematic diagram of a device according to embodiments herein;
FIG. 5 is a perspective-view schematic diagram of a device according to embodiments herein;
FIG. 6 is a schematic wiring diagram of a device according to embodiments herein;
FIG. 7 is a schematic wiring diagram of a device according to embodiments herein; and
FIG. 8 is a side-view schematic diagram of a device according to embodiments herein.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
The devices herein reduce the number of components needed for paper trays by using a size sensing board to determine whether media (paper, transparencies, card stock, etc.) is present in the paper tray. A size sensing board generally has at least two sets of traces (e.g., trace buckets or size sensors) one for lengths and one for widths of paper. The combination of the media location provided by these two traces and the use of a matrix look up table tells the machine the size of the paper used. Therefore, if both traces are contacted by media in the tray, the paper size is determined, if neither trace is contacted the machine can indicate that the tray is not fully inserted into the machine.
With the structures herein, the wiring to one of the trace sets is altered, and the electrical path between the trace and the controller is interrupted by a metal pivoting lift plate that needs to be in a certain position to complete the circuit. Therefore, with the structures herein, if the tray is found to be properly inserted (because one trace is contacted) but the other trace (which connects through the pivoting tray) is not contacted, this indicates to the machine that the tray is empty and allows the machine to display the “out of paper” indication on the user interface. This design reduces cost of paper sensing by substituting a single metal contact switch in place of items such as a dedicated paper-present photo reflective sensor, wiring connector, flag, associated wiring harness, and pins out.
The flow diagram in FIG. 1 shows three potential states that the size sensing board could see when the tray is inserted, and the required actions afterwards to allow printing to commence. Beginning, for example, at item 102 , if the paper tray is not fully inserted, none of the traces will be connected and the user interface (UI) of the printer will display a message that the tray is not closed to the user in item 104 . In response, the user can fully close the paper tray, as indicated by item 106 .
In item 110 , if some, but less than all, traces are connected to (or sensed by) the processor, this indicates that the tray is fully inserted, but that the pivoting lift plate has interrupted the connection between one of the traces and the processor. This state indicates that there is no media in the paper tray, and therefore a message indicating that the tray is out of paper is provided on the user interface in item 112 . In response, the user will open the paper tray to load paper in item 114 (and, again, items 104 and 106 display a message that the paper tray is not closed).
If both traces are complete (are connected to (or sensed by) the processor) in item 120 , the printing machine uses the information from the trace buckets to determine the paper size 122 . In item 124 , the customer can confirm the paper size to allow printing to begin in item 126 . Therefore, as shown in FIG. 1 , the three states (both traces complete 120 , no traces complete 102 , or less than all traces complete 110 ) provide an indication of whether media is present in the paper tray, as well as the size of the media, all using the same circuitry (with the addition of only a single simple switch connection to complete one of the circuits).
As shown in FIG. 2 , a paper size detection board 200 utilizes at least two sets of traces 202 , 204 located on a single circuit board. Contact members (that move when the paper guides of the paper tray move) contact the traces 202 , 204 , and the position of such contact members on the traces 202 , 204 give the detection board 200 width and length measures that the board 200 provides to the processor of the printing device. One set of traces 202 is used to determine the width bucket for a sheet and the other 204 for the length bucket. Using the combination of these two buckets, the paper size currently loaded in an internal tray can be determined and supplied to the printer's processor. This board 200 is also used to verify that the tray is fully pushed into the machine; both traces will not connect to the machine processor, and neither will return a signal, if the tray is not fully inserted into the printing machine.
FIG. 3 is a top view of a paper tray 33 that uses a metal lift plate 220 . In FIG. 3 , the paper size detection board is again shown as item 200 , various paper guides (that include contact members 206 that contact, and move on, the traces 202 , 204 ) are shown as items 222 , a lift tray bar is shown as item 226 , and an electrical connection element (conductive sponge) is shown as item 224 . The ground element 224 provides the electrical power/ground for the traces 202 , 204 of the paper size detection board 200 .
The metal lift plate 220 is grounded to the printing machine by way of the lifting arm 226 and the electrical connection element 224 on the back of the tray 33 . This grounding path is interrupted using a pressure switch 230 that extends through the lift plate 220 , as shown in FIG. 4 . Therefore, the electrical circuit for the width sensing trace 202 is completed only when the pressure switch is depressed by paper being present in the tray.
As would be understood by those ordinarily skilled in the art, the pressure switch 230 could be located in any desired position and, as shown in FIG. 4 , can be located near the front center of the plate 220 to be able to be actuated for all media sizes. Further, the pressure switch 230 can be located away from location of the edges of paper so any amount of paper, even one sheet, will always actuate the pressure switch 230 .
FIG. 5 shows a perspective view of the opposite side of the plate 220 shown in FIG. 4 . In FIG. 5 , the conductive pressure switch is again shown as item 230 , a non-conductive pivot housing is shown as item 232 , and a small electrical connection element is shown as item 234 . When paper is on the plate 220 , the paper will make the pressure switch 230 pivot around and contact the electrical connection element 234 , which is attached to the plate 232 . The pivot housing 232 is attached to the underside of the plate 220 , but is non-conductive. When the pressure switch 230 rotates, it completes the electrical path for the width sensing trace 202 in this example.
Exemplary electrical connections are shown in schematic form in FIG. 6 . More specifically in FIG. 6 , the paper tray is shown as item 33 , the paper tray slot of the printing machine is shown as item 212 , the paper tray slot power/ground connection is shown as item 240 , and the paper tray slot data connection is shown as item 250 . The electrical power and/or ground (referred to herein using the “power/ground” shorthand notation) of the printing machine is shown as item 214 , and the processor of the printing machine is shown as item 60 . Those ordinarily skilled in the art would understand that power could also be supplied through a separate power circuit or through the data connections 250 , 252 , and that items 214 , 240 , 242 , and 244 could represent only grounding elements in certain embodiments.
Also in FIG. 6 , the traces are again shown as items 202 and 204 within the circuit board 200 , and the pressure switch is again shown as item 230 . The power/ground wiring circuit is shown as items 242 and 244 , and the data connection wiring circuit to the traces is shown as items 252 , 254 .
Note that FIG. 6 illustrates that when the paper tray 33 is fully inserted into the paper tray slot 212 of the printer, the power/ground wiring 242 , 244 is electrically connected to the printer machine power/ground 214 through the paper tray slot power/ground connection 240 , which connects the traces 202 , 204 to the printer machine power/ground 214 . Further, when the paper tray 33 is fully inserted into the paper tray slot 212 of the printer, the data wiring circuit 252 , 254 is electrically connected to the tray slot data connection 250 , which connects the traces 202 , 204 to the processor 60 to provide paper size data. If the paper tray 33 is not fully inserted into the paper tray slot 212 , the processor 60 will not detect any connection with either trace 202 , 204 .
As shown in FIG. 6 , the pressure switch 230 connects and disconnects one of the traces 202 to and from the power/ground connection 240 by opening or closing circuit 242 depending upon whether paper is present in the paper tray 33 . While the width trace 202 is shown as being connected to the pressure switch 230 , those ordinarily skilled in the art would understand that in other embodiments, a different trace such as the length trace 204 could be connected to the pressure switch 230 instead.
In this schematic, the width and length traces (sensors) 202 , 204 cannot communicate data electrically with the processor 60 unless the traces 202 , 204 are electrically connected to power/ground 240 , 214 . Therefore, when media is on the pressure switch 230 , the pressure switch 230 rotates completing the electrical path 242 between the power/ground 240 , 214 and the trace 202 and allowing the processor 60 to electrically communicate data with the trace 202 over data line 252 . To the contrary, trace 204 has an unbroken power/ground wire 244 and is always connected to the paper tray power/ground connection 240 (which, when the tray 33 is fully inserted into the printing machine paper tray slot 212 , is in turn connected to the printer machine power/ground 214 ). Therefore, trace 204 can always electrically communicate with the processor 60 whenever the tray 33 is fully inserted into the printer paper tray slot 212 , regardless of whether paper is in the paper tray 33 .
Thus, as shown above, with the structures herein, one trace (for this example the length trace 204 , but any trace could be used) is kept with its existing configuration. The other trace (e.g., width trace 202 in this example) however, has its power/ground circuit 242 altered, and the electrical power/ground circuit 242 to complete the circuit is instead run through the pressure switch 230 (that can be, for example, located on the lift plate 220 surface that paper rests on).
If paper is not present, the pressure switch 230 does not actuate, the circuit 242 is not completed, and only one of the two traces (the length trace 204 in this example) is recognized by the processor 60 of the printing machine. When the width trace circuit 242 is opened by the pressure switch 230 not having paper pressure, the width trace 202 is not recognized by the processor 60 of the printing machine, and no bucket information from the width trace 202 is received by the processor 60 . When this happens, software logic in the processor 60 then determines that, while the printer tray 33 is fully inserted into the paper tray slot 212 (as is known because the length sensor 204 is in communication with the processor 60 ), the tray lacks paper because the width sensor 202 is not in communication with the processor 60 . Once an operator opens the tray, loads paper, and recloses the tray, both the length and width traces 202 , 204 will be in communication with the processor 60 . The processor 60 will then know that the tray is fully closed since both traces are complete, that paper is present in the tray, and (using the bucket information from the traces) what size paper is loaded in the machine.
Alternatively, the switch 230 and electrically connection element 234 could be included within one of the data wiring circuits 252 , 254 , as shown in FIG. 7 . Therefore, in this example, data circuit wiring 252 is connected and disconnected to and from the data connection 250 by the pressure switch 230 . Thus, again, the processor 60 receiving communication from only one of the traces ( 204 , in this example) would indicate that the pressure switch 230 has disconnected the other trace 202 , which the processor 60 interprets as a paper tray empty situation. Note that FIG. 7 is substantially similar to the structure shown in FIG. 6 , except that the positions of the power/ground connection 240 and data connection 250 are switched.
Thus, the structures herein provide a paper present sensor that utilizes another sensor while not diminishing the status resolution that the printing machine has in any area. The structures herein allow for the use of one sensor board to detect three unique and distinct situations: paper present; size of sheet; and tray open/closed. By using the paper lift tray 220 as the power/ground point to complete the circuit 242 when paper is in the tray, this lowers cost (which is useful to many programs and any cost reduction is important) and reduces wiring pin outs and harness size for each feed head.
As shown in to the FIG. 8 a printing machine 10 is shown that includes an automatic document feeder 20 (ADF) that can be used to scan (at a scanning station 22 ) original documents 11 fed from a tray 19 to a tray 23 . The user may enter the desired printing and finishing instructions through the graphic user interface (GUI) or control panel 17 , or use a job ticket, an electronic print job description from a remote source, etc. The control panel 17 can include one or more processors 60 , power supplies, as well as storage devices 62 storing programs of instructions that are readable by the processors 60 for performing the various functions described herein. The storage devices 62 can comprise, for example, non-volatile storage mediums including magnetic devices, optical devices, capacitor-based devices, etc.
An electronic or optical image or an image of an original document or set of documents to be reproduced may be projected or scanned onto a charged surface 13 or a photoreceptor belt 18 to form an electrostatic latent image. The belt photoreceptor 18 here is mounted on a set of rollers 26 . At least one of the rollers is driven to move the photoreceptor in the direction indicated by arrow 21 past the various other known electrostatic processing stations including a charging station 28 , imaging station 24 (for a raster scan laser system 25 ), developing station 30 , and transfer station 32 .
Thus, the latent image is developed with developing material to form a toner image corresponding to the latent image. More specifically, a sheet 15 is fed from a selected paper tray supply 33 to a sheet transport 34 for travel to the transfer station 32 . There, the toned image is electrostatically transferred to a final print media material 15 , to which it may be permanently fixed by a fusing device 16 . The sheet is stripped from the photoreceptor 18 and conveyed to a fusing station 36 having fusing device 16 where the toner image is fused to the sheet. A guide can be applied to the substrate 15 to lead it away from the fuser roll. After separating from the fuser roll, the substrate 15 is then transported by a sheet output transport 37 to output trays a multi-function finishing station 50 .
Printed sheets 15 from the printer 10 can be accepted at an entry port 38 and directed to multiple paths and output trays 54 , 55 for printed sheets, corresponding to different desired actions, such as stapling, hole-punching and C or Z-folding. The finisher 50 can also optionally include, for example, a modular booklet maker 40 although those ordinarily skilled in the art would understand that the finisher 50 could comprise any functional unit, and that the modular booklet maker 40 is merely shown as one example. The finished booklets are collected in a stacker 70 . It is to be understood that various rollers and other devices, which contact and handle sheets within finisher module 50 are driven by various motors, solenoids and other electromechanical devices (not shown), under a control system, such as including the microprocessor 60 of the control panel 17 or elsewhere, in a manner generally familiar in the art.
Thus, the multi-functional finisher 50 has a top tray 54 and a main tray 55 and a folding and booklet making section 40 that adds stapled and unstapled booklet making, and single sheet C-fold and Z-fold capabilities. The top tray 54 is used as a purge destination, as well as, a destination for the simplest of jobs that require no finishing and no collated stacking. The main tray 55 can have, for example, a pair of pass-through sheet upside down staplers 56 and is used for most jobs that require stacking or stapling
As would be understood by those ordinarily skilled in the art, the printing device 10 shown in FIG. 8 is only one example and the embodiments herein are equally applicable to other types of printing devices that may include fewer components or more components. For example, while a limited number of printing engines and paper paths are illustrated in FIG. 8 , those ordinarily skilled in the art would understand that many more paper paths and additional printing engines could be included within any printing device used with embodiments herein.
Many computerized devices are discussed above. Computerized devices that include chip-based central processing units (CPU's), input/output devices (including graphic user interfaces (GUI), memories, comparators, processors, etc. are well-known and readily available devices produced by manufacturers such as Dell Computers, Round Rock Tex., USA and Apple Computer Co., Cupertino Calif., USA. Such computerized devices commonly include input/output devices, power supplies, processors, electronic storage memories, wiring, etc., the details of which are omitted herefrom to allow the reader to focus on the salient aspects of the embodiments described herein. Similarly, scanners and other similar peripheral equipment are available from Xerox Corporation, Norwalk, Conn., USA and the details of such devices are not discussed herein for purposes of brevity and reader focus.
The terms printer or printing device as used herein encompasses any apparatus, such as a digital copier, bookmaking machine, facsimile machine, multi-function machine, etc., which performs a print outputting function for any purpose. The details of printers, printing engines, etc., are well-known by those ordinarily skilled in the art and are discussed in, for example, U.S. Pat. No. 6,032,004, the complete disclosure of which is fully incorporated herein by reference. The embodiments herein can encompass embodiments that print in color, monochrome, or handle color or monochrome image data. All foregoing embodiments are specifically applicable to electrostatographic and/or xerographic machines and/or processes.
In addition, terms such as “right”, “left”, “vertical”, “horizontal”, “top”, “bottom”, “upper”, “lower”, “under”, “below”, “underlying”, “over”, “overlying”, “parallel”, “perpendicular”, etc., used herein are understood to be relative locations as they are oriented and illustrated in the drawings (unless otherwise indicated). Terms such as “touching”, “on”, “in direct contact”, “abutting”, “directly adjacent to”, etc., mean that at least one element physically contacts another element (without other elements separating the described elements). Further, the terms automated or automatically mean that once a process is started (by a machine or a user), one or more machines perform the process without further input from any user.
It will be appreciated that the above-disclosed and other features and functions, or alternatives thereof, may be desirably combined into many other different systems or applications. Various presently unforeseen or unanticipated alternatives, modifications, variations, or improvements therein may be subsequently made by those skilled in the art which are also intended to be encompassed by the following claims. The claims can encompass embodiments in hardware, software, and/or a combination thereof. Unless specifically defined in a specific claim itself, steps or components of the embodiments herein cannot be implied or imported from any above example as limitations to any particular order, number, position, size, shape, angle, color, or material.
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A media sheet tray includes a first media size sensor, a second media size sensor, a first circuit connected to the first media size sensor, a second circuit connected to the second media size sensor, and a switch within the second circuit. The switch can be in an open position disconnecting a continuity of the second circuit, or in a closed position maintaining the continuity of the second circuit. Media being within the media sheet tray closes the switch. Further, a combination of the first circuit connecting to the first media size sensor and the second circuit being discontinuous indicates that paper is absent from the media sheet tray.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
[0001] This application is a divisional of U.S. patent application Ser. No. 09/377,286, filed on Aug. 18, 1999.
BACKGROUND
[0002] This invention relates generally to solder bonding techniques for integrated circuit devices.
[0003] Referring to FIG. 10 , commonly solder is deposited on a solder pad 62 which is coupled to other electrical components on an integrated circuit by a trace 60 . The solder deposition area is defined by the inwardmost edge 64 of a solder mask. Thus, in the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 10 , the solder is deposited inside the circle 64 . The solder mask prevents solder outflow over the mask thereby preventing the solder from moving outwardly beyond the edge 64 .
[0004] The solder may be in the form of conventional solder balls which are deposited in a solid configuration and then reflowed thereafter. Alternating the solder may be a liquid or paste upon deposition.
[0005] Referring to FIG. 11 , one problem with existing techniques for depositing solder is that when soft the solder 66 tends to wick along the trace 60 . Without limitation, it is believed that the wicking is a result of capillary attraction between the solder 66 and the trace 60 . As a result, the solder 66 ends up being displaced with respect to the pad 62 , as indicated in FIG. 11 . In particular, the solder may abut the solder mask edge 64 . Generally, the solder does not extend onto the solder mask since the mask functions to control solder flow.
[0006] Thus, improper contact may result between the solder and the solder pad 62 as a result of the wicking action of the solder. Of course, this problem may be reduced by decreasing the diameter of the opening 64 in the solder mask. However, this creates tighter tolerances in the process flow. One adverse result may be that the solder mask opening is misaligned to the pad 62 to such an extent that the solder mask opening does not permit the solder to be placed on the pad.
[0007] In ball grid array (BGA) packaging techniques an array of solder pads may be aligned with an array of solder balls. If the balls tend to wick away from their solder pads, the balls may become misaligned with other balls in the array. Thus, there may be no way to cause an integrated circuit connector to appropriately connect to all the balls because all the balls have been randomly misaligned. Referring to FIG. 12 , the ball 68 on the top has wicked to the right because its trace 60 extends to the right whereas the ball 76 on the bottom has wicked to the left because of the leftward extension of its trace 70 . The center line “CL” of the pads 62 and 72 may have been the projected alignment between the balls. In fact the balls are substantially misaligned.
[0008] Still another problem that may arise in the prior art is the surface action effects of the edge of the solder resist mask. FIG. 13 illustrates a conventional solder mask defined pad (SDP). In this case, the useful portion of the pad 80 is effectively defined by the opening 82 in the solder mask. This is because the size of the opening 82 is less than the size of the pad 80 . Thus, wicking along the trace 78 may be prevented. However, the mask may tend to attract the solder 84 to its edge, for example as a result of surface attraction effects. Again, the problem is similar to the problem described previously in that the solder tends to be attracted away from its desired location.
[0009] Thus, there is a need for better ways to appropriately position solder on bond pads coupled to conductive traces.
SUMMARY
[0010] In accordance with one embodiment, a bond pad assembly may include a bond pad and a trace coupled to the pad. The trace extends away from the pad in a first direction. A trace stub is coupled to the pad and extends away from the pad in a direction other than the first direction.
[0011] Other aspects are set forth in the ensuing detailed description and claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0012] FIG. 1 is an enlarged top plan view of one embodiment to the present invention;
[0013] FIG. 2 is a cross-sectional view taken generally along the line 2 - 2 shown in FIG. 1 after solder has been placed on the pad;
[0014] FIG. 3 is an enlarged top plan view of another embodiment of the present invention;
[0015] FIG. 4 is a cross-sectional view taken generally along the line 4 - 4 shown in FIG. 3 after solder has been placed on the pad;
[0016] FIG. 5 is an enlarged top plan view of still another embodiment to the present invention;
[0017] FIG. 6 is a cross-sectional view taken generally along the line 6 - 6 in FIG. 5 ;
[0018] FIG. 7 is an enlarged top plan view of still another embodiment of the present invention;
[0019] FIG. 8 is a cross-sectional view taken generally along the line 8 - 8 in FIG. 7 after the solder has been placed on the pads;
[0020] FIG. 9 is an enlarged top plan view of another embodiment of the present invention;
[0021] FIG. 10 is an enlarged top plan view of an embodiment in accordance with the prior art;
[0022] FIG. 11 is an enlarged top plan view of another embodiment in accordance with the prior art;
[0023] FIG. 12 is an enlarged top plan view of still another embodiment in accordance with the prior art; and
[0024] FIG. 13 is an enlarged top plan view of still another embodiment in accordance with the prior art.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0025] Referring to FIG. 1 , a bond assembly 10 includes a bond pad 14 coupled to a trace 12 extending away from the bond pad 14 in a first direction. The bond assembly may be formed on a support which may be, for example, an integrated circuit die, an interposer, or-a printed circuit board. While the bond pad 14 is illustrated as being circular other shapes can be used as well. The bond pad 14 may be utilized in connection with packaging a variety of different integrated circuit devices.
[0026] In one application, the bond pad 14 may be arranged to interact with solder balls to implement a flip chip bonding technique, a ball grid array bonding technique or any of the variations of bump-type interconnections which may be known to those skilled in the art. In ball grid array packaging techniques, a relatively solid ball is positioned on the bond pad and subsequently reflowed. In other techniques, liquid or semi-liquid solder may be utilized which may flow upon deposition without the application of heat.
[0027] A trace stub 16 extends away from the bond pad 12 in a second direction. Advantageously, the stub 16 may be made of the same material and may be of the same width and thickness as the trace 12 . The first and second directions may be diametrically opposed.
[0028] The region which may receive the solder may be greater than the size of the bond pad 14 . Conveniently, the potential solder receiving area may be defined by a solder mask whose inward extent is marked by the solder mask edge 18 . Thus, solder is masked away from the remainder of the device with the exception of the area inside the edge 18 .
[0029] Referring to FIG. 2 , a solder ball 20 has been reflowed over the pad 14 . As shown in FIG. 2 , the solder mask edge 18 actually overlaps the trace stub 16 . This provides greater tolerances and ensures that the stub 16 will extend beyond the solder mask edge 18 . With this configuration, if the solder attempts to wick to the left to follow the trace 12 due to capillary action or any other reason, it will be pulled back to the right by the action of the stub 16 . Thus, the forces applied by the stub 16 counteract the wicking action of the trace 12 . In some embodiments, it may be desirable to make the solder pad 14 relatively small so that the solder ball 20 is acted upon simultaneously by both the trace 12 and stub 16 .
[0030] In another embodiment of the present invention, shown in FIG. 3 , a bond assembly 20 includes an enlarged elliptical or teardrop-shaped bond pad portion 24 which is designed to reduce the capacitance caused by the bond pad main circular section 26 . Thus, the bond pad portion 24 has a elliptical configuration of smaller size than that the main circular section 26 . The portion 24 is coupled to the trace 22 on one end. In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3 , a matching or mirror image portion or stub 28 is formed on the other side of the section 26 . The function of the stub 28 is to counteract any wicking action resulting from the portion 24 . In some embodiments an additional stub, like the stub 16 , may be caused to extend outwardly from the stub 28 in opposition to the trace 22 .
[0031] In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 3 , the matching stub 28 does not extend outside of the boundary defined by the solder mask edge 18 . Thus, in some embodiments it may be preferable to cause the matching portion to extend beyond the solder mask edge and in other cases this may not be desirable.
[0032] Referring to FIG. 4 , when a solder ball 20 is positioned on the section 26 , it is equally attracted to the left and to the right by the opposed portions 24 and 28 . Thus, the solder ball 20 may center on the section 26 .
[0033] The embodiment in FIG. 1 illustrates a non-solder mask defined pad (NSDP). However, as explained in more detail hereinafter, the present invention is also applicable to solder mask defined pads (SDP). Referring now to FIG. 5 , showing an SDP embodiment of the present invention, a solder mask has a cloverleaf-shaped edge 32 which extends inwardly of the bond pad 34 and its trace 30 . Each of the lobes 33 of the cloverleaf-shaped edge 32 may have a surface action attraction on the solder ball 36 .
[0034] By providing four sets of identically shaped clover leaf shaped lobes, the action of the edges 32 on the solder may be neutralized. One force on the solder is believed to be due to surface tension effects. Moreover, by having the convex edges 35 of the solder mask 32 substantially spaced apart by a diameter approximately equally the diameter of the solder 36 , the solder tends to be maintained substantially centrally, as illustrated in FIG. 6 .
[0035] Referring now to FIGS. 7 and 8 , an embodiment in which the wicking action of a traces 40 and 46 may be used to achieve a desired orientation for solder balls 20 and 20 A is illustrated in an NSDP arrangement. In this case, the bond pads 42 and 50 may be placed relatively closer together than is normally the case. This may be done by causing the bond pad 50 to overlap with the trace 40 coupled to the bond pad 42 so that a nested configuration may be achieved. In each case, a solder mask edge 44 or 48 is defined which delimits the extent to which the solder ball 20 or 20 a may move.
[0036] After being deposited on the pad 42 and reflowed, the solder ball 20 may tend to move to the left due to the wicking action of the trace 40 . Similarly, when the solder ball 20 a is placed on the pad 50 , it tends to wick to the right. As a result of the wicking action, the solder balls 20 and 20 a line up one above the other exactly as desired. Thus, in this case, the adverse effect of trace wicking is used to obtain the desired alignment between the balls. The desired ball alignment may be useful in causing the balls to interact with other contacts on another device. In some cases, this technique may enable the bond pads to be nested and thereby packed together more closely.
[0037] Turning now to FIG. 9 , still another embodiment of a non-solder mask defined pad is illustrated. In this case, the pad 102 is coupled to a trace 100 . A solder receiving area is defined by the edge 110 of the solder mask. A trace stub 104 is provided as illustrated previously in connection with FIG. 1 . In addition, a pair of trace stubs 108 and 106 extend transversely to the lengths of the trace 100 and the stub 104 . The stubs 106 and 108 center the solder (not shown) along the axis transverse to the axis of the trace 100 and the stub 104 . The stubs 106 and 108 provide effectively vertical centering in the orientation shown in FIG. 9 , while the stub 104 together with the trace 100 provide horizontal centering. Thus, the embodiment shown in FIG. 9 prevents the solder from moving up or down. The solder may move up and down, not because of the wicking action of the trace, but for some other reason such as other attractive forces, or tilting of the pad supporting surface.
[0038] While the present invention has been described with respect to a limited number of embodiments, those skilled in the art will appreciate numerous modifications and variations therefrom. It is intended that the appended claims cover all such modifications and variations as fall within the true spirit and scope of this present invention.
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A solder mask defined bond pad or a non-solder mask defined bond pad may be configured to center the solder over the bond pad using either surface attractive forces or capillary action. In some embodiments, a stub trace may be provided, for example, in opposition to the real trace to provide a capillary counter-attractive force on the solder. In other embodiments, the surface attractive action of the edge of the solder mask may be utilized to center the solder. In still other embodiments, the natural attractive force of a trace on solder may be utilized to appropriately position solder where desired, for example, to line up with other solder deposits.
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FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates to shape-memory alloys. More particularly it relates to a method of resetting the standard shape of articles, i.e., parts, formed of shape-memory alloys. The purpose for such resetting is to conform such articles to a custom shape of varying dimensions, shapes or configurations, such as for personal wear, depending upon the feel or desired appearance of the wearer. Such resetting is also used to adapt a tool for a desired function by a user without reworking the complete articles as by remolding, recasting or mechanical deformation.
It is a particular object of the invention to provide a rapid and simple method of adjusting the standard shape or configuration of different portions of an article, such as the lens frames or temple pieces of spectacles or other personal use or wear devices so that only selected portions of a standard or mass produced article need be adjusted or readjusted to conform to an individual wearer's or user's comfort and satisfaction. The method is particularly characterized by mechanically holding and preferably embedding within a fixable volume selected portions of a shape-memory alloy article in any newly customized shape of the article, as set in the martensitic state of the alloy (and at an ambient temperature of from slightly above to well below the normal temperature range at which the part is to be subsequently used) and then, heating only such selected portion of the article in the customized shape to a temperature substantially above the transformation temperature of the alloy to convert the crystalline structure of the shape-memory alloy to its austenitic state. The portion is then held or restrained in the customized shape during transformation of the alloy to prevent the portion from returning to the standard shape in the austenitic state during the time such portion is being reset.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Shape-memory alloys have found a wide variety of uses in recent years. Such alloys have two primary states which are described in the prior art as the martensitic state and the austenitic state. In the martensitic state the alloy is weaker and malleable to a predeterminable extent. In the austenitic (or memory) state the alloy is stronger or more rigidly resilient. The alloy may be readily deformed under the martensitic state but then recovers from such deformation to its initial shape upon heating above the transformation temperature to recover such deformation to its austenitic state. The temperature condition under which such states occur is predeterminable in accordance with the alloy content of the metal. The two crystalline states of the alloy are above or below a transformation temperature lying within a critical temperature range. The transformation temperature is generally determined by the percentage of the constituent components (usually nickel and titanium) of the shape-memory alloy.
The alternate states of such alloy, the relatively sharp temperature transformations between these states, and the almost limitless ability of the alloy to reverse the states, have found many novel uses. It has been proposed heretofore to use shape-memory alloy in parts or devices wherein the alloy's relatively weaker malleable state absorbs displacement or deformation forces without permanent damage to the rest of the structure or device. After undergoing such deformation the article or structure may be restored to its original form or configuration by heating the part just above the transformation temperature. For example, eyeglass frames including temple and nose pieces, as disclosed in copending and commonly owned U.S. application Ser. No. 876,077, filed June 19, 1986, the disclosure of which is incorporated herein by reference, may be constructed using such shape-memory alloy as at least the reinforcing members for such frames. Such spectacles are not only more comfortable to wear, but also are immediately restorable to their original form merely by immersion in hot water, say 120° F., if dropped or inadvertently deformed during wear.
However, in prior known devices, the shape of the device in the austenitic state of the shape-memory alloy corresponds to a desired shape when the device is built and heretofore has required replacement or remanufacture to give the article a different shape in its austenitic state. The alloy is highly resistant to mechanical reshaping after it passes from the martensitic to the austenitic state. The method of the present invention is directed to reshaping articles, or portions of articles, quickly and easily without such mechanical reworking of the article to produce a new austenitic state. Accordingly, eyeglass frames or other personal wear items, such as shoes, orthodontic braces, partial dental plates or inner or outer clothing that require reinforcing elements such as bra underwires and corset stays may be readily conformed to the wearers individual anatomy or fashion at or near the point of use. The method is also particularly useful in shaping or reshaping hand-held tools, or other implements, such as surgical clamps, scalpels and the like to the user's desire or need.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PRIOR ART
It is known to heat plastic eyeglass frames including embedded metal rods to conform to a wearer's head configuration. This includes adjusting the length and tilt of the temple pieces and the frame nose pieces so that the spectacles rest comfortably and securely on the wearer's ears and nose. Since commercial eyeglass frames are normally made of metal or plastic in a few standard widths and lengths, it is necessary to fit each pair of glasses to the wearer. The glass frame is bent or twisted to configure it for the wearer's comfort. Where made of thermoplastic, the frame or temple pieces are normally immersed in a bed of heated glass beads, or particles. As disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,054,376--WAREHAM, the frame may also be so heated by blowing hot air through the glass beads. The beads may be on the order of 10 to 30 mesh (approximately 0.065-0.02 inch diameter). In such an arrangement the beads are relatively loose so that the glass frame, including the temple pieces, can be submerged in the heated particles. Adjustment is then by hand manipulation after the heated frames are sufficiently soft to deform yieldably and before the frame cools to its newly set condition. A similar arrangement for adjusting optometric frames is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,329,801--SHANNON ET AL--wherein the spectacle frame is heated on an endless belt by hot air blowing over it. Both patents disclose the same arrangement for adjusting the frames.
It also has been proposed to form eyeglass frames of nickel-titanium directly or as a core beneath a sheath of nickel, chromium or copper as in U.S. Pat. No. 4,472,035--TAKAMAURA ET AL. However, no provision for conforming or fitting the frame is disclosed. Accordingly, the patentees do not teach or suggest conversion of such alloy from its martensitic state to the austenitic state of the frame so that the wearer can readily recover the like-new shape if during normal wear in the martensitic state the frame becomes deformed. This would be done by merely raising the temperature to the transformation point, say 120° F.
It has also been known to heat treat, or anneal, steel castings or the like in a bed of hot fluidized particles. The particles are heated by air or gas flowing over and around the article to be treated. Heat is carried and transferred from the particles, such as sand, to an article under treatment, so that it is either heated or held at a given temperature. The particles may be consolidated around the article by decreasing the gas flow and application of vacuum or vibration. U.S. Pat. No. 4,249,889--KEMP, discloses a system in which heated particles are levitated by air flow. The particles are then compacted around the article by vacuum. U.S. Pat. No. 4,410,373--KEMP, discloses a similar arrangement in which the particles are settled or compacted by vibration.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,314,790--METZ, discloses a similar system, using expanded vermiculite to hold the temperature of hot steel ingots or slabs, while they are being moved from one location to another. The particles are loosened by gas and then permitted to settle around the ingot or slab as insulation.
Additionally, it is also known to use fluidized particles for cooking food without water or pressure by positioning the article to be cooked, such as cans, within a bed of heated particles. Such a system is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,118,773--BENNETT ET AL.
It is also known to hold a workpiece while it is drilled or otherwise formed. For example, in U.S. Pat. No. 3604700--GAULT, a workpiece is held by a plurality of parallel rods confined within a circular or square jig. The rods are either squeezed radially or longitudinally by a plurality of balls that are locked by a screw, bolt or other compression means so that rods generally conform to an uneven surface to hold the piece while it is drilled, or otherwise worked on.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,180,636--CARPENTER, discloses a similar clamping arrangement to permit machining of a brittle article or the like. A rubber grommet around the workpiece squeezes the article radially in response to axial forces on the grommet.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,540,718--HEFFRON ET AL, discloses a jig for temporarily holding a plurality of circuit board components so that their connecting leads evenly protrude through printed circuit board holes. A sponge pad is cut into a plurality of contiguous, deflectable fingers which hold the components of different shapes and sizes against the board.
None of the above noted patents propose a method of confining a whole or a part of a shape-memory alloy object, such as lens frames, so that such parts, manufactured as standard or mass-produced articles, may be readily adjusted or readjusted to fit or suit the feel preference of an individual wearer. More importantly, none discloses that such a personally readjustable fit can be maintained by the wearer without frequent (and inconvenient) return to the optometrist's offices to have the frames refitted after inadvertently dropping or deforming them. By use of the present method, such fit is restored by simply raising the temperature above the transformation temperature for such shape-memory alloy to return to its austenitic state. In general such memory state may be readily restored by immersion in moderately hot water, say less than 120° F., as in daily normal use of hot water to clean the glasses or lenses. Furthermore, none discloses a method to conform any article requiring such custom adjustment so that it can be re-configured repeatedly in its martensitic state by constraining it in that configuration and then subjecting the shape-memory alloy to direct heat. Preferably such heat is electrically generated only in the part itself by using the relatively high resistance of such shape-memory alloy to raise the temperature of the article well above its transformation temperature, say up to approximately 300° C. or above, to reset the austenitic, or memory, state of the alloy to the customized configuration.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention in one important aspect provides a method of setting or resetting a shape-memory alloy part having any standard shape while in its low-strength or deformable, martensitic state by deforming the part to a customized shape, then physically restraining the part. The restraining is preferably accomplished by a confining media defined as a fixable volume which is bound around at least the part of the article body so that it rigidly conforms to the selected shape. Adequate heat is then transmitted to the part to drive the temperature substantially above its transformation temperature so as to fix the new memory state of such portion to the same configuration as the customized shape.
Such heat may be applied by reactive current flow induced in the selected portion of the part; this may be by direct or alternating current flowing resistively through the part, or by alternating current flow by inductive or capacitative coupling to the part through the body of particles; in one form, microwave, or radio frequency, energy may be used to inductively heat the part without heating the clamping or embedding media, provided such media is substantially transparent (except around the article) to such electromagnetic energy. In a preferred form, advantage is taken of the electrical resistance of the alloy itself to generate such heat setting temperature internally. Heat may also be imparted to the article by conduction from the clamping or embedding media or by heated fluid which flows around the article and the clamping media.
In another aspect of the invention there is provided a method of forming a shape-memory alloy part into any customizable shape by forming the part having a standard shape into the customized shape with the alloy in its martensitic state, and then embedding the part in a body of particles which are placed under pressure or in a cold set or non-thermo set plaster or plastic, such as plaster of Paris (gypsum) or epoxy resin which conforms substantially uniformly to the desired surface features of the selected shape of said part and which immobilizes the part therein against recovery to its prior memory state until sufficient heat is applied to the alloy to reform its internal crystalline structure to the new form. It can be appreciated that a material such as a plaster physically restrains the part and further comprises a "fixable volume." Heat is then transferred to the part to drive its temperature substantially above its transformation temperature while the part is restrained from returning to its prior memory state. The part is now set to the customized shape and if subsequently reheated to the austenitic state while unrestrained will return to the customized shape.
Further objects and advantages of the present invention will become apparent from the description of the preferred embodiments taken with the drawings which form an integral part of this specification.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is perspective view of one form of apparatus suitable for carrying out the method of the present invention in which method the shape-memory alloy portion of an article such as a portion of a temple piece of a pair of eyeglasses, a bra underwire or a hand-held surgical tool is to be set to a new "customized" memory shape. The portion of the temple piece is adapted to be embedded in a body of particles or powder comprising a "fixable volume" within a box having a molding compartment in which particles surrounding the portion are compressed by a piston member forming a part of the cover to "fix" the volume. The arrangement also illustrates a method of applying electrical current to the portion after it is customized to a given configuration of the portion as formed in its martensitic state while restraining the portion from returning to its previous memory shape until the temperature of the part is substantially above the transformation temperature to the austenitic state and applied for sufficient time to heat to permanently set the new memory state of the shape-memory alloy portion. It should be understood that the part may be fabricated into a "standard" shape as a mass produced article in a factory from a piece of shape-memory alloy while the alloy is in either its martensitic state or in its austenitic state. It is therefore possible that the article will not have a useful memory shape and thus the method of this invention may be called setting or resetting.
FIG. 2 is a elevation cross-sectional view taken in the direction of arrows 2--2 in FIG. 1 illustrating engagement and disengagement of the cover and the pressure applying means for immobilizing particles in the bed with a shape-memory alloy section embedded therein.
FIG. 3 is an elevation cross-sectional view taken in the direction of arrows 3--3 illustrating the temple piece, supported in the moldable bed of confining particles so as to hold the shape of the temple piece during transformation of the alloy from its set martensitic state to its memory or austenitic state.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring now to the drawings and in particular FIG. 1, there is illustrated one form of apparatus suitable for carrying out the method of the present invention. It comprises generally box 10 forming an enclosing chamber for supporting a body of solid particles 14 in a trough member 11 adapted to receive and embed a shape-memory alloy article such as temple piece 30 of a pair of glasses 50. Particles 14 may be a fine-grained powder or sand, rock salt or glass beads of relatively small diameter, say from a few thousandths to a few tenths of an inch in diameter. Particles 14 surround and immobilize at least a reshaped portion of temple piece 30 when cover 12 of box 10 is closed and integral piston member 16 compacts bed of particles 14, fixing the volume, around pieces 30. Preferably the particle material has relatively low heat conductivity and in the present embodiment is preferably electrically non-conductive, so that the shape-memory alloy piece may be directly heated by any suitable electrical current, e.g. D.C. or A.C. from low to microwave frequencies, including sinusoidal or pulsed wave trains.
Various other forms of embedding devices may be used to physically restrain the newly customized shape after the standard shape is deformed while the alloy is in its martensitic state wherein the alloy has low strength so that it is relatively yieldable and malleable. In such state of the alloy, the device will remain deformed but will return to its original memory shape when heated to the austenitic state of the alloy unless the customized part is restrained along and around such part during the time heat is being increased to a temperature sufficient to reset the internal, crystalline structure of the shape-memory alloy element. Such setting temperature is substantially above the transformation range between the martensitic and austenitic conditions of the alloy, and may be on the order of 300° C.
With further reference to FIG. 1, cover 12 forms a safety enclosure both for the top of box 10 and for trough 14 through pressure foot, or piston member 16, secured to the inside of cover 12. Cover 12 pivots on hinge pins 18, so that plunger 16 applies pressure directly to the top of the bed of particles 14 in trough 11. This is best seen in FIGS. 2 and 3 wherein trough 11 is shown in crosssection both in front elevation, as in FIG. 3 and in end elevation as in FIG. 2. As also indicated, lid or cover 12 includes a front locking portion so that when piece 30 is being heated to above 300° C. there is no direct user access to the temple pieces or the particle bed. For this purpose slot 22 in lip 20 mates with catch member 24 carried by front wall 26 of box 10. The locked position of lid 12 holds pressure foot 16 so that it compacts particles 14 to mold around temple piece 30 of a pair of glasses 50 and thereby prevents the embedded portion of temple piece 30 from returning to its previous shape in the austenitic state and holds the temple piece immobilized during the time the crystalline structure of shape-memory alloy portion is being reconditioned to assume the desired memory shape.
As also shown in the arrangement of FIG. 1, eyeglass frame 50 may be supported by a side flap member 32 pivoted at the front and rear corners 34 and 36 of box 10 on pins 38 and 40 respectively. For convenience each side flap 32 includes molded track 42 to support glass frame 50 on either the left side or right side of box 10, as viewed facing front panel 26. In FIGS. 1-3 a left temple piece 30 is positioned by placing the eyeglass frame 50 in track 42 of left side flap 32 so that piece 30 extends into trough 11 at an angle such that it is embedded in the particles 14.
The temple piece is further accommodated by slots 44 and 46 in the edges of trough member 11 and tipped in such a position that the temple piece, especially the portion passing over an ear of wearer, is well within the particle bed but with the outer tips and hinge end of the temple piece exposed for engagement by electrical connectors 52 and 54. In the present embodiment the front portion 60 of box 10 may include a power source indicated generally as a battery 62 in FIG. 2. Desirably the source is capable of delivering low-voltage, high-current power through leads 64 and 66 to connectors 52 and 54 respectively.
Further in accordance with the method of the present invention, advantage is taken of the relatively high internal resistance of shape-memory alloys, and particularly those of Nitinol, an alloy of nickel and titanium. Nitinol has a high coefficient of resistance similar to nickel-chrome, as used in space heater elements. Thus, in relatively short periods of high current flow the temperature of the portion electrically coupled to the power source rises to over 300° C. and, thereby quickly sets the new crystalline structure of the shape-memory alloy in its new shape in the austenitic state.
In general, it is understood that the method of the instant invention is useful in setting and resetting any shape-memory alloy part and is not limited to Nitinol as numerous alloys are known which exhibit the shape-memory effect.
In the present embodiment the electrical connection to create such current flow is preferably made directly through the temple piece. Such connection may be made by pinpoint contacts adapted to extend through the plastic overcovering 66 on temple piece 30 to contact the shape-memory alloy, serving as a reinforcing member within the plastic temple piece 30. Alternatively, of course, the temple piece may be formed directly of a shape-memory alloy. In such case, the contact need only be sufficiently secure to transmit adequate current to raise the temperature of the temple piece in the section between electrodes 52 and 54 substantially above the transformation range in which the shape-memory alloy is transformed to its austenitic state from its martensitic state. The power from source 60 may be an alternating transformer secondary. Electrodes 52 and 54 may then be either capacitively or inductively connected to temple piece so that reactive current flows through the shape-memory alloy portion. Thus, current flow through temple piece 30 may be by any of the modes of reactive flow, namely resistance capacitance or inductance. The heat may also be generated within the shape-memory alloy part inductively by microwaves generated from an external source as by placing the box and primarily the bed of particles 14 with temple piece 30 embedded therein, in a microwave field, such as a common microwave oven. The sole requirement of such an installation is that the particles be substantially non-conductive and be transparent to such microwave electromagnetic radiation.
It is also envisioned that heat may be applied to the shape-memory alloy portion after it is clamped by flowing a hot fluid through the particles 14. This fluid might be hot oil or a hot gas, for example. It is additionally considered that the particles 14 themselves may be heated, such as in the case of their being made of a ferrite material subjected to an induction field and would then heat the shape-memory alloy portion by conduction. Other means for heating the area around said particles or heating the particles themselves are within the scope of the invention.
In the arrangement illustrated in FIG. 1-3, it will be apparent that side supports 32 and 42 will be raised into their frame support position (as illustrated on the left side of FIG. 1) so that in the elevated position, the opening through the side of the box is adequate to permit a temple piece, such as the left-hand temple piece, to extend into the bed particles 14 without interference.
For adjustment of the right temple piece the side support 42 may be raised and the right hand temple piece inserted from the right hand side of the box as viewed in FIG. 1.
If desired, a slight flow of air sufficiently low to prevent substantial displacement of particles 14 from trough 11 may be used to slightly levitate the particles. This permits the part to be removed from or embeded in the particles after the clamping force is removed. Additionally, such air flow may be used to cool the reset part more rapidly after heating. Further, while not shown, it will be apparent that bed of particles 14 may be sufficiently large to encompass any desired portion, or all of an article, to be reshaped to a new memory state, i.e., in setting other body support or shaped elements. Another method of assisting insertion or removal of the shape-memory alloy part is by vibration of particles 14 by an external vibrator 70, in the form of a solenoid, or as shown, by motor 72 driving eccentric weight 74. Vibrator 70 mechanically shakes particles 14 to aid in reducing the force required to insert the part into the bed to avoid further deformation of the part prior to application of heat by the electrodes. It will also be apparent that the electrodes may be within the body of particles if the part so requires.
From the foregoing it will be understood that any shape-memory alloy part that requires setting or re-setting after manufacture in a standard shape, to conform to a particular use, may be treated in the manner described in accordance with the method of the present invention and that adaptations in the embedding chamber and the particles as well as the pressure-applying means, may be made without departing from the scope of the present invention. For example, the part to be reshaped to a new austenitic state may be cast in a cold set mixture of plaster of Paris, or epoxy resin, and the like, until such cast hardens sufficiently to resist the internal restoration forces of the shape-memory alloy as the alloy passes from its martensitic state to its austenitic state and so holds the part until it reaches the new setting temperature. Obviously, mechanical restraints along and around the part whose memory shape in the austenitic state of the alloy is to be reset, such as clamps, or sleeves capable of resisting the internal restorative forces of the part in three dimensions may be used.
Other modifications and changes in the invention, both in the method and apparatus for carrying out such method, will become apparent to those skilled in the art from the foregoing description. All such modifications or changes coming within the scope of the appended claims are intended to be included therein.
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The shape or configuration of an article made of shape-memory alloys, such as an eyeglass temple piece, or a hand held tool, is adjusted or readjusted to suit the wearer or user. While the shape-memory alloy of the article is in its martensitic state, the article may be readily deformed from its standard shape due to the alloy's low strength and malleability. The article is then confined or restrained in the customized shape so that upon heating the alloy does not return to its original austenitic or memory condition. Adequate heat is then supplied to the article to reform the austenitic state of the alloy in the desired customized shape. Preferably, the electrical resistance of the alloy is used to attain such internal heating to the resetting temperature of the article by current flow through the alloy.
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This application is a national phase application of international patent application No. PCT/IB99/01808 and further claims benefit of U.S. provisional application No. 60/107,992 filed Nov. 10, 1998 incorporated herein by reference in its entirety.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The field of the invention is recovery of gases from the offgas in a pressure swing adsorption unit in hydrogen production.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
Pressure swing adsorption (PSA) is a well known process for re cove ring light gases from mixtures which also contain heavier, more readily adsorbable components, and the recovery of hydrogen from steam-methane syngas containing hydrogen, carbon oxides, and methane is a particularly well suited application of the PSA process.
A typical PSA process and apparatus is described in U.S. Pat. No. 3,430,418 to Wagner and in U.S. Pat. No. 3,986,849 to Fuderer, both of which are incorporated by reference herein. With an increasing demand of highly purified gases, various improvements were developed to help overcome limitations in the original process with respect to flow rates, capacity, and yield. For example, Fuderer describes in U.S. Pat. No. 4,333,744 an increase in yield employing a particular PSA loading pattern in which a first portion of a feed stream is pretreated to remove substantial amounts of an unwanted component, and a second portion is loaded in an untreated form. Although the Fuderer's methods may increase the overall amount of purified gas and may advantageously increase the flow rate, the offgas is eventually directed to a waste line, or into a reformer burner, and components of interest in the offgas are concomitantly lost.
To avoid concomitant losses of desirable components in the offgas stream, various recovery methods were developed. One method of recovering desirable components employs membranes that either concentrate or filtrate hydrogen in the offgas stream. For example, G. Intille describes in U.S. Pat No. 4,229,188 the use of hydrogen-permeable membranes to recover H 2 from the offgas. Intille's membranes advantageously remove H 2 with high selectivity in a single process step, however, the use of such membranes typically requires relatively high pressure, thereby increasing the overall energy demand. To avoid at least some of the problems associated with hydrogen-permeable membranes, Anand et al. teach in U.S. Pat. No. 5,435,836 the use of an adsorbent membrane. Adsorbent membranes generally allow hydrogen recovery at comparably low pressure with relatively high specificity. The advantage of relatively low pressure, however, tends to be offset by the need of membrane exchange, thereby either increasing the complexity of the hydrogen plant. or necessitating discontinuous operation.
Another method utilizes a serial configuration of PSA units, wherein a first PSA unit has a different selectivity from a second PSA unit, and wherein the offgas from the first unit is directed to the feed end of the second PSA unit. An example for this configuration is described by R. Kumar in U.S. Pat. No. 4,913,709. Kumar's serial configuration of PSA units with beds having non-identical adsorption specificity is favorable because relatively high volumes of offgas may be purified at a time. However, the complexity and number of coordinated cycle steps generally increases due to the different physico-chemical properties of the adsorbent beds.
In still another method, U.S. Pat. No. 4,553,981 to Fuderer, the feed gas of a PSA unit is pretreated to remove a second component at least in part, while the PSA unit purifies a first component. A first portion of the offgas of the PSA unit is recycled into the same PSA unit, and a second portion of the offgas is directed to a waste line. Alternatively, a first portion of the offgas is directed to a second PSA unit having the same specificity, and the offgas of the second PSA unit is fed to a waste line. By removing the second component from the feed gas before the feed gas enters the PSA unit, the offgas will typically have a higher relative purity, and a remaining portion of the first component may therefore be easier to extract. However, the second component in Fuderer's configuration typically needs to be further purified.
Although various improvements have been developed to increase the recovery rate of desirable components in the offgas from PSA units, all or almost all of them have one or more than one disadvantage. Thus, there is a need to provide methods and apparatus for increased recovery of desirable components in the offgas from a PSA unit.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The present invention is directed to a gas separation apparatus that has a first pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit receiving a feed gas comprising a first and a second component. The first PSA unit produces a first product gas predominantly comprising the first component, and a first offgas comprising at least some of the first component and the second component. A compressor is coupled to the first PSA unit and compresses the offgas to form a compressed offgas, and an absorber unit downstream of the compressor employs a solvent to remove at least part of the second component from the compressed offgas, thereby forming an enriched compressed offgas. A second PSA unit receives the enriched compressed offgas and produces a second product gas predominantly comprising the first component, and a second offgas. The gas separation apparatus may further comprise a flash unit and a gas liquefaction unit, which is preferably an autorefrigeration system.
In one aspect of the inventive subject matter, the feed gas is an effluent gas stream from a steam reformer and/or shift converter, and preferably comprises H 2 and CO 2 in excess over CO, CH 4 , and other gaseous products. The first and second PSA units are preferably hydrogen PSA units, and while the offgas from the first PSA unit is used to recover first and second components, the offgas from the second PSA unit is preferably routed to a reformer burner.
In another aspect of the inventive subject matter, a method of recovering a first and a second component from an offgas of a PSA unit includes a first step in which the offgas is compressed to produce a compressed offgas stream. In a next step at least some of the second component is recovered from the compressed offgas stream to produce an enriched compressed offgas stream. The enriched compressed offgas stream is passed to a second PSA unit to recover at least some of the first component.
Various objects, features, aspects and advantages of the present invention will become more apparent from the following detailed description of preferred embodiments of the invention, along with the accompanying drawings in which like numerals represent like components.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is a schematic of an apparatus for recovering a first and a second component from an offgas of a PSA according to the inventive subject matter.
FIG. 2 is a schematic of another apparatus for recovering a first and a second component from an offgas of a PSA according to the present inventive subject matter.
FIG. 3 is a flow diagram of a method of recovering a first and a second component from an offgas of a PSA unit according to the present inventive subject matter.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
As used herein, the term “absorber unit” refers to a device other than a PSA unit in which at least one component of a gas mixture is absorbed from the gas mixture using an absorbent. Contemplated absorbents comprise liquids, and especially contemplated absorbents include CO 2 absorbing liquids such as Selexol™ or Fluor Solvent™ (Propylene carbonate).
As also used herein, the term “autorefrigeration system” refers to a device that produces high purity liquid CO 2 using CO 2 as a refrigerant. An especially contemplated autorefrigeration system is described in PCT application PCT/US99/00087 to S. Reddy, incorporated herein by reference.
As further used herein the term “hydrogen PSA unit” refers to a PSA unit that is configured to produce a product gas stream predominantly comprising hydrogen. Similarly, a “CO 2 PSA unit” is a PSA unit that is configured to produce a product gas stream predominantly comprising carbon dioxide. The term “predominantly comprising” means that the product gas stream comprises at least 50% of the carbon dioxide, hydrogen, or other compound that is predominantly present in a product.
In FIG. 1, a hydrogen production plant 100 generally comprises a first PSA unit 110 that receives feed gas 112 comprising a first and a second component from a gas source 108 . The first PSA unit 110 produces product gas 114 , predominantly comprising the first component, and the offgas comprising at least some of the first and second component from the first PSA unit is directed to a compressor 120 via the offgas line 116 . The compressed offgas from the compressor is directed via a compressed offgas line 126 to an absorber unit 130 , which stands via solvent lines 131 A and 131 B in fluid communication with a flash unit 132 . The flash unit releases concentrated gaseous CO 2 product 133 , which may optionally be directed to a reform burner 150 via line 152 . Alternatively, gaseous CO 2 may be directed to a liquefaction unit 134 A via CO 2 line 137 . The hydrogen enriched compressed offgas from the absorber unit 130 is directed to a second PSA unit 140 via enriched compressed offgas line 136 B. The second PSA unit 140 produces product gas 142 , and the offgas is directed to a waste stream via offgas line 146 A, or to a reformer burner 150 via offgas line 146 B.
In a preferred embodiment the gas source 108 is a steam reformer that produces the feed gas 112 , which predominantly comprises H 2 , CO, CO 2 , and CH 4 . The first PSA unit 110 is a hydrogen specific PSA unit with 8 adsorption beds, and a H 2 production capacity of about 100000 Nm 3 /hr at operating pressures between 250 and 500 psig. The product gas 114 produced by the first PSA unit is hydrogen. Compressor 120 is a centrifugal-type compressor compressing the offgas containing H 2 , CO, CO 2 , and CH 4 from the first PSA unit to approximately 300-500 psig. The absorber 130 is a packed bed-type absorber utilizing solvent absorption with Fluor Solvent™ to absorb CO 2 from the compressed offgas, thereby producing a CO 2 -rich solvent and a hydrogen enriched compressed offgas. The solvent containing the absorbed CO 2 is transferred to a flash unit and the concentrated CO 2 product 133 is recovered by letting the CO 2 -rich solvent down in about 0-50 psia. The regenerated solvent is subsequently recycled to the absorber 130 . Liquefaction unit 134 A is an autorefrigeration system that receives and liquefies CO 2 from the flash unit. The hydrogen enriched compressed offgas is directed via enriched compressed offgas line 136 B to a second PSA unit 140 , which is identical in selectivity with the first PSA unit. The second PSA unit produces H 2 as a product gas 142 . The offgas from the second PSA unit is directed via offgas line 146 B to a reformer burner, or via offgas line 146 A to a waste. All lines are conventional pressure resistant lines and are well known in the art.
In alternative embodiments, the gas source 108 need not be limited to a steam reformer, but may vary depending on the particular method of hydrogen production. Therefore, where relatively high levels of CO are present, a shift converter may be included. In other aspects, the gas source may comprise alternative hydrogen sources, including sources performing partial oxidation of various hydrocarbons, or coal gasification. It should also be appreciated that the gas source may comprise elements that are employed in gas purification rather than production. Thus, purification apparatus including PSA units, absorber units, etc. are also contemplated. In still other aspects, the gas source need not be limited to a source producing predominantly hydrogen, but may also include sources producing N 2 , He, Ar, etc.
Consequently, the feed gas 112 need not be restricted to a gas mixture predominantly comprising H 2 , CO, CO 2 , and CH 4 . Alternative feed gases are contemplated to include gas mixtures comprising C 2 -C 6 hydrocarbons, and higher, which may or may not be aliphatic, inert gases such as N 2 , He, Ar, or pre-treated gas mixtures that have been enriched with, or depleted of one or more compounds. For example, a gas mixture from a steam reformer may be pre-treated with an absorbent to remove CO 2 .
With respect to the first PSA unit 110 it is contemplated that, although a hydrogen specific PSA unit with 8 adsorption beds, and a H 2 production capacity of 100000 Nm 3 /hr at operating pressures between 250 and 500 psig is preferred, various other PSA units may also be utilized. There are various PSA units known in the art and contemplated appropriate herein, so long as alternative PSA units produce a PSA specific product gas, and an offgas comprising at least two gaseous components. Therefore, product gas 114 need not necessarily be hydrogen, but—depending on the specificity of alternative PSA units—may also be other gases, including CO 2 , CH 4 , N 2 , CO, etc.
Compressor 120 is preferably a centrifugal-type compressor, however, various other types of compressors are also contemplated, so long as alternative compressors are capable of compressing the offgas from the first PSA unit to a level that allows the absorption of at least one component with a solvent in a subsequent absorber unit. Therefore, contemplated compressors may include screw-type compressor, or a reciprocating compressor. With respect to the compression of the offgas of the first PSA unit, it is contemplated that appropriate compressors produce pressures of less than 50 psig, 50-200psig, 200-400 psig, 400-600 psig, and more than 600 psig.
In further alternative embodiments absorber 130 need not be limited to a packed bed-type absorber utilizing solvent absorption with Fluor Solvent™ to absorb CO 2 , and various alternative absorber types are also contemplated, including a trayed-type absorber. Likewise, the solvent may be different from the Fluor Solvent™, so long as the solvent is sufficiently specific to a desired gaseous component. For example, where CO 2 is the desired gaseous component, Selexol™ or analogous solvents are contemplated.
It is especially contemplated that the desired gaseous component is recovered from the rich solvent (i.e. the solvent containing the absorbed gas) as a flash gas by reducing the pressure in a flash unit to a level of preferably 0-65 psia. However, alternative pressure levels are also contemplated including pressures within a range of 0 psia to absorber pressure. This is particularly advantageous, because decompression of a rich solvent typically avoids conventional methods of producing an enriched solvent employing a heated stripper. However, where appropriate, it is contemplated that the rich solvent may also be stripped in a conventional steam- or otherwise heated stripper. Consequently, product 133 is not restricted to CO 2 but may also be other gases, including CO, CH 4 , N 2 , etc.
With respect to liquefaction unit 134 A, various types of gas liquefying other than auto-refrigeration are also contemplated, including processes requiring an external refrigerant such as ammonia, fluorohydrocarbons, or fluorochlorohydrocarbons. The liquefied CO 2 from liquefaction unit 134 A preferably has a purity of greater than 98%(v/v), more preferably greater than 99%(v/v), and most preferably greater than 99.9%(v/v).
In still other aspects of the inventive subject matter, the second PSA 140 unit need not necessarily be of the same type and capacity as the first PSA unit. For example, it is contemplated that while the specificity of the second PSA unit may be identical with the first PSA unit, the capacity, flow rate, or number of adsorbent beds may vary considerably. Where the amount of the desirable component is relatively small, a smaller PSA unit may be employed. In other cases, where processed offgases from multiple PSA units are combined to feed a single PSA unit, the second PSA units may have a larger capacity of increased flow rate. Furthermore, the specificity of the second PSA unit may also be different from the specificity of the first PSA unit. This may be especially advantageous where a third component is isolated from the offgas from the first PSA unit.
Although it is preferred that the offgas from the second PSA unit is directed to a waste line or a reformer burner, it is contemplated that the offgas may also be utilized for other process steps that may or may not preserve the kinetic or chemical energy contained in the offgas, These process steps may include feeding a third PSA- or absorber unit, a burner other than a reformer burner, and so on. For example, a line may connect the second PSA unit with a reformer burner. It should also be appreciated that, although not specifically included in the preferred embodiment, one or more than one storage vessels may be included in the process to temporarily reduce pressure and/or gas volume in the PSA and/or absorber and liquefaction unit.
In FIG. 2 a schematic of another apparatus 200 for recovering hydrogen and carbon dioxide from an offgas of a PSA is shown. The apparatus 200 generally has a multi stage compressor configuration with compressors 212 A and 212 B, and a cooling system 214 A and 214 B in which a stream of offgas 210 from a first PSA unit is compressed. The compressed offgas is transferred to the absorber unit 220 , and a stream of enriched compressed offgas 226 is transferred to a second PSA unit (not shown), where hydrogen is recovered from the enriched compressed offgas. The CO 2 -rich solvent from the absorber is directed to a flash unit 230 under control of level controller 224 and valve 222 . The regenerated solvent is recycled to the absorber unit 220 via pump 232 , valve 234 , flow controller 236 , level controller 238 , and line 239 . Cooling system 237 cools the regenerated solvent. A product stream 235 of CO 2 from the flash unit is transferred to a vent or liquefaction unit (both not shown), whereby the flow is regulated by a valve 233 and a pressure controller 231 .
In FIG. 3, a method 300 of recovering a first component and a second component from an offgas of a first pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit has a first step 310 in which the offgas of a PSA unit is compressed to produce a compressed offgas stream. In a subsequent step 320 , at least some of the second component is recovered from the compressed offgas stream to produce an enriched compressed offgas stream, and in a next step 330 , the enriched compressed offgas stream is passed to a second PSA unit to recover at least some of the first component.
In a preferred embodiment, the first PSA unit is a hydrogen PSA unit that has H 2 as a product gas, and that produces an offgas comprising H 2 and CO 2 . A compressor compresses the offgas to a pressure of about 300-500 psig to produce a compressed offgas stream. At least some of the CO 2 is recovered from the compressed offgas stream in an absorber unit employing Fluor Solvent™ as a fluid solvent to form an enriched compressed offgas stream (i.e. compressed offgas depleted from CO 2 ). The enriched compressed offgas is then fed into a second hydrogen PSA unit.
With respect to the feed gas, the first and second PSA units, the absorber unit, and the compressor, the same considerations apply for the same components as discussed in FIG. 1 . It is further contemplated that in some embodiments the second component, which may or may not be CO 2 , is recovered from the rich solvent by decompression in a flash unit by letting down the solvent to a pressure of between about 0-50 psia. The recovered second components may thereby be further isolated and/or purified in a liquefaction unit, but it is also contemplated that recovered second component may also be combusted in a steam reformer burner. In further alternative aspects of the inventive subject matter, at least part of the second offgas may be combusted in a steam reformer.
It should be especially appreciated that multiple advantages are achieved with the inventive subject matter presented herein. While both H 2 and CO 2 are recovered in the process, the additional recovery of hydrogen from the offgas of a PSA unit does not produce any incremental amount of NO X . Furthermore, the reformer combustion efficiency can be improved due to the absence of the low BTU PSA offgas.
Thus, specific embodiments and applications of recovery of CO 2 and H 2 from the offgas from a pressure swing adsorption unit have been disclosed. It should be apparent, however, to those skilled in the art that many more modifications besides those already described are possible without departing from the inventive concepts herein. The inventive subject matter, therefore, is not to be restricted except in the spirit of the appended claims. Moreover, in interpreting both the specification and the claims, all terms should be interpreted in the broadest possible manner consistent with the context. In particular, the terms “comprises” and “comprising” should be interpreted as referring to elements, components, or steps in a non-exclusive manner, indicating that the referenced elements, components, or steps may be present, or utilized, or combined with other elements, components, or steps that are not expressly referenced.
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A gas separation apparatus and process has a first pressure swing adsorption (PSA) unit ( 110 ) receiving feed gas ( 112 ), which comprises a first and a second component. First PSA unit ( 110 ) produces first product gas ( 114 ) pre-dominantly containing the first component, and first off gas ( 116 ) containing at least some of the first component and second component. Compressor ( 120 ) is coupled to first PSA unit ( 110 ) to compress first off gas ( 116 ) to form compressed off gas ( 126 ), which is passed downstream to absorber unit ( 130 ), which employs a solvent to remove at least part of the second component from compressed off gas ( 126 ), forming an enriched compressed off gas ( 136 B). Second PSA unit ( 140 ) receives enriched compressed off gas ( 136 B) and produces second product gas ( 142 ) which predominantly contains the first component and a second off gas that is sent to waste or reformer burner ( 150 ).
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATIONS
This application claims the benefit of and incorporates by reference prior filed copending U.S. Provisional Application Ser. No. 60/399,367, filed Jul. 30, 2002.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
This invention includes new and improved, typically covered, expanded-foam personal flotation devices which are characterized by zippered front panels connected to a rear panel by adjustable side panels and having an adjustable, easily releasable, typically covered fiber (nylon or polypropylene, in non-exclusive particular) bottom panel extending from the front panels between the user's legs, to the rear panel. Further included is a connector-hinged head flotation panel for supporting the user's head, optional adjustable shoulder straps and optional connecting elements such as “buddy straps” for connecting multiple users of the flotation devices together and/or additional connecting straps for joining a child's flotation device or one or more adult flotation devices to an adult flotation device, while floating on a water body.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
The invention will be better understood by reference to the accompanying drawings, wherein:
FIG. 1 is a front perspective view of a preferred embodiment of an adult flotation device (with optional shoulder straps) tethered to a child flotation device without shoulder straps;
FIG. 2 is a rear perspective view of an alternative embodiment of the adult flotation device tethered to the child flotation device illustrated in FIG. 1 ;
FIG. 3 is a front perspective view of the child flotation device illustrated in FIGS. 1 and 2 , with the right-hand front panel partially open;
FIG. 4 is a front perspective view of an adult flotation device with the right-hand front panel partially open and optional shoulder straps in place;
FIG. 5 is a side perspective view, partially in section, of the right frontal portion of a personal flotation device of this invention; and
FIG. 6 is a front perspective view of a pair of adult flotation devices tethered together and a child flotation device tethered to one of the adult flotation devices.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
Referring initially to FIGS. 1–3 of the drawings typical adult and child personal flotation devices of this invention are tethered to each other and are generally illustrated by reference numeral 1 . The devices are further typically characterized by a covered, expanded foam adult flotation device 2 , for an adult 20 and a child flotation device 30 , on a child 29 ( FIG. 1 , in phantom). The adult flotation device 2 and child flotation device 30 each typically include a cover 11 , which may typically be rip-stop nylon or the like, covering a right-hand front panel 3 and a left-hand front panel 4 , joined by a front panel zipper 5 , fitted with a zipper pull 6 , as illustrated. A right-hand front panel pocket 3 a , typically fitted with a pocket clip 4 b , is provided on the right-hand front panel 3 of the adult flotation device 2 and a left-hand front panel pocket 4 a may likewise be fitted with a pocket clip 4 b and is provided on the left-hand front panel 4 of the adult flotation device 2 . A front panel clip 7 spans the top adjacent edges of the right-hand front panel 3 and the left-hand front panel 4 above the front panel zipper 5 to close the mating edges of the right-hand front panel 3 and the left-hand front panel 4 on both the adult flotation device 2 and the child flotation device 30 . A removable right shoulder strap 12 may optionally be provided on the right-hand front panel 3 , along with right shoulder clips 13 , each of which are also fitted with a female clip element 8 and a male clip element 9 (see FIG. 3 ), clipped together as illustrated. The female clip element 8 and the male clip element 9 of the right shoulder clip 13 are typically connected to the fabric cover 111 on the right-hand front panel 3 and to the right shoulder strap 12 , respectively, by means of respective clip element straps 10 . Similarly, a left shoulder strap 14 is provided on the left-hand front panel 4 and is characterized by a left shoulder clip 15 , having a female clip element 8 and a male clip element 9 ( FIG. 3 ), which are joined to the fabric cover 11 on the left-hand front panel 4 and to the left shoulder strap 14 , respectively, by means of additional clip element straps 10 . In the embodiment illustrated in FIG. 1 , the opposite ends of the right shoulder strap 12 and left shoulder strap 14 are connected to a back panel 27 by means of an additional right shoulder clip 13 and left shoulder clip 15 , respectively. Alternatively, as illustrated in FIG. 2 , the right shoulder strap 12 and left shoulder strap 14 terminate at the rear of the adult flotation 2 and join at one end of a single center strap 28 , secured to the back panel 27 by a center strap clip 28 a , which is identical to the right shoulder clip 13 and left shoulder clip 15 illustrated in FIG. 1 . A right torso clip 17 is provided low on the right-hand front panel 3 and includes a female clip element 8 , connected to the right-hand front panel 3 by means of a clip element strap 10 . Similarly, a left torso clip 19 is provided low on the left-hand front panel 4 and includes a female clip element 8 , attached to the left-hand front panel 4 by means of a clip element strap 10 ( FIG. 3 ).
Referring now to FIGS. 1–6 of the drawings the right-hand front panel 3 and left-hand front panel 4 of the adult flotation device 2 and the child flotation device 30 , respectively, are connected to a corresponding back panel 27 , also constructed of an expanded foam material and also typically having a suitable cover 11 , by means of flexible, adjustable side connecting panels 21 , typically, but not necessarily, characterized by the same material as the fabric cover 11 . Each of the side connecting panels 21 is further characterized by side connecting panel clips 21 a , each having a female clip element 8 and a male clip element (not illustrated), attached to the respective side connecting panels 21 by side connecting panel clip straps 21 b , for adjusting the length of the respective side connecting panels 21 .
As further illustrated in FIGS. 1–6 a bottom connecting panel 22 , typically constructed of an expanded foam material and typically having a cover 11 , extends in both the adult flotation device 2 and the child flotation device 30 , from the right-hand front panel 3 and left-hand front panel 4 , between a wearer or user's adult legs 20 a and the child legs 29 a , respectively, ( FIG. 1 ), to the corresponding back panel 27 . The bottom connecting panel 22 is typically fitted with a pair of bottom connecting panel male clip elements 23 ( FIGS. 3 and 4 ), connected to the bottom connecting panel 22 by means of clip element straps 10 , respectively. The two corresponding female clip elements 8 are included in the right torso clip 17 and the left torso clip 19 , respectively, and are removably secured to the pair of bottom connecting panel male clip elements 23 , respectively, to position the bottom connecting panel 21 between the adult legs 20 a of an adult wearer 20 and the child legs 29 a of a child 29 , respectively, in functional position. In a preferred embodiment of the invention the opposite end of the bottom connecting panel 22 is either removably connected, sewn or otherwise fixed to the back panel 27 , as illustrated.
Referring to FIGS. 2 and 6 of the drawings, a head support panel 25 , constructed of an expanded foam material and typically having a cover 11 , is provided for supporting the head of a user when the adult flotation device or devices 2 and child flotation device 30 are in place and during flotation, to facilitate resting an adult 20 and child 29 in a comfortable position while floating, with the head resting rearwardly on the buoyant head support panel 25 . In a preferred embodiment of the invention the head support panel 25 is secured to the adult flotation device 2 and the child flotation device 30 , respectively, by means of a pair of detachable hinge clips 26 and respective clip element straps 10 , such that the head support is conveniently positioned by gravity alongside the back panel 27 when the user is not in the water. However, the head support panel 25 quickly and easily floats upwardly from a position at the non-floating back panel 27 ( FIG. 2 ) to a floating configuration behind the user's head ( FIG. 6 ), by means of the hinge clips 26 and clip element straps 10 , to a head-supporting position, without the need for adjustment by the user when the user enters the water in a floating configuration.
Referring again to FIGS. 1 , 2 and 6 of the drawings, as described above, the child flotation device 30 is typically designed in essentially the same configuration and has the same components, but typically without the right-hand front panel pocket 3 a and the left-hand front panel pocket 4 a , as the adult flotation device 2 . Furthermore, the child flotation device 30 may be connected to the adult flotation device 2 by means of connecting straps 31 of selected length and construction, each fitted with connecting clips 32 , typically designed in the same manner as the connecting clips described heretofore with respect to the adult flotation device 2 . Accordingly, the connecting clips 32 each typically include a female clip element 8 and a male clip element 9 connected to the child flotation device 30 and the connecting straps 31 , respectively, by means of respective clip element straps 10 . Consequently, it will be appreciated that the child flotation device 30 can either be clipped directly and closely to the adult flotation device 2 using the connecting straps 31 by selectively taking up the slack in the connecting straps 31 at the connecting clips 32 , or it may be connected to the adult flotation device 2 using the “buddy strap” 16 ( FIGS. 4–6 ), by clipping the free end of the “buddy strap” 16 to a connecting ring 24 on the adjacent adult flotation device 2 or child flotation device 30 using the buddy strap clip 16 a and buddy strap snap 16 b . As in the case of the adult flotation device 2 , the child flotation device 30 is characterized by adjustable, flexible side connecting panels 21 and an adjustable bottom connecting panel 22 that join a back panel 27 to a right-hand front panel 3 and left-hand front panel 4 . Furthermore, a front panel clip 7 , having a female clip element 8 and a male clip element 9 (illustrated in FIG. 4 ) attached to the right-hand front panel 3 and left-hand front panel 4 , respectively, by clip element straps 10 , join the abutting top edges of the right-hand panel 3 and the left-hand panel 4 . A front panel zipper 5 and a zipper pull 6 may also be provided on the right-hand front panel and the left-hand front panel of the child flotation device 30 , for easy ingress and egress of a user, as illustrated in FIG. 3 . Auxiliary clips 34 may also be attached to the child flotation device 30 by means of auxiliary clip straps 33 , as illustrated in FIG. 1 , for additional strap-securing configurations between the adult flotation device 2 and the child flotation device 30 .
It will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the respective panels, elements and components of the personal flotation devices 1 of this invention, including the right-hand front panel 3 , left-hand front panel 4 , back panel 27 , head support panel 25 and the bottom connecting panel 22 of the adult flotation device 2 and the child flotation device 30 , are each constructed of a closed-cell, buoyant material such as expanded polyurethane foam in non-exclusive particular, and are characterized by convenience, flexibility, safety and utility, in that the adult flotation device 2 and the child flotation device 30 are designed to comfortably and safely accommodate adults and children, respectively, of various size and weight, during extended periods of floating. This accommodation is made simple by the provision of the adjustable, wide side connecting panels 21 and the adjustable, soft bottom connecting panel 22 , for easy adjustment, comfort and security purposes. The bottom connecting panel 22 adds support for the user or wearer in the water and prevents the adult flotation device 2 and the child flotation device 30 from “riding up” on the torso of the user or wearer while floating, as well as furnishing additional buoyancy to the personal flotation devices 1 . The wide, adjustable side connecting panels 21 serve to tighten the adult flotation device 2 securely, yet comfortably, around the chest and under the arms of the user for optimum security and comfort while floating. Moreover, the floating head support panel 25 , attached to the back panel 27 , is designed to automatically float beneath the head of the user or wearer to facilitate a comfortable supporting of the head of the user or wearer during flotation, without significant effort. The optional right shoulder strap 12 and left shoulder strap 14 may also be provided with a right shoulder strap pad 12 a and a left shoulder strap pad 14 a , to pad the shoulders 20 b of a user or wearer, as illustrated in the drawings.
In a most preferred embodiment of the invention the respective flotation panels of the adult flotation device 2 and the child flotation device 30 of the personal flotation devices 1 are each constructed of the buoyant expanded foam material polyurethane or the equivalent, covered by a suitable cover 11 , which may include such materials as rip-stop nylon fabric or the like, which material is sufficiently strong to attach the respective clip element straps 10 and secure the corresponding clips in place. However, it will be appreciated by those skilled in the art that the respective clip element straps 10 may also be attached directly to the expanded polyurethane foam by gluing or other bonding techniques known to those skilled in the art, without using the fabric cover 11 . The polyurethane or equivalent expanded foam material used to construct the personal flotation devices 1 may be of any selected thickness and type sufficient to support and float an adult and a child, respectively, in the adult flotation device 2 and the child flotation device 30 , with the user's head well above water and comfortably located on the head support panel 25 . Furthermore, the respective female clip elements 8 and male clip elements 9 may be interchanged and reversed in the respective connecting positions illustrated in the drawings when connected by the corresponding clip element straps 10 , as desired during construction of the personal flotation devices 1 .
While the preferred embodiments of the invention have been described above, it will be recognized and understood that various modifications may be made in the invention and the appended claims are intended to cover all such modifications which may fall within the scope and spirit of the invention.
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Personal flotation devices for water activities, which devices include a pair of front panels divided by a zipper for easy ingress and egress by the wearer and fitted with multiple clips for adjustment to the size of the user and attachment to other flotation devices. A pair of adjustable side connecting panels connect each front panel to a back or rear panel, typically having a clip-hinged, floating head support and an adjustable bottom connecting panel connects the bottom of the front panels to the bottom of the respective back or rear panels, extending between the legs of the user. Removable and adjustable shoulder straps may be employed between the front panels and the back or rear panel and one or more connecting elements, including a “buddy strap”, may be connected to two or more of the flotation devices to join multiple swimmers or floaters. A child or adult flotation device may be strapped to an adult flotation device to accommodate children and to provide safety in rough water.
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This application claims benefit of Japanese Application No. 2006-142315 filed in Japan on May 23, 2006, the contents of which are incorporated by this reference.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The present invention relates generally to an optical substance manipulator, and more particularly to an optical substance manipulator harnessing the principles of optical tweezers, which are applied to some fields such as biochemical, molecular mechanics and micro•nanoscale thermofluid engineering fields.
Optical substance manipulation techniques represented by an optical tweezers device are capable of manipulating a microscale substance in a non-contact, non-destructive fashion. There is an optical tweezers technique extensively put into practical use, in which light is tightly focused by an objective lens or the like into a medium such as a solution or air, so that a substance (particles) can be picked up near the focus of incident light by virtue of light pressure occurring at the substance interface in the medium (see Non-Patent Publication 1).
The optical tweezers technique is capable of picking up a substance in a non-contact way, and manipulating the captured subject three-dimensionally with a micrometric order resolving power. For this reason, there has been much achieved through its use as an experimental tool that applies any desired manipulation to a subject of sub-microscopic size such as a single cell or DNA to go deep into what happens chemically and biologically (Non-Patent Publication 2). As one example, there is the result so far reported of using optical tweezers to take hold of and manipulate microscopic particles added to both terminus of a string form of a single molecule, thereby making a knot across the molecular and measuring a tension change (Non-Patent Publication 3).
The optical substance manipulation techniques used so far in the art, for the most part, make use of laser light obtained by entering parallel light in a collective lens such as an objective lens to focus that light onto one point. With this method, strong manipulation force is obtainable because the light is focused with high intensity; however, there is the scope of action narrowing down to a few micrometers for that. Further, the directionality of manipulation force resulting from light pressure is only limited to that of trapping force toward, or repulsive force off, the laser focus. For this reason, a substance of micrometer order is manipulated by a method wherein once that substance has been trapped at the focus, the whole ambient medium or the whole laser irradiation system is moved to transfer the substance. This method works very favorably for moving a single substance to any desired position; however, it renders it difficult to apply extensive manipulation, continuous manipulation, and fast manipulation to a group of massive substances scattered in the medium.
In recent years, an idea for making up for the narrowness of the range of action of the optical tweezers technique has been proposed: there are a number of laser irradiation areas formed in a medium as by locating a special diffraction grating or the like in a laser light path to split a laser beam into multiple beams, so that multiple substances can be manipulated simultaneously (Non-Patent Publication 4, and Patent Publications 1 and 2). Also, it has been reported that by locating a cylindrical lens or the like in an optical path, the laser focus is so transformed that multiple substances can be trapped linearly (Non-Patent Publication 5). With these methods, it is true that the amount of concurrently manipulatable substances can be increased; however, they are similar to the prior art in terms of light pressure being used as a substance trapping force, and so are used mainly for substance manipulation after trapping.
To enable continuous manipulation without taking hold of a substance, it is necessary to continue to apply continued force of action to a moving substance. For instance, if a subject group of substances is in a constantly flowing state, continuous manipulation is enabled even with trapping force as light pressure. In this regard, there is a continuous manipulation method proposed, using multi-point optical tweezers using a diffraction grating (Non-Patent Publications 6 and 7, and Patent Publication 1). However, the performance of action would vary largely depending on the flowing conditions for substances. In addition, this method is inefficient because the margin of substance manipulation is narrow relative to the range of substantial light irradiation.
Patent Publication 1
JP2005-502482A
Patent Publication 2
JP2005-515878A
Non-Patent Publication 1
Hiroo Ukita, “Micromechanical Photonics—Applications of Optical Information Systems”, pp. 61 (published by Morikita Shuppan Co., Ltd., 2002, 9)
Non-Patent Publication 2
Ashkin, A., IEEE Journal of Selected Topics in Quantum Electronics, Vol. 6, pp. 841-856, (2000)
Non-Patent Publication 3
Arai, Y., et al., Nature, Vol. 399, pp. 446-448, (1999)
Non-Patent Publication 4
Grier, D. G., Nature, Vol. 424, pp. 810-816, (2003)
Non-Patent Publication 5
Dasgupta, R., et al., Biotechnology Letters, 25, Pp. 1625-1628, (2003)
Non-Patent Publication 6
Korda, P. T., et al., Physical Review Letters, Vol. 89, No. 12, 128301, (2002)
Non-Patent Publication 7
MacDonald, M. P., et al., Nature, Vol. 426, pp. 421-424, (2003)
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The prior art situations being like this, the present invention has for its object the provision of an optical substance manipulator capable of continuing to apply a continued force of action to moving substances without being limited by the flowing conditions for the substances yet with a wide manipulation margin and with efficiency, thereby continuously carrying out various manipulations such as separation, concentration, mixing, and deflection.
According to the invention, that object is achieved by the provision of an optical substance manipulator capable of manipulating microscopic particles dispersed in a flowing fluid by means of light pressure, characterized by comprising an optical system that forms multiple linear light-collective areas simultaneously with respect to a fluid that flows on a subject surface, and further comprising, in optical path forming the respective linear light-collective areas, means adapted to adjust the directions of the linear light-collective areas on the subject surface and means adapted to adjust the positions of the linear light-collective areas.
Preferably in this case, that means adapted to adjust the directions of the linear light-collective areas is a cylindrical lens or mirror adjustable in terms of rotation.
Similarly, it is preferred that the means adapted to adjust the positions of the linear light-collective areas comprises an optical element adjustable in terms of position and angle.
It is also preferred that the aforesaid optical system works splitting light coming out of one light source into two or more and synthesizing light after passing through the means adapted to adjust the directions of the linear light-collective areas and the means adapted to adjust the positions of the linear light-collective areas.
It is further preferred that there are two linear light-collective areas formed, and the aforesaid optical system comprises a light splitter means adapted to split light coming out of one light source into two, means adapted to adjust the directions of the linear light-collective areas, means adapted to adjust the positions of the linear light-collective areas, and light synthesis means adapted to synthesize the light split into two.
The optical substance manipulator of the invention provides a non-contact type substance manipulation system that harnesses laser radiation pressure with an improved degree of flexibility in the ability to manipulate subjects. As compared with the prior optical tweezers art, the invention makes it easier to implement a bulk of manipulations for a group of substances scattered over an extensive range: it is possible to manipulate cells and DNAs in large quantities and in continuous fashions. The invention, because of manipulating substances without fixing them to one site, also allows for continued manipulations of substances flowing in a microscopic flowing topology represented by microchemical chips. With the invention harnessing non-destructive laser light, it is further possible to manipulate biological substances while keeping them intact. Furthermore, the invention allows for localized manipulation limited to the laser irradiation range, making a lot of contributions to the development of technology toward the integration of functions on chips for DNA analysis and chemical synthesis. In addition, the optical substance manipulator of the invention can be additionally attached to an optical microscope, and so has high general versatility with sample vessels. Thus, the inventive optical substance manipulator can implement various substance manipulations on the same system without recourse to any exclusive diffraction gratings, etc., and so would have a lot more applications in a lot more fields, and ever higher versatilities as well.
Still other objects and advantages of the invention will in part be obvious and will in part be apparent from the specification.
The invention accordingly comprises the features of construction, combinations of elements, and arrangement of parts which will be exemplified in the construction hereinafter set forth, and the scope of the invention will be indicated in the claims.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
FIG. 1 is illustrative in schematic of the construction of one embodiment of the optical substance manipulator according to the invention.
FIG. 2 is a taken-apart view of an optical path through the optical substance manipulator of FIG. 1 .
FIG. 3 is illustrative in schematic of the behavior of microscopic particles dispersed in a fluid that flows through a flow path in the case where light is collected at one linear light-collective area.
FIG. 4 is illustrative in schematic of the behavior of microscopic particles dispersed in a fluid that flows through a flow path in the case where light is collected by the optical substance manipulator of FIG. 1 at two linear light-collective areas.
DESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENTS
The optical substance manipulator of the invention is, now explained with references to one preferred embodiment. FIG. 1 is illustrative in schematic (perspective) of the construction of one embodiment of the optical substance manipulator. For a better understanding of explanation, coordinate axes X, Y and Z are determined as shown. Linearly polarized laser light oscillated from a light source laser 1 (e.g., a near infrared Nd:YAG laser of 1,064 nm in wavelength) is expanded in beam diameter at a beam expander made up of a negative lens L 1 and a positive lens L 2 confocal with each other, incident on a half-wave plate λ/2 at which its direction of polarization is rotated in a given direction. Then, the light enters the first polarization beam splitter BS 1 at which it is split into two components: a component polarized in the Z direction (hereinafter called p-polarized light) and a component polarized in the XY direction (similarly s-polarized light). The p-polarized light component travels toward a mirror M 1 through the first polarizing beam splitter BS 1 while the s-polarized light propagates to ward a mirror M 2 upon reflection at the first polarizing beam splitter BS 1 . The respective beams go from the first polarizing beam splitter BS 1 through cylindrical lenses CL 1 and CL 2 located before the mirrors M 1 and M 2 in an optical path, and are reflected at the mirrors M 1 and M 2 , arriving at the second polarizing beam splitter BS 2 . Here, the s-polarized light component alone is reflected while the p-polarized light component passes through; both the beams travel in the Y-axis direction. Two such beams are expanded in beam diameter by positive lenses L 3 and L 4 confocal with each other, arriving at a mirror M 3 ; however, a quarter-wave plate λ/4 interposed between the positive lenses L 3 and L 4 turns them into circularly polarized light. The laser light reflected by the mirror M 3 in the X-axis direction enters a filter box 2 built in an inverted microscope. The two beams are reflected in the Z-axis direction by the first dichroic mirror DM 1 located in the filter box 2 and has the property of transmitting visible light and reflecting light in the near infrared range. The two beams then enter an infinity correction oil immersion objective lens Ob mounted on the microscope where they are collected, entering a subject in a flow passage 5 through a microchannel MC via an oil immersion oil. Note here that there is a mercury lamp 3 located to illuminate the subject in the flow passage 5 through the microchannel MC; that is, illumination light from that mercury lamp 3 is reflected off the second dichroic mirror DM 2 located on a viewing side with respect to the first dichroic mirror DM 1 , and enters the objective lens Ob through the first dichroic mirror DM 1 where it is collected to illuminate the subject. A fluorescent image of the subject in the flow passage through the micro-channel MC, magnified by the objective lens Ob, is taken by a photographic camera 4 through the first and second dichroic mirrors DM 1 and DM 2 . That image is displayed, and recorded.
The half-wave plate λ/2 here is adjustable in terms of rotation about the optical axis (X-axis) so that the direction of linearly polarized light oscillated from the laser 1 is adjustable. By that adjustment, it is possible to adjust the proportion of the p- and s-polarized light components incident on the first polarizing beam splitter BS 1 .
Why the two beams are turned by the quarter-wave plate λ/4 into circularly polarized light for incidence on the subject is to hold back the generation of unwanted interference fringes.
The positions of mirrors M 1 and M 2 are adjustable in the direction of propagation of the respective beams (the mirror M 1 for the X-axis direction, and the mirror M 2 for the Y-axis direction), and the angles of mirrors M 1 and M 2 are adjustable about the Z-axis and the direction of propagation of each beam (the mirror M 1 about the X-axis and the mirror M 2 about the Y-axis), respectively. Further, the position of mirror M 3 is adjustable in the direction of propagation of the beam (the Y-axis direction), and the rotation of cylindrical lenses CL 1 and CL 2 about the X- and Y-axes, respectively, is adjustable as well.
FIG. 2 is a taken-apart view of one optical path from the laser 1 of the optical substance manipulator of FIG. 1 via the first polarizing beam splitter BS 1 , the cylindrical lens CL 1 and the second polarizing beam splitter BS 2 as far as a focal plane F (subject surface) in the flow passage through the microchannel MC, and the same applies to another optical path through the cylindrical lens CL 2 , too. To be more specific, FIG. 2( a ) is a taken-apart view of the optical path in a section along the generator of the cylindrical lens CL 1 , and FIG. 2( b ) is a taken-apart view of the optical path in a section orthogonal to that generator. In FIGS. 2( a ) and 2 ( b ), the focal length of each lens and inter-lens distances are given in mm.
In the section of FIG. 2( a ) where the refracting power of the cylindrical lens CL 1 (CL 2 ) does not work, parallel light oscillated from the laser 1 is expanded in beam diameter by the beam expander made up of the negative lens L 1 and the positive lens L 2 . The parallel light with an expanded beam diameter goes through the half-wave plate λ/2, the first polarizing beam splitter BS 1 , the cylindrical lens CL 1 (CL 2 ), the mirror M 1 (M 2 ) and the second polarizing beam splitter BS 2 , and is expanded in beam diameter through the positive lenses L 3 and L 4 confocal with each other with the quarter-wave plate λ/4 interposed between them. The parallel light goes through the mirror M 3 and enters as such the objective lens Ob, focusing on the focal plane F.
In the section of FIG. 2( b ) where the refracting power of the cylindrical lens CL 1 (CL 2 ) works, on the other hand, a light beam through the cylindrical lens CL 1 (CL 2 ) turns under its positive refracting power into convergent light that converges in front of the positive lens L 3 . In the rear of the point of convergence, that convergent light turns into divergent light that is then incident on the positive lens L 3 . That divergent light again turns under the positive refracting powers of the positive lenses L 3 and L 4 into convergent light that converges in front of (on the viewing side) the objective lens Ob. In the rear of the point of convergence, the light, divergent this time, enters the objective lens Ob, and focuses at a minute distance Δ off the focal plane F under the positive refracting power of the objective lens Ob.
For this reason, the laser light is incident on the focal plane (subject surface) F: it is incident on a point in the section where the refracting power of the cylindrical lens CL 1 does not work while it is incident on a certain width in the section where the refracting power of the cylindrical lens CL 1 works, so that it can focus on the focal plane (subject surface) F in a linear or elliptic form. In other words, the laser light focuses on the focal plane (subject surface) F in two linear areas extending in the direction orthogonal to the generator of the cylindrical lens CL 1 , CL 2 .
And then, the position of each linear light-collective area is arbitrarily adjustable within the focal plane (subject surface) F by the adjustment of the position and angle of the mirror M 1 , M 2 in the optical path, respectively. Further, the direction of that area is adjustable by the adjustment of the angle of each cylindrical lens CL 1 , CL 2 about the optical axis.
In such an arrangement, a shutter was mounted on the s-polarized beam a optical path (running from the first polarizing beam splitter BS 1 to the mirror M 2 and the second polarizing beam splitter BS 2 via the cylindrical lens CL 2 ) while light made its way through only the p-polarized beam path (running from the first polarizing beam splitter BS 1 to the mirror M 1 and the second polarizing beam splitter BS 2 via the cylindrical lens CL 1 ). Then, the photographic camera 4 was used to pick up the behavior of microscopic particles dispersed in a fluid flowing in the flow passage 5 in the case where one linear light-collective area was positioned in the flow passage 5 through the microchannel MC. Consequently, such results as shown in FIG. 3 were obtained.
FIG. 3( a ) is illustrative in schematic of how microscopie particles 11 dispersed in the fluid behaves in the case where the angle of the cylindrical lens CL 1 is adjusted to form a linear light-collective area 10 with its direction lying in the Y-axis direction orthogonal to the direction (X-axis direction) of a flow in the flow passage 5 . The laser light oscillated from the laser 1 is Gaussian distribution one with an intensity peak at the center: the linear light-collective area 10 has the highest intensity at the center. Accordingly, the microscopic particles 11 flowing at right angles with the linear light-collective area 10 under the radiation pressure of laser light go in the linear light-collective area 10 , and once the microscopic particles 11 enter the linear light-collective area 10 , they move from both its sides, gathering together in the central direction.
FIG. 3( b ) is illustrative, as in FIG. 3( a ), of the case where an almost half of the Gaussian distribution beam focusing on the focal plane F is blocked off halfway down in the optical path to bring the position of the linear light-collective area 10 having the highest intensity to near the right end of the drawing. In this case, the microscopic particles 11 flowing at right angles with the linear light-collective area 10 under the radiation pressure of laser light go into the linear light-collective area 10 , and once the microscopic particles 11 enter the linear light-collective area 10 , they move from the left to the right end of the drawing. The microscopic particles 11 gathering near that right end are saturated, leaving that right end in the flowing direction.
FIG. 3( c ) is a schematic view illustrative of how microscopic particles 11 dispersed in the fluid behaves in the case where the angle of the cylindrical lens CL 1 is adjusted to form a linear light-collective area 10 with its direction lying obliquely at an angle with the direction of a flow in the flow passage 5 (the X-axis direction). In this case, the microscopic particles 11 flowing at an angle with the linear light-collective area 10 under the radiation pressure of laser light go into the linear light-collective area 10 , and once the microscopic particles 11 enter the linear light-collective area 10 , they move a direction along the flow, or from the upper left to the lower right of the drawing when the linear light-collective area 10 tilts as shown. Then, the microscopic particles gathering together at that lower right end are saturated, leaving the lower right end in the direction of the flow.
Reference is then made to a modification to the inventive arrangement of FIG. 1 wherein light of almost equal intensity goes along both the p- and s-polarized beam paths: an account is given of how microscopic particles 11 dispersed in a fluid flowing in the flow passage 5 behaves where two linear light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 are located in the flow passage 5 through microchannel MC.
As shown in FIG. 4( a ), the angles of cylindrical lenses CL 1 and CL 2 are adjusted with their refracting powers acting in the same direction to form two light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 at the same position in the direction of a flow within the flow passage 5 and with their directions lying orthogonal to that direction; as shown in FIG. 3( b ), the left linear light-collective area 10 1 is positioned such that there is the highest intensity at the right end, and the right linear light-collective area 10 2 is positioned such that there is the highest intensity at the left end; and between the left 10 1 and the right linear light-collective area 10 2 , there is a gap formed by the adjustment of the position and angle of the mirror M 1 at the p-polarized light beam path and by the adjustment of the position and angle of the mirror M 2 at the s-polarized light beam path. Then, the microscopic particles 11 flowing at right angles with the linear light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 under the radiation pressure of laser light go into the respective linear light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 , and once they enter the linear light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 , they move from the left to the right end of the area 10 1 and from the right to the left end of the area 10 2 : they pass through the gap between the left 10 1 and the right linear light-collective area 10 2 as if focused or concentrated on that gap.
As shown in FIG. 4( b ), the angles of cylindrical lenses CL 1 and CL 2 are separately adjusted such that at the same position in a direction of a flow within the flow passage 5 , the left linear light-collective area 10 1 lies in an obliquely lower right direction and the right linear light-collective area 10 2 lies in an obliquely lower left direction, as shown in FIG. 3( c ), and between the lower right end of the left 10 1 and the lower left end of the right linear light-collective area 10 2 , there is a gap formed by the adjustment of the position and angle of mirrors M 1 and M 2 in the respective optical paths. Then, microscopic particles 11 flowing at angles with the linear light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 under the radiation pressure of laser light go into the respective linear light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 , and once they enter the linear light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 , they move from obliquely above to below in the drawing: they pass through the gap between the left 10 1 and the right linear light-collective area 10 2 as if focused or concentrated on that gap.
As shown in FIG. 4( c ), the angles of cylindrical lenses CL 1 and CL 2 are adjusted with their refracting powers acting in the same direction such that the left and right light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 at the same position in the direction of a flow within a flow passage 5 are formed parallel at a spacing in an obliquely lower right direction. Then, microscopic particles 11 flowing at angles with the linear light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 under the radiation pressure of laser light go into the linear light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 , and once they enter the linear light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 , they move from obliquely above to below of the drawing. The microscopic particles 11 gathering together at the lower ends of the respective linear light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 are saturated, leaving the respective lower ends while separated into two.
As shown in FIG. 4( d ), the angles of cylindrical lenses CL 1 and CL 2 are separately adjusted such that at the same position in the direction of a flow within a flow passage 5 , the left linear light-collective area 10 1 lies in an obliquely lower left direction and the right linear light-collective area 10 2 lies in an obliquely lower right direction, as shown in FIG. 3( c ), and the areas 10 1 and 10 2 are positioned by the adjustment of the positions and angles of mirrors M 1 and M 2 in the respective optical paths with the upper right end of the left 10 1 in contact with the upper left end of the right linear light-collective area 10 2 . Then, microscopic particles 11 flowing at angles with the linear light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 under the radiation pressure of light laser go into the respective linear light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 , and once they enter the linear light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 , they move from obliquely above to below of the drawing, whereupon the microscopic particles 11 gathering together at the lower ends of the linear light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 are saturated, leaving the respective lower ends while separated into two.
As described above, by the adjustment of the angles and relative positions of two linear light-collective areas 10 1 and 10 2 formed within the flow passage 5 with respect to the direction of the flow, for instance, it is possible to pick up, collect, concentrate, separate, deflect, deliver, mix, and sort out suspending microscopic particles, cells, DNAs or the like flowing within the flow passage 5 . Fast rotation of the cylindrical lenses CL 1 and CL 2 is capable of stirring, mixing or otherwise processing them, too. Of course, the provision of three or more linear light-collective areas 10 formed by simultaneous collection of light makes more complicated manipulations possible.
In the arrangement of the embodiment of FIG. 1 , cylindrical mirrors may just as well be used in place of the cylindrical lenses CL 1 and CL 2 ; instead of the mirrors M 1 and M 2 , other optical elements such as prisms may just as well be employed; and in lieu of the beam splitters BS 1 and BS 2 , other light splitting means or optical combinations such as half-silvered mirrors may just as well be used.
While the optical substance manipulator of the invention has been described with reference to some embodiments, it is contemplated that the invention is in no sense limited to them, and so many modifications could be possible. For instance, it is understood that the number of linear light-collective areas to be formed within the flow passage is not always limited to two; three or more such areas may just as well be used.
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The invention relates to an optical substance manipulator capable of continuing to apply a continued force of action to moving substances without being limited by the flowing conditions for the substances yet with a wide manipulation margin and with efficiency, thereby continuously carrying out various manipulations such as separation, concentration, mixing, and deflection. Specifically, the invention provides an optical substance manipulator capable of manipulating microscopic particles dispersed in a flowing fluid by means of light pressure, characterized by comprising an optical system that forms multiple linear light-collective areas simultaneously with respect to a fluid that flows on a subject surface ( 5 ), and further comprising, in optical paths forming the respective linear light-collective areas, means (CL 1 ), (CL 2 ) adapted to adjust directions of the linear light-collective areas on the subject surface and means (M 1 ), (M 2 ) adapted to adjust positions of the linear light-collective areas.
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PRIORITY CLAIM
In accordance with 37 C.F.R. 1.76, a claim of priority is included in an Application Data Sheet filed concurrently herewith. Accordingly, the present invention claims priority to U.S. provisional patent application Ser. No. 61/785,423, filed on Mar. 14, 2013, entitled “EXPANDABLE CORPECTOMY DEVICE”, the contents of which are hereby expressly incorporated herein by reference.
FIELD OF THE INVENTION
The invention generally relates to improvements to vertebral implants and, more particularly, to a longitudinally expandable vertebral implant including telescoping sections configured for incremental expansion by a ratchet expander for ease of securement at any desired increment in situ.
BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION
The spine consists of vertebrae that are categorized into sections known as the cervical, thoracic and lumbar section in a flexible arranged column. The vertebrae are separated by small cartilaginous cushions known as intervertebral discs. Intervertebral discs are oblate spherical structures that maintain the space between adjacent vertebrae. Each intervertebral disc consists of an outer annulus fibrosus, which surrounds the inner nucleus pulposus. The annulus fibrosus consists of several layers of strong annular fibrocartilage to contain the nucleus pulposus and distribute pressure evenly across the disc wherein a mucoprotein gel serves to absorb shocks.
Deterioration of an intervertebral disc results in limited mobility and can cause severe pain. For instance, normal aging causes the nucleus pulposus to lose fluid and contract in volume resulting in a reduction in the intervertebral space. Any reduction of space between adjacent vertebrae may put pressure on the nerves of the spinal column. Further, a reduction in volume of the nucleus pulposus reduces the disc's ability to absorb shock which can result in disc herniation. The bulge of a herniated disc may also put pressure on nearby nerve structures resulting in pain as well as diminished range of motion.
Surgical options are available including laminectomy and discectomy combined with vertebral fusion and/or dynamic stabilization. However, these surgical options are highly invasive and require prolonged hospitalization and recovery. More recently, artificial disc replacement prosthetics have been used to replace or augment all or part of the removed or resected intervertebral disc.
In order to reduce the pain associated with the movement of the intervertebral joint, surgical intervention is often indicated as a means to alleviate pressure upon the spinal cord while concomitantly stabilizing the associated vertebrae. This involves a surgical procedure to distract the disc and or vertebra, or portions thereof, and the insertion of bone fusing material into the cavity of the opposing vertebra. Corpectomy devices have been developed to help support the spine and maintain the normal spacing between opposing vertebrae. Some of these devices may be packed with fusing material to ensure solid bone growth between the two vertebrae. Typically, corpectomy devices are manufactured at various heights requiring that a cavity between opposing vertebrae be distracted to a dimension corresponding to the sized corpectomy device. The surgical procedure to prepare the implant site can be difficult and lengthy. Moreover, the procedure can increase risk of trauma to the tissues surrounding of the implant site.
SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION
The instant invention is a longitudinally adjustable corpectomy device which fits within the intervertebral distracted channel. The device includes a means for engaging an extendable member to accommodate the distracted channel. An expanding member moves in relation to a base member in accordance with a rack and pinion type operation. The ratchet mechanism prevents the two members from contracting once expanded.
An objective of the instant invention to provide a corpectomy device that may be adjusted within the intervertebral cavity or adjusted in situ within the cavity.
It is a further objective of the instant invention to provide an expandable corpectomy which can be expanded by use of a rack rotated by a removable shaft.
Yet another objective of the instant invention is to provide vertebra engagable endplates which are arranged to pivot and self adjust.
Other objectives and advantages of this invention will become apparent from the following description taken in conjunction with any accompanying drawings wherein are set forth, by way of illustration and example, certain embodiments of this invention. Any drawings contained herein constitute a part of this specification and include exemplary embodiments of the present invention and illustrate various objects and features thereof.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES
FIG. 1 is a side view of the corpectomy device in a compressed position with the pivoting endplate angled forward;
FIG. 2 is a side view of the corpectomy device in a compressed position with the pivoting endplate angled backward;
FIG. 3 is a side view of the corpectomy device in a raised position with the pivoting endplate centered; backward;
FIG. 4 is the opposite side view of FIG. 3 depicting the pinion driver;
FIG. 5 is the perspective view illustrating the ratchet mechanism for use in locking the members in position;
FIG. 6 is a pictorial view depicting the corpectomy device between vertebra in a compressed position;
FIG. 7 is another pictorial view of FIG. 6 from a different perspective;
FIG. 8 is view of FIG. 7 with a pinion driver;
FIG. 9 is view of FIG. 8 upon rotation of the pinion driver;
FIG. 10 is a pictorial view depicting the corpectomy device between vertebra in an expanded position;
FIG. 11 is a pictorial view depicting the ratchet mechanism of the corpectomy device;
FIG. 12 is a pictorial view depicting the corpectomy device with a top endplate;
FIG. 13 is a pictorial view of the corpectomy device in position.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION
Referring now to the Figures, set forth is the corpectomy device 10 in a compressed position with the pivoting endplate 12 angled forward. The corpectomy implant device 10 is defined by a base member 14 telescopingly received into an expansion member 16 . The base member 14 is formed from a housing having a lower end 15 with a first 17 and second 19 side walls extending from said lower end 15 . Said base member include end walls 21 and 23 positioned between said first and second side walls 17 , 19 each having a centrally disposed U-shaped slot 18 formed therein extending from the lower end along a length of the end walls with a first edge 20 of said slot 18 non-engaging and a second edge 22 lined with an engaging edge, preferably directional ratchet teeth 22 . Lower endplate 12 can be inserted into the open end of the base member 14 , the lower endplate having a surface 11 for use in bone engagement.
The expansion member 16 is formed from housing having first and second side walls 25 and 27 and first and second end walls 29 and 31 , the four walls constructed and arranged to encompass said base member walls. Side wall 25 includes an aperture 24 sized to permit insertion of pinion tool 30 having a shoulder 32 that allows ease of rotation by bearing upon the side wall 25 with a pinion for engagement of the ratchet teeth 22 . Rotation of the pinion tool 30 provides extension of the expansion member 16 from the base member 14 as the pinion tool is limited in movement with the expansion member 16 by the size of the aperture 24 .
Positioned with the base member is a spring loaded biasing ratchet assembly 36 having a pair of engagement prongs 38 and 40 that engage the ratchet teeth 22 . The biasing ratchet assembly 36 includes having a biasing member 41 that engages an inner surface of the base member 14 expanding the engagement prongs 38 and 40 against the ratchet teeth 22 wherein the spacing of the extension member from the base member is unidirectional to prohibit compression of the structure once positioned. The expansion member 16 permits the device to expand relative to the base member 14 and overall longitudinal dimension of the device. Upper endplate 42 can be inserted into the open end of the expansion member 16 , the upper endplate having a surface 44 for use in bone engagement.
The endplates 12 and 42 may be interchangeably connected or permanently attached, such as laser welded, to the corpectomy device. These endplates may be of any desired shape, size or thickness. For example, the endplate 42 of FIG. 12 is substantially flat with engagement teeth 44 forming a pattern allowing bone growth material to pass through. In FIGS. 1-3 the endplate 12 can be moved at an angle that will allow the implant to restore the normal curvature of the spine after the corpectomy device is installed. Moreover, the shape may or may not correspond to the cross-sectional shape and size (foot-print) of the base. In those instances where the patient presents unusual physiology, such as curvature of the spine (lordosis or kyphosis), additional physiology compensating members may be interposed with the respective endplates. These compensating members allow the corpectomy implant device 10 to take on a more arcuate shape thereby conforming more closely with the existing spinal configuration.
FIG. 2 is a side view of the corpectomy implant device 10 in a compressed position having expansion member 16 placed over the insert of base member 14 with the pivoting endplate 12 angled backward. FIG. 3 is a side view of the corpectomy implant device 10 in a raised position with the pivoting endplate 12 centered.
FIG. 4 is the opposite side view of FIG. 3 depicting the pinion driver 30 inserted into aperture 24 . FIG. 5 is the reverse perspective view illustrating the biasing ratchet mechanism 36 for use in locking the base member 14 and the expansion member 16 in a raised position.
FIGS. 6-8 and 13 are pictorial views depicting the corpectomy implant device 10 between vertebra 100 and 102 in a compressed position.
FIGS. 9-11 depict the device in an expanded state with the pinion driver 30 used to raise the expansion member 16 over the base member 14 .
Accordingly, in preferred embodiments, a corpectomy device comprises a base member, an expansion member, an upper or lower endplate.
In another preferred embodiment, the base member comprises a slot having a first side wall and a second side wall, wherein the first side wall is smooth and the second side wall comprises one or more teeth, spikes or jagged edges.
In another preferred embodiment, the expansion member comprises an aperture for receiving a pinion tool having a first shoulder wherein the first shoulder is smooth, and a second shoulder for engagement of the base member.
In yet another preferred embodiment, the corpectomy device comprises a ratchet, the ratchet comprising at least one engagement prong, a biasing member or combinations thereof.
In yet another preferred embodiment, the upper and lower endplates are interchangeable and comprise patterns, dimensions, shapes, smooth surfaces, grooved surfaces, rough surfaces, or mobility for engaging a vertebra.
Embodiments of the invention are also directed to methods for manipulating the distance between vertebrae in a patient in need thereof.
Accordingly, in a preferred embodiment, a method of manipulating the distance between adjacent vertebrae in a patient, comprising surgically inserting an expandable corpectomy device into an intervertebral cavity, the corpectomy device comprising an upper endplate, a lower endplate, a base member wherein the base member is telescopingly receivable into an expansion member; the base member comprising a slot having a first side wall that is smooth and a second side wall lined with teeth; the expansion member having an aperture for receiving a pinion tool for increasing longitudinal distances of the expansion member relative to the base member.
In some preferred embodiments, the distances between the teeth in the second side wall of the base member aperture are sized so that the expansion can occur by desired increments.
In another preferred embodiment, the corpectomy device comprises a spring loaded biasing ratchet having a pair of engagement prongs for engaging the second side wall of the aperture of the base member and a biasing member for engaging an inner surface of the base member.
In other preferred embodiments, the upper endplate is insertable into an open end of the expansion member, the upper endplate having a surface for bone engagement. Preferably, the upper and lower endplates are interchangeable and comprise patterns, dimensions, shapes, smooth surfaces, grooved surfaces, rough surfaces, or mobility for engaging a vertebra.
Unless otherwise defined, all terms (including technical and scientific terms) used herein have the same meaning as commonly understood by one of ordinary skill in the art to which this invention belongs. It will be further understood that terms, such as those defined in commonly used dictionaries, should be interpreted as having a meaning that is consistent with their meaning in the context of the relevant art and will not be interpreted in an idealized or overly formal sense unless expressly so defined herein.
As used herein, the singular forms “a”, “an” and “the” are intended to include the plural forms as well, unless the context clearly indicates otherwise. Furthermore, to the extent that the terms “including”, “includes”, “having”, “has”, “with”, or variants thereof are used in either the detailed description and/or the claims, such terms are intended to be inclusive in a manner similar to the term “comprising.”
It is to be understood that while a certain form of the invention is illustrated, it is not to be limited to the specific form or arrangement herein described and shown. It will be apparent to those skilled in the art that various changes may be made without departing from the scope of the invention and the invention is not to be considered limited to what is shown and described in the specification and any drawings/figures included herein.
One skilled in the art will readily appreciate that the present invention is well adapted to carry out the objectives and obtain the ends and advantages mentioned, as well as those inherent therein. The embodiments, methods, procedures and techniques described herein are presently representative of the preferred embodiments, are intended to be exemplary and are not intended as limitations on the scope. Changes therein and other uses will occur to those skilled in the art which are encompassed within the spirit of the invention and are defined by the scope of the appended claims. Although the invention has been described in connection with specific preferred embodiments, it should be understood that the invention as claimed should not be unduly limited to such specific embodiments. Indeed, various modifications of the described modes for carrying out the invention which are obvious to those skilled in the art are intended to be within the scope of the following claims.
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The instant invention is a longitudinally adjustable corpectomy device which fits within the intervertebral distracted channel. A ratchet mechanism allows for an extendable member to adjust to a longer length to accommodate a distracted channel. The ratchet type mechanism allows the members to move in a unidirectional movement to prevent the two members from contracting once expanded.
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CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION(S)
[0001] This application is a continuation of International Application No. PCT/CH02/00464, filed on Aug. 26, 2002, which claims priority to German Application No. 101 44 892.9, filed on Sep. 12, 2001, the entire contents of both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
BACKGROUND
[0002] The present invention relates to devices or structures for containing and handling material, including medical, diagnostic, pharmaceutical or cosmetic substances, and to methods for making such devices or structures.
[0003] In some embodiments, the present invention relates to a multi-layered plastic body for handling medical, diagnostic, pharmaceutical and cosmetic products. Primarily, the plastic body serves to store or conduct fluid products including gelatinous products or is provided for storing or conducting the same.
[0004] An array of plastics have the property that they form fractures when under mechanical stresses and when acted on by a fluid, i.e., a liquid, gas or gel, wherein the fractures can cause components formed from such plastics to fail. The mechanical stresses may be caused by an external force acting on a component and/or by internal stresses. As a rule, the fluid interacts purely physically with the plastic, fractures only forming if the plastic material in question is under tensile stress. The tensile stress can be caused by an external force or in particular by internal stresses, e.g., frozen-in expansions and transverse stresses. This behaviour is also known by the term stress fractures or as environmental stress cracking (ESC). The fluid acting on the plastic can be a product to be conducted or stored or a fluid from the external environment of the plastic body, for example alcohol, or a component of a fluid, for example atmospheric oxygen, or other environmental substance, for example sebaceous matter. In the former case, the plastic body is acted on from within, and in the latter case from without. In most applications or uses, the plastic body is acted on from within and from without in conjunction, wherein, in many applications, one of these actions is more critical for the formation of fractures, wherein the focus can be on preventing or at least impeding the same.
[0005] Containers, filters, conduit systems and other simple catheters in medical, pharmaceutical or diagnostic applications, though also in cosmetic applications, generally have to fulfil a number of different functions simultaneously. In particular, the material of which they consist must not have a tendency towards stress fractures which can be triggered by the stored or conducted products, or by environmental influences.
SUMMARY
[0006] It is an object of the present invention to provide a plastic body for storing or conducting a medical, diagnostic, pharmaceutical or/and cosmetic product, which fulfils the demands made on it with respect to transparency, permeability, mechanical stability and/or other appropriate characteristics, with a reduced probability of failing.
[0007] The invention addresses the object by providing a plastic body with a multi-layered structure. At least a first layer of the plastic body is formed by a plastic material which is selected from the point of view of a high resistance to stress fractures and therefore is referred to in the following as the stress fracture resistant plastic material. The plastic body comprises at least a second layer which is connected to the first layer. The plastic body defines or forms a hollow space in which the product is stored or through which it is conducted.
[0008] In some embodiments, the present invention comprises a multi-layered plastic body for storing, containing or conducting a medical, diagnostic, pharmaceutical, cosmetic or other product, the plastic body including a first layer made of a stress fracture resistant plastic material, and at least a second layer adjacent to the first layer and made of a plastic material exhibiting a lower resistance to stress fractures than the first plastic material. In some embodiments, the body is or forms part of a container, an ampoule, a catheter or a component of a fluid system which serves to conduct fluid. The invention encompasses a suitable method of making the body.
[0009] In some preferred embodiments, the at least two layers are connected to each other in a material lock. If the plastic body comprises more than two layers arranged one above the other, then in such embodiments, each of these layers is preferably connected in a material lock to each layer immediately bordering it above or below. The two or more layers can also be connected in a purely positive lock. A merely positive-lock connection is likewise considered, in particular in sandwich injection molding (co-injection), one preferred method of manufacture. The connection can furthermore be a positive-lock connection and a material-lock connection. Also, the possibility is also not to be excluded that the connection also partially has the character of a frictional lock, wherein however manufacture is directed either to a material lock or a positive lock or a combination of a material lock and a positive lock. Even in purely positive-lock connections between more than two layers, the positive-lock connections can exist only in pairs between layers immediately bordering each other, as described respectively above for the material-lock connection.
[0010] In principle, not all the layers of the plastic body have to enclose the hollow space, although this may be preferred in some embodiments. Thus, in some embodiments, for example, one of the layers can form a hollow space wall in a first region of the plastic body and another layer can form a hollow space wall in another region of the plastic body. In some preferred embodiments, at least the first layer made of the stress fracture resistant plastic material completely encloses the hollow space, except for one of more openings, in order to obtain the necessary impermeability for conducting or storing the product.
[0011] The product to be handled may preferably be a medical, diagnostic, pharmaceutical or cosmetic product. Examples of pharmaceutical products are insulin for diabetes therapy, growth hormones or rinsing liquids for dialysis. Rinsing liquids are furthermore used in diagnostics, in order to rinse body fluid from the human body by way of perfusion and, for example, to make it more accessible in order to identify and/or quantify constituents of the body fluid. Cosmetic products are often gelatinous, for example as creams or ointments. Although the plastic body in accordance with the invention is primarily intended to serve in handling fluid products, comparable problems are always present when storing products in the form of lozenges, tablets and the like, such that allocating such products is not to be ruled out.
[0012] The invention is based on the recognition that the various properties which are demanded of containers, catheters and other components of fluid systems, in particular in the medical field including the diagnostic field, cannot be fulfilled by a single plastic material, at least not optimally. For instance, the group of semi-crystalline plastics, exceptions aside, exhibit a sufficient resistance to stress fractures. The stress fracture resistant plastic material of the first layer may preferably be selected from this group. However, semi-crystalline plastics are mostly not transparent but opaque. Also, their mechanical stability and dimensional stability do not satisfy the demands of most applications. If, in a given application or use, a particular fluid or other substance or a group of fluids and/or other substances, for example atmospheric oxygen, alcohol or sebaceous matter, can be identified as the main cause of stress fractures, the stress fracture resistant plastic material is selected such that it is stress fracture resistant against the main cause, or more preferably against a number of stress fracture causes as applicable.
[0013] In some embodiments, the first layer is preferably formed from one of the following semi-crystalline, stress fracture resistant plastic materials or a combination of said materials: acetal, fluorocarbon, nylon, polyethylene, polypropylene, polybutylene, PETP, PBT, PPS, PEEK, EVA, polymethylpentene.
[0014] In preferred exemplary embodiments, the plastic material selected from the point of view of a sufficient, preferably as high as possible, resistance to stress fractures forms a thin outer layer which is preferably sufficiently thin that in comparison with the thickness of the plastic body shell as a whole, it only forms a skin. The stress fracture resistant plastic material forms either an outer surface of the plastic body which is in contact with the environment, for example the air, or an inner surface of the plastic body which is in direct contact with the product or at least points to the product if there is no direct contact. In preferred exemplary embodiments, the thickness of the first layer is sufficiently small that the first layer exhibits a sufficient permeability to light, as is required for storing or conducting products, in particular in medical and pharmaceutical applications, in order to be able to optically verify the amount and/or quality of the product in question. For these purposes, in some embodiments, the thin first layer is transparent or at least translucent, even though the plastic as such would be opaque, given a larger layer thickness.
[0015] In one particularly preferred embodiment, the second layer—or a number of different plastic layers which can be formed from different plastic materials, each fulfilling a different function—is/are arranged between two layers, each made of a stress fracture resistant plastic material. One of these two outer layers is in contact with the environment—in most applications, the atmospheric environment—and the other outer layer preferably comprises an innermost shell layer which forms a surface to the product or, if the product is a fluid, is preferably in direct contact with the product fluid.
[0016] In applications in which the product is to be or has to be protected from light, the second layer may preferably be impermeable to light and, as mentioned, can advantageously be arranged between two stress fracture resistant outer layers.
[0017] Another function which, in preferred applications or uses, is demanded of containers, catheters and the like is that of a diffusion barrier. For such applications, the plastic body should therefore have as low a permeability as possible for the relevant substance in the respective application. Substances which are to be kept from penetrating can in particular be the components of gases, such as oxygen and nitrogen from the environmental air. For use in a humid environment or in the human body, it can also be necessary to form a diffusion barrier against substances contained, for example suspended or dissolved, therein. In some embodiments, the plastic body is preferably formed such that the product or individual substances forming the product are also prevented from escaping. In preferred exemplary embodiments, which depend on a low permeability of the plastic body, the plastic body comprises a layer acting as a diffusion barrier. This layer can be formed by the second layer. It can equally be formed by another, third layer or in principle also by the first layer, if the stress fracture resistant plastic itself already exhibits the necessary, low permeability with respect to the substance or number of substances to be prevented from diffusing.
[0018] Reference may also be made to the fact that in many applications or uses, high demands are often made on the stability and dimensional stability of the components used therein, demands which cannot be achieved or are difficult to achieve using stress fracture resistant plastic materials. For such applications as well, at least two different plastic materials can be combined to form a plastic body comprising a stress fracture resistant first layer and a second layer made of the other plastic material which fulfils the demands made on mechanical stability and/or dimensional stability.
[0019] In some embodiments of the present invention, a functional layer can be provided for fulfilling each of different functions, in particular the above-cited functions with respect to transparency and/or permeability and/or mechanical stability and/or dimensional stability and/or other appropriate characteristics. It is, however, also possible for a number of the cited functions to be fulfilled by a single layer, respectively.
[0020] In some embodiments, the plastic body of the present invention is preferably a container, a catheter or a component in a fluid guiding system, for example a connecting element for connecting two catheters or a so-called catheter head, or a part of such a component. The plastic body can also be a casing or a casing part of an apparatus, for example an injection apparatus or an infusion apparatus. Although such a casing should not have contact with the product to be administered, for example insulin, it is however always possible for the product to come into contact with the casing and act so as to trigger stress fractures.
[0021] In medical applications, it can therefore also be advantageous to provide an entire casing or only a particularly critical casing part with a stress fracture resistant outer skin, wherein in the above-cited example, the stress fracture resistant plastic material of the outer skin exhibits the resistance to stress fractures with respect to the product.
[0022] In some embodiments, the plastic body is preferably produced by multiple-component injection molding, such that immediately during molding, the material lock and/or positive lock between the at least two layers of a wall in accordance with the invention is already established. A particularly preferred method for manufacturing the plastic body is the co-injection method, also referred to as sandwich multiple-component injection molding. The method is known in principle from other fields, but in accordance with the invention—using a stress fracture resistant plastic material—is profitably employed for manufacturing a plastic body for handling healthcare and beauty care products. By means of this method, the multiple layers of the plastic body are molded simultaneously or in immediate succession in an injection molding die. The layers can also be formed by being simultaneously injected during one injection phase and successively injected during another phase. The plastic body or a part of it can, instead, also be produced as a composite injection molded part. Furthermore, combining composite injection molding and co-injection multiple-component injection molding is a preferred mode of manufacture.
[0023] Reference may also be made to the fact that co-extrusion may also be a preferred method of manufacture, in particular when the plastic body is a catheter.
[0024] Co-injection or sandwich multiple-component injection molding is advantageous, in particular when the second layer is to be completely surrounded, or at least surrounded on both main outer areas, with the stress fracture resistant plastic material of the first layer, corresponding to some preferred embodiments.
[0025] When selecting the plastic materials, the plastic material best suited to achieving the required resistance to stress fractures is selected in a first step. In the next step, the plastic material for the second layer is selected in accordance with the criteria of transparency, mechanical stability, dimensional stability, suitability as a diffusion barrier, other appropriate characteristics, or a combination of a number of criteria. If a number of criteria are to be fulfilled and the plastic material for the second layer does not satisfy the requirements with respect to one of the number of criteria, then another, third plastic material is selected in a third step or also in yet other, subsequent steps, in order to close the gap still remaining. The selection process is continued until the demands made on the plastic body are fulfilled by the selected combination of materials, one plastic material per criterion if necessary. The plastic body is then molded, preferably in a co-injection method, the result of which is a multiple-component plastic, layered, sandwich-like body.
[0026] Both the plastic material for the first layer and the plastic material for the second layer are injected into the injection mold. If other plastic materials are also used, this preferably applies to them also.
[0027] The invention is explained below by way of exemplary embodiments shown in the Figures. Features disclosed by the exemplary embodiments, each individually and in any combination of features including any combination of features formed from multiple exemplary embodiments, i.e., a combination of one or more features of one embodiment with one or more features of another embodiment, address and reflect the objects of the present invention.
BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS
[0028] FIG. 1 depicts the manufacture of a multi-layered plastic body by co-injection multiple-component injection molding;
[0029] FIG. 2 depicts the plastic body after removal from the injection molding die depicted in FIG. 1 ;
[0030] FIG. 3 depicts an ampoule formed by co-injection multiple-component injection molding;
[0031] FIG. 4 depicts an ampoule formed by composite injection molding; and
[0032] FIG. 5 depicts a section of a co-extruded catheter.
DETAILED DESCRIPTION
[0033] FIG. 1 depicts an embodiment of the present invention, particularly the manufacture of a multi-layered plastic body 4 by way of co-injection multiple-component injection molding. Plastic material is injected in through an injection nozzle 3 of an injection molding die, into an injection mold of the die. In a first injection phase, a stress fracture resistant plastic material, which is preferably semi-crystalline when hardened with a proportion of the crystalline phase of preferably at least 30% by weight, is injected in through the injection nozzle 3 , in order to form an outer layer 1 until the mold is partially filled. The partial fill is indicated by the fact that a hollow cross-section 10 of the mold is initially filled, in a region away from the injection nozzle 3 , only with the plastic material forming the outer layer. Before the hollow cross-section 10 with the plastic material forming the outer layer 1 is completely filled, a different, second plastic material is injected into the mold in a second injection phase, in order to form a second layer 2 . In the depicted, exemplary embodiment, the second layer 2 is a core layer which is completely enclosed in the plastic material of the outer layer 1 . The two plastic materials are injected in co-axially through the same injection nozzle 3 , the material of the outer layer 1 surrounding that of the second layer 2 . During the second injection phase, in which the two plastic materials are simultaneously injected in, the hollow cross-section 10 of the mold is filled, such that the layer structure shown in FIG. 2 results for the plastic body 4 . At the end of the injection process, the supply of the plastic material for the second layer 2 can be discontinued and once again only the material of the outer layer 1 injected in, in order to also obtain a closed outer layer 1 in the region of the injection nozzle 3 .
[0034] FIG. 2 shows the plastic body 4 after being removed from the injection mold of FIG. 1 . The plastic body 4 forms a simple, cylindrical crucible, open to one side, for storing liquids or other material. Clearly, shapes other than cylindrical may be produced by suitable molds and/or molding processes.
[0035] FIG. 3 shows a container 5 —in this exemplary embodiment, an ampoule—for storing a liquid active agent solution, for example insulin, a growth hormone or the like. The ampoule 5 comprises a core layer 2 enclosed in an outer layer 1 . As in the container 4 of FIGS. 1 and 2 , a three-layered structure results, as viewed from the inside out, with the same inner and outer thin outer layer 1 respectively, and the comparatively thicker core layer 2 . The description of the exemplary embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2 apply to the layers 1 and 2 , but they may have other or different suitable or appropriate characteristics as well. The ampoule 5 comprises an opening 6 which is sealed sterilely, in particular air-tight, by a septum 8 . The septum 8 can be pierced by a needle without difficulty and after the needle has been removed, re-seals the former piercing point. Since such septa are sufficiently known in ampoules for medical and pharmaceutical applications, a more detailed description is omitted.
[0036] In some embodiments, the septum 8 can be a prefabricated plastic body which is placed in the mold before the injection molding process, and during injection is injection-coated with the two other plastic materials as shown by means of co-injection, as described by way of the exemplary embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2 . The septum 8 can, however, also be molded in the injection mold by injecting a plastic material provided for this purpose into the injection mold, simultaneously or immediately before or after injecting the other plastic materials. In this case, the ampoule 5 including the septum 8 is obtained by means of a combination of co-injection multiple-component injection molding and composite injection molding, wherein the two-component ampoule 5 is obtained by way of co-injection and the seal for the opening 6 is obtained by way of composite injection molding.
[0037] The ampoule of FIG. 3 is open at its end opposite the opening 6 , by simply tapering hollow-cylindrically. In this embodiment, it is already directly suitable for use as an ampoule for an injection apparatus or infusion apparatus, since a piston serving to deliver the product generally seals the ampoule 5 , product-tight, at its open end in such applications.
[0038] FIG. 4 shows an ampoule 10 which is identical in shape to the ampoule 5 of the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 3 and, in particular, can also be applied to the cited application or use as an ampoule for an injection apparatus or infusion apparatus. As opposed to the ampoule 5 , however, the ampoule 10 is formed as a composite injection molded part. Moreover, it also does not comprise a stress fracture resistant outer layer, but only the stress fracture resistant inner layer 1 . While the multiple plastic components are injected in simultaneously or at least quasi-simultaneously in co-injection, in composite injection molding the multiple plastic components are introduced sequentially and through at least one individual nozzle for each of the plastic materials.
[0039] As the complexity of the shape of the plastic body and/or the number of layers increases, it can become advantageous or even necessary, both in co-injection and in composite injection molding, to use two or more injection nozzles at suitable points, instead of a single injection nozzle. It can be equally advantageous to inject one or more of the plastic materials in by means of an individual nozzle, or by means of an individual nozzle in each case. Thus, for example, the septum 8 of the exemplary embodiments of FIGS. 3 and 4 can be injected into the mold by means of a separate injection nozzle 3 provided specifically for the material of the septum 8 , while the layers 1 and 2 are injected in by one or more injection nozzles in conjunction, as in the exemplary embodiments of FIGS. 1 , 2 and 3 , or sequentially as in the exemplary embodiment of FIG. 4 .
[0040] FIG. 5 is a longitudinal section of another embodiment of the present invention, namely a catheter 11 co-extruded from two plastic materials. One of the plastic materials forms a thin stress fracture resistant outer skin 1 and the other forms an inner layer 2 which comes into contact with the product to be conducted.
[0041] In the foregoing description, embodiments of the present invention, including preferred embodiments, have been presented for the purpose of illustration and description. They are not intended to be exhaustive or to limit the invention to the precise forms or steps disclosed. Obvious modifications or variations are possible in light of the above teachings. The embodiments were chosen and described to provide the best illustration of the principals of the invention and its practical application, and to enable one of ordinary skill in the art to utilize the invention in various embodiments and with various modifications as are suited to particular contemplated uses. All such modifications and variations are within the scope of the invention as determined by the appended claims when interpreted in accordance with the breadth they are fairly, legally, and equitably entitled.
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A multi-layered plastic body for containing, storing or conducting a medical, diagnostic, pharmaceutical, cosmetic or other product, the plastic body including a first layer made of a stress fracture resistant plastic material, and at least a second layer adjacent to the first layer and made of a plastic material exhibiting a lower resistance to stress fractures than the first plastic material. The invention encompasses a suitable method of making the body.
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